Are Edifier’s Stax Spirit S5 the best wireless headphones ever?

If you’re lucky enough to own a smartphone or digital audio player that supports Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound platform, you’ll probably want a pair of wireless headphones so you can make the most of the latest Hi-Res audio codecs that supports Snapdragon Sound. including apt-X Lossless.

The Edifier Stax Spirit S5 are wireless headphones compatible with Snapdragon Sound. They offer an impressive 80 hours of play time from a single battery charge and use planar magnetic instead of the more dynamic type. The Spirit S5 take their inspiration from the classic Stax electrostatic models that caused such a stir when they were launched in the 1970s.

To ensure that the Stax Spirit S5 produces the most consistent sound possible, Edifier has developed something called Automatic Production Phase Calibration, a manufacturing process that ensures that each pair of Stax Spirit S5 headphones produces the same sound quality as the original pre-production model developed. at Edifier Labs.

The build quality of the closed-back headphones is excellent, and the foldable design makes the Spirit S5 easy to store in the provided zippered case. Of course, foldable headphones will never be as powerful as fixed models like the new Cambridge Audio Melomania P100. Some people don’t like folding models as the hinges can creak and loosen over time. It’s too early to tell if that would be the case with these headphones, but they seem well-made and well-designed.

Built around Qualcomm’s QCC5181 Bluetooth system on a chip, the Stax Spirit S5 headphones support Qualcomm’s full suite of Snapdragon Sound technology. There’s no active noise cancellation technology, so if that’s a deal breaker for you, look elsewhere. However, the Spirit S5 has several microphones to capture the user’s voice when making calls or holding a video conference.

The birth of the new Stax Spirit S5 began in 2012 when Edifier acquired Stax Ltd, a company synonymous with high-end electrostatic headphones. In homage to the Stax brand, Edifier created Stax Spirit as a high-end sub-brand for a new range of audiophile-quality headphones. The Stax Spirit S5 are the latest in the range and use advanced planar magnetic technology instead of traditional dynamic drivers.

Planar magnetic drivers are used in high-end headphones and have a unique way of producing sound that many believe is superior when it comes to detecting detail and handling transient response, injecting more energy and versatility into music.

Dynamic drivers create sound using a cone-sized diaphragm driven by a voice coil surrounded by a magnetic field. The diaphragm must be rigid enough to avoid separation during vibration, especially when reproducing high frequencies. The motor system that drives the cone is heavy and requires a lot of energy to make it vibrate.

With planar magnetic drivers, a flat, thin diaphragm is embedded with wires and suspended in a magnetic gap. This unique design enables the diaphragm to move like a piston throughout the frequency spectrum. Because the diaphragm is so light and has such excellent transient response, the planar driver is often seen as the best choice for high-quality sound reproduction.

Edifier isn’t the only company to use planar magnetic drivers in its headphones, but most other brands deal with the uneven distribution of the magnetic field by using wires of different widths in the diaphragm. The goal is to achieve a uniform driving force across the diaphragm surface, producing consistent performance.

Edifier takes this approach a step further with EqualMass technology. By connecting a different number of wires, of the same width, in parallel, EqualMass produces a uniform driving force across the diaphragm while keeping the weight evenly distributed.

EqualMass technology allows the diaphragm to move back and forth with equal motion and momentum, reducing harmonic distortion to virtually zero levels. With Stax Spirit 5, Edifier has introduced 2^n.d– EqualMass generation wiring. This symmetrical wiring structure increases diaphragm stability across the frequency spectrum.

To ensure uniformity in the distribution of the magnetic field in each driver, Edifier also developed a set of automatic tools that calibrates and compensates the magnet circuit during production. This process guarantees that every pair of Stax Spirit S5 headphones can reproduce the same high-quality sound as the original design prototype tuned by Edifier engineers.

As well as supporting Hi-Res LDAC and LHDC audio codecs, the Stax Spirit S5 also supports all bundled codecs that come with Snapdragon Sound. These include aptX HD, aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless. The aptX Lossless codec can achieve a bit rate of 1.2 Mbps in Bluetooth mode, which is fast enough to stream digital audio up to 96 kHz at 24-bit.

