When you enter the building that houses Apple’s audio lab, venture just beyond reception and you’ll encounter a massive vintage stereo setup. The deck and accompanying speakers were a gift from Steve Jobs to the team of engineers who work in this office.
The group sees the old-school tech as a source of inspiration, but also as a reminder of Jobs’ obsession with both music and sound. More than inspiration, though, the stereo is a reminder to the experts in software, acoustics and sound design how important sound is to everything Apple builds.
Inside, I was led into a maze of nondescript halls, weaving from room to room with a trio of Apple engineers as my guides. I was in for a rare peek into the company’s product development facilities — a step further behind the curtain than what’s typically allowed during Apple events.
As Apple’s audio team works to correct and calibrate the AirPods' fit for natural variations in ear geometry, they use a collection of audio metric booths to check their work. These rooms look like small, windowless offices. The walls are covered in sound-dampening panels and there’s a single workstation with a Mac and various tools for hearing analysis.
If you’ll recall, one of the company’s major ambitions with AirPods has been the end-to-end hearing health experience that it debuted last year. In order to validate its claims of a “clinical grade hearing test,” engineers use devices…
Published: September 17, 2025 3:00 pm
Source: Engadget — Read original