If you blow a speaker on a recent MacBook Pro without AppleCare, you have two choices: live with it, or pay for an unnecessarily expensive repair where Apple replaces the whole top case.
Given that this contains the battery, keyboard, and other pricey components, you’ll be on the hook for hundreds of dollars. Indeed, when The Verge dug through the MacBook self-repair part price list back in 2022, the site found the top case would cost between $527.12 and $615.12.
But it looks like Apple is changing how it operates, and speaker repairs are about to get a whole lot cheaper — at least for the 2024 models.
In a memo sent to Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers, seen by MacRumors, the company stated it would be offering speakers as individual repair parts for the latest hardware — namely the 14 and 16-inch M4 MacBook Pro series. It’s the first time that Apple has offered individual MacBook Pro speaker replacements since 2015.
And it may not end there. An update added to the post later cited a “reliable source” who stated that Apple will provide technicians with individual speaker parts for all Apple Silicon MacBook Pros, going back to the earliest M1 Pro and M1 Max models.
It looks like the fix may not be limited to Apple Stores and affiliated repair shops, either. MacRumors notes that Apple has already published an M4 MacBook Pro speaker repair guide on the site, strongly suggesting that spare speaker parts will eventually be available via the self-service repair store (though this may just be for the recent M4 computers).
It’s not an operation to be undertaken by the faint of heart, though. Removing the existing speakers requires Kevlar thread to cut away the adhesive underneath which, as the guide notes, is perilously close to both the battery and logic board. Replacement speakers come with a single-use battery cover for the former, but even then this clearly isn’t a repair for novices.
But the good news is that whether you do it yourself or seek a professional’s help, the price should be lower than it has been in years. While it’s still better for peace of mind to keep up your AppleCare payments, it’s good to know that blowing out your speakers should no longer cost an arm and a leg if you’re out of warranty.