Thanks to support for the entire family of aptX Adaptive codecs, the Stax Spirit S5 also offers end-to-end latency of up to 89ms. This means audio from movies and games will always be in sync via Bluetooth so the sounds match the action on screen.

In addition to the Hi-Res codec suite, the Stax Spirit S5 also supports the AAC codec used by Apple on its iPhone and iPad. Although not as high-resolution as aptX, the AAC codec provides very good sound quality, and there is a possibility that Apple will support LDAC in the future, which is built into the new Bluetooth LE standard.

The Stax Spirit S5 offers MultiPoint connectivity with two Bluetooth audio devices pairing at the same time. This enables a smartphone and a digital audio player or tablet to be connected to the headphones at the same time and you can seamlessly switch between them. Other useful features include FastPair with Android devices to connect instantly.

The controls on the Stax Spirit S5 are rudimentary with the usual set of three buttons for play/pause, skip and repeat, and volume levels. There is also a Bluetooth pairing button to connect with other devices. The Bluetooth pairing button also works as a mode switch. A single press cycles through the EQ presets, while two presses put the headphones into game mode for a low latency of 87ms.

As you’d expect from a pair of headphones of this pedigree, the Stax Spirit S5 are superbly finished with lambskin earcups and high-grain cowhide earcups. The ergonomic design is comfortable enough to feel secure when wearing, but the grip pressure is low enough to feel comfortable even for longer listening sessions.

The sound quality offered by the Stax Spirit S5 is second to none. Although planar magnetic drivers don’t always have the same low-end hum and punch as some dynamic drivers, what they occasionally lack in bass they more than make up for in versatility and transient response. There is real energy and excellent musical articulation in these headphones that make them positively infectious.

To audition the Stax Spirit S5, I fired up Tidal’s Hi-Fi Tier and selected Diana Krall’s “Sway,” one of my favorite test tracks when reviewing the headphones. It’s a beautifully recorded song that can stretch any pair of headphones to their limit. For my source, I used the FiiO M23 digital audio player which supports Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound and aptX Lossless.

The result was a sound that was on par with a pair of high-end wired headphones. If you’ve always hesitated to go wireless because you’re afraid Bluetooth will compress your music too much, then the time to waver is over. With the best bitrates, there is an airiness and rhythm of the Stax Spirit S5 that takes your breath away. I tried running blind tests between wired and wireless connections and couldn’t tell the difference.

The treble frequencies produced by the nimble planar magnetic drivers are as good as a fine silk-dome tweeter. Simple response times during dynamic and transient phrases of music were wonderful. Even the bass levels have a slow, rich and inviting tone that brought out the string bass on “Sway”. Listening with these headphones brings out every detail and nuance in that recording.

If you don’t want to use Bluetooth, then the Stax Spirit S5 can also be connected using an AUX cable or a USB-A to USB-C cable that decodes the source file directly to the headphones. The Edifier ConneX smartphone app is free to download and is available for iOS and Android devices. The app offers customization options and full EQ controls for shaping the sound to your taste.

Verdict: The Edifier Stax Spirit S5 are one of the best Hi-Res wireless headphones on the market right now. They’re up there with the Cambridge Audio Melomania P100 and then some. The Edifier Stax Spirit S5 costs more than the Melomania and this depends on the use of planar magnetic technology, but if you want the best audio quality over Bluetooth and have a device that supports Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound, then the Stax Spirit S5 headphones deserve attention. They have a subtle distribution, so if you want a bit more heavy bass and ANC functionality, the Melomania are definitely worth a listen. However, these are very special headphones that take advantage of planar magnetic technology and Snapdragon Sound support. Listen to them now!

Price and availability: The Edifier Stax Spirit S5 Wireless Headphones are available from today and cost $499.99 / £499.99 / €499.99.

Technical characteristics:

• Driver: planar magnetic.
• Bluetooth: V5.4.
• Bluetooth range: 10 m.
• Audio codecs: Snapdragon Sound, LHDC, LDAC, Qualcomm aptX Lossless, Qualcomm aptX Adaptive, Qualcomm aptX HD, Qualcomm aptX, LHDC, LDAC, AAC, SBC.
• Sound pressure level: 94 ± 3dB SPL(A).
• Frequency response: 10Hz – 40kHz.
• Battery life: 80 hours.
• Input: DC 5V ⎓ 2A.