Sony WH-1000XM5 Teardown by 52Audio

We finally have a full teardown of the Sony WH-1000XM5 from 52Audio.com, you can find the full teardown here. While this is not a full dismantling like I want to do in the future, it is better than my FCC teardown analysis. So time to dive in. Photos courtesy of 52Audio.

First we remove the earpads using the guide below.

From these photos, we can see the underside of the left and right earpads, they are different and not interchangeable. The reason I mention this is because reddit users have asked if the left and right sides can be interchanged.

And before people ask, no the WH-1000XM4 earpads will not fit on the WH-1000XM5. Their design is also very different and the left side has the cutout for the ear detection sensor as well. Should Sony have made the earpads identical and interchangeable? Perhaps, but you can buy each side individually (if you can find a local supplier), so I guess this should not be an issue.

So with the earpads removed, we can see the foam which covers the 30mm drivers. It seems that the foam does not interfere with the wear detection. The red arrows is where the ribs in the earpads line up when you reinstall the ear pads.

Removing the foam, we can see the driver units. The left side has the wear detection, this is an electrostatic sensor versus the optical sensor found in the WH-1000XM4.