Sony WH-1000XM6 FCC Teardown
New Hinge
When I refer to the hinge, I mean the parts inside the earcup, and not the folding section on the headband. I am sure that can be taken apart, but we have no photos of this (actaully we have iFixit x-ray). The XM6 internal hinge is very different to the XM5. For instance, it takes up much less room and uses a lot more metal in its build. The design is a lot simpler and much more repairable, as seen in the screenshots below from the iFixit teardown video.
The main metal bracket is held on with 4 screws, 2 on the side, and 2 in the middle. The 2 middle screws attach the headband bracket to the earcups.
Removing the main bracket, we can see the headband bracket slotted into place, and aligned with 2 plastic pins. The headband can then be removed from the earcup, see the video for the procedure.
Here is the headband bracket. While it is not shown in the video, I suspect the metal bracket is connected to the metal in the folding hinge, but we will not know for certain until someone takes it fully apart. Edit, we have the iFixit x-ray which shows inside the plastic, thank you anonymous comment. It appears the headband bracket is NOT connected to the hinge. Here are the screenshots from the iFixit video.
We can see the main metal piece of the swivel in the middle of the photo, with the headband bracket at the bottom. No metal piece connects them, the only thing visible is the wire.
The part beside the red arrow (above) is what inserts into the lower support piece (below), which is connected to the main earcups with the headband bracket. Since this piece is not clearly visible on the X-ray, we know it is all plastic with no metal inside it. So there is always a chance this lower piece could be vulnerable to snapping and cracking.
I suspect this support piece looks like similar to the seen in the ULT wear, meaning the insert is metallic, but piece it fits into, is all plastic. Until we get a complete hinge teardown, we have no way to know how it is constructed.
Another angle of the hinge.
The part of the hinge which folds does appear to be fully made out of metal, see photo below (red arrows). This is good news, and should not be a point of weakness.
