Engineer Ken Pillonel is back with a mod that converts Apple’s four-year-old headphones from Lightning to USB-C.
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For AirPod Max owners, engineer Ken Pillonel has beaten Apple to the punch by swapping the four-year-old headphones from a Lightning port to USB-C. In a new video posted to YouTube, Pillonel shows how to install his custom printed circuit board (PCB) with USB-C support without drilling any new holes, as well as how he designed it to fit comfortably inside the headset.
He’s made the board available for purchase on his website for around $45, along with detailed installation instructions — if you feel brave enough to mod the $549 headset, of course. Pillonel also considered adding support for USB-C audio but dropped that idea after finding that you’d need an extra chip to make it happen, which would make the mod more expensive.
Pillonel has been behind numerous USB-C mods we’ve seen over the past few years for Apple products, including the iPhone, AirPods, and AirPods Pro.
Since then, Apple has added USB-C to the iPhone 15 and the second-gen AirPods Pro, so he may not have many options left unless he wants to give the Vision Pro’s battery cable a try.
Last year, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple is preparing to launch a new version of its AirPods Max with USB-C and new color options sometime this year. Although the rumors don’t detail other major technical changes to the AirPods Max aside from an upgraded H2 chip, the headphones will hopefully come with support for lossless audio.
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Emma Roth
