Apple investigating glass ear cups for AirPods Max

Posted:
in General Discussion edited February 2021
Glass can shatter when dropped, but Apple is investigating the use of it for future AirPods Max because it looks great -- and can have better acoustic properties that aluminum.

Apple's AirPods Max
Apple's AirPods Max


Apple's current AirPods Max have earcups made chiefly from anodized aluminium, yet a newly granted patent shows this could change to glass. "Techniques for improving glass earcup drop performance," is chiefly concerned less with why you might want to do this, and more about the problems if you do.

"Headphones have been in use for over 100 years, but the design and performance of the earpieces that are held against the ears of a user by a headband have remained somewhat static," says Apple. "Thus, there is a need for improved design and performance of the headphone earpieces."

So Apple is happy with the headband, it's less keen on how the two earpieces, or earcups, perform. Apple wants to use the earcups to add touch sensors, and it wants to improve the look of them.

"Earcup[s] may include a touch sensor area that can be configured to allow a user to manipulate settings and the playback of media," continues the patent. "[And] may be made from various materials such as polycarbonate and/or glass."

"Polycarbonate is advantageous in that it is shatter resistant, however, it is prone to scratching," says Apple. "Glass is advantageous in that it is more scratch resistant and cosmetically more appealing than polycarbonate, however."

Detail from the patent
Detail from the patent


The patent keeps coming back to this issue of "the cosmetic appeal of the earpiece," when it's made from glass. It does not use the words "acoustic," or "audio," once, but these are issues that glass has an impact on.

If Apple does turn to using glass earcups, it will affect how much ambient noise gets through to the wearer. The $2,000 Sennheiser HD 820 headphones, for instance, incorporate glass to minimize resonances and contribute to a realistic, natural sound.

Glass can block some sounds, reduce others, and allow certain frequencies to pass through. So its very properties could make an improved AirPods Max, if it weren't for this issue of how glass "is more prone to shattering than polycarbonate."

Apple's proposal is to have "an outer exposed surface" made of glass, but then "an annular edge" plus "protective adhesive coating." An annular edge is a flattened ring, effectively made of two concentric circles.

Then the soft textile portion, which presses against the wearer's ears, may be extended to form "a gap between the textile and the annular edge."

Ultimately, Apple's patent is about having "a glass earcup" with "an outer exposed surface... and edges extending around the perimeter of the glass earcup." It's presumably this edge that is intended to absorb the impact of a drop.

This patent is credited to five inventors, including Christopher D. Jones. His previous related work includes a design for glass panels in the "Apple Car," which feature sensors.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    macguimacgui Posts: 2,444member
    I wonder if the glass will be opaque or translucent. The latter with a light tint would look great, like the old iSub, but color matched to iPhones.

    Apple had (has?) pairs of AirPods with which to demo to potential customers. Will/do they do the same for AirPods Max? I want to demo a pair with 5.1/7.1/Atmos content to see what they do with it. It won't sound like actual dedicated 5.1/7.1/Atmos hardware, but it might sound much better than all the various DSP processing Hall/Church/Grotto settings that were all the rage on audio kit back when.

    I've got a couple pair of basic audiophile cans but they're limited to my legacy stereo kit. I'm anxious to see what Apple's iteration of computational audio brings to the table.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 10
    MplsPMplsP Posts: 4,016member
     Headphones have been in use for over 100 years, but the design and performance of the earpieces that are held against the ears of a user by a headband have remained somewhat static," says Apple. "Thus, there is a need for improved design and performance of the headphone earpieces.”

    when a design remains static for a long period, it’s often because there are reasons - human ears haven’t changed. Sound waves need to be produced and you generally need to isolate the ear from external noise. Poorly functioning designs typically don’t last for 100 years, either unless there are technological barriers that prevent their improvement. 

    It’s interesting that after making the above statement, Apple seems to propose using the same design, just using glass instead of plastic or aluminum. 

  • Reply 3 of 10
    The glass would probably allow them to be wirelessly charged like the back on newer iPhones too.
    edited February 2021 watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 10
    MplsP said:
    when a design remains static for a long period, it’s often because there are reasons...

    Yeah, usually because we've hit a wall in technology or a barrier in manufacturing processes.
    Rayz2016watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 10
    The glass back of the iPhone 8 was a terrible design, and was killed off.
    iPhone 12 “Ceramic Shield with four times better drop performance. ” 

    I don’t see Apple making the same mistake twice.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    macgui said:
    […], like the old iSub, […].
    This and the two sound sticks. Memories :)
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 10
    mknelsonmknelson Posts: 1,145member
    The glass back of the iPhone 8 was a terrible design, and was killed off.
    iPhone 12 “Ceramic Shield with four times better drop performance. ” 

    I don’t see Apple making the same mistake twice.
    The back of the iPhone 12 is still glass.

    Ceramic Shield refers to the front glass only. It's a glass/ceramic composite.
    Vermelhowatto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 10
    So Apple files a patent for touch controls on the earpiece?  Does anyone at Apple know that other vendors already have touch controls on the earpiece, and they work far better than the Apple headphones?  Apple wants to make more money from repairs from people dropping and breaking their glass headphones.  I have owned headphones since the 80s and none of them have ever scratched.  I guess Apple realized that making earpieces out of aluminum resulted in complaints of condensation when the cold aluminum comes into contact with a warm surface...like the person's head.  
  • Reply 9 of 10
    The glass back of the iPhone 8 was a terrible design, and was killed off.
    iPhone 12 “Ceramic Shield with four times better drop performance. ” 

    I don’t see Apple making the same mistake twice.
    Apple is about to make the same mistake twice.  Rumors are a half-sized, cube-like Mac Pro.  If that is true, it will be a non-upgradable overpriced Mac that will easily fail like the original Power Mac G4 Cube that was killed off by Steve Jobs after 12 months.  As previously commented, the iPhone 12 has a glass back, just like the iPhone 4/4S and the 8.  Who cares what the back of the phone is made of.  99% of consumers put their phone in a case.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    The glass back of the iPhone 8 was a terrible design, and was killed off.
    iPhone 12 “Ceramic Shield with four times better drop performance. ” 

    I don’t see Apple making the same mistake twice.
    Apple is about to make the same mistake twice.  Rumors are a half-sized, cube-like Mac Pro.  If that is true, it will be a non-upgradable overpriced Mac that will easily fail like the original Power Mac G4 Cube that was killed off by Steve Jobs after 12 months.  As previously commented, the iPhone 12 has a glass back, just like the iPhone 4/4S and the 8.  Who cares what the back of the phone is made of.  99% of consumers put their phone in a case.
    The G4 Cube was upgradable (RAM, a reduced sized AGP slot and ATA HD), the challenge with it was the price as it started at $1799. The base model PowerMac G4 tower at the time was $1599. If Apple makes a half sized Mac Pro that costs more than the Mac Pro than Apple will have certainly made the same mistake twice. I seriously doubt that Apple is going release a scaled down Mac Pro for over 6k. 
    edited February 2021
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