Here we are putting the squeeze on the speaker portion of these buds, with help from our trusty bench vise. It deforms the buds' outer shell just enough to open up a seam—a chink in the armor, if you will.

Pressure and heat makes diamonds, and also progress on our teardown.

After some picking and prying, we peep a tiny battery pouch deep inside—but it's mostly tiny cables and solder in there.

Now what?