Review: Edifier Stax Spirit S5 Headphones

Sports cars tend to be less common, and more aspirational, than SUVs or people-carriers. Headphones with planar magnetic drivers tend to be less common, and more aspirational, than headphones with dynamic drivers. In some ways, the reasons for this are very similar. Planar magnetic drivers, which use thin pieces of metal held between magnets—are a bit like sports cars: They're designed for uncompromised performance. Like sports cars, they’re also trickier, more expensive, and more time-consuming to produce. They tend to make the headphones that feature them bigger and bulkier than the dynamic driver alternative, which is the only place where my clever sports car/SUV analogy rolls into a wall.

The broad point still stands. Planar magnetic drivers tend to be the preserve of specialist brands and tend to be fitted to headphones costing a great deal more than those alternative designs that feature dynamic drivers. But no one, it seems, has mentioned any of this to Edifier.

Edifier was established in Beijing in 1996 and hit the ground running where loudspeakers and headphones are concerned. By 2012 it had wholly acquired the venerated Japanese headphone brand Stax, which, in terms of prestige, is a bit like the time Fiat acquired Ferrari. (I promise, this will be the last of my auto industry comparisons.) Now Edifier has launched a new pair of wireless over-ear planar magnetic headphones called the Stax Spirit S5 that are no bigger or more expensive than some of the leading dynamic driver designs. They're fantastic headphones that bring music and films to life better than dynamic drivers can, and they are well worth considering for audiophiles who may otherwise have purchased wired headphones.

That’s the Spirit

The Stax Spirit S5 are not, it’s worth noting, Edifier’s first affordable planar magnetic headphones to go wireless. Where pricing and specs are concerned, with one notable exception, it’s hard to dispute that they’re the company’s most ambitious.

So yes, planar magnetic drivers: Unlike the far more common dynamic driver alternative, which produce sound via a conical diaphragm driven by a voice coil within a magnetic field, planar magnetic drivers use a tremendously thin, flat diaphragm with implanted wires. It’s suspended in a gap between two magnets that vibrate the diaphragm to produce sound. The magnets need to be big enough to cover the entire surface area of the diaphragm, which is why this type of design tends to be bigger and heavier than the dynamic alternative. It’s a more power-hungry arrangement too.

Photograph: Simon Lucas

In the case of the Stax Spirit S5, the diaphragm is a mere 2 microns thick and is embedded with the second generation of Edifier’s “EqualMass” wiring. By connecting different numbers of wires of the same width in a symmetrical structure, uniform driving force can be achieved; the diaphragm will move back and forth with the same momentum across its entire surface, keeping distortion to a bare minimum.

The esoteric nature of their drivers aside, the Edifier Stax Spirit S5 feature most of what the market tends to demand at the price. They use Bluetooth 5.4 for wireless connectivity, and thanks to the Qualcomm QCC5181 SoC they have codec support up to and including LHDC, LDAC, and aptX Lossless. With an appropriate source of music, they can deliver a lossless 16-bit/44.1-kHz resolution, as well as “lossy” 24-bit/96-kHz. AptX Voice is onboard in an effort to deliver optimal call quality, and multipoint connectivity is available for the multitaskers among us.

Battery life is a very impressive 80 hours from a single charge, and if you’re negligent enough to run out of power, a 15-minute pit stop will hold you for another whopping 13 hours. If you’ve an Android device running Marshmallow or newer, Google Fast Pair is available.

The USB-C socket on the right ear cup can be used for data transfer as well as charging the battery, and there’s a 3.5-mm input on the left ear cup for the same hard-wired purpose. Edifier provides both cables in the S5 packaging.

Photograph: Simon Lucas via ConneX app

Control is via either the clean, stable, and reasonably logical Edifier ConneX app (free for iOS and Android) or a brief suite of physical controls on the edge of the right ear cup. The latter allows for power on/off and volume up/down and also has a multifunction button, the purpose of which can be defined in the app. This is also where you get quite extensive EQ adjustment options, along with stuff like enabling multipoint connection, switching on Game mode, and defining which of the two pairs of earpads you’re using.

The S5 are supplied with both lambskin earpads and a pair of “cooling” mesh alternatives. If you think this serves to exclude vegans and vegetarians more than somewhat, wait until you find out the backs of the ear cups themselves are covered with textured cowhide. Other than these rather assertively carnivorous choices, the design of the Edifier is sensible and the execution impressive. At 347 grams they’re a little heavier than the norm, but not drastically so—they’re certainly not as heavy as the planar magnetic configuration might imply. There’s plenty of adjustment in the steel headband, nicely judged padding at the contact points, and sufficient articulation at the yokes to allow them to fold in on themselves and thus require only a compact travel case.

Really, all that’s missing from the Stax Spirit S5 when compared to the overwhelming majority of $500(ish) wireless over-ear headphones is active noise cancellation. Edifier, though, is confident that its use of ear pad materials, the ergonomic design of its ear cup arrangement, and some carefully judged clamping force will offer plenty of passive noise isolation.

Photograph: Simon Lucas

Great Sound, No Noise Canceling

If you’re using them indoors, that turns out to be the case in almost every circumstance. There’s a fair amount of passive noise isolation as a result of the design choices here—but take the S5 outdoors, and anyone who’s used to the way active noise-canceling headphones perform is going to find the Edifier less persuasive when it comes to keeping external distractions at bay.

That’s a pity when you realize just how capable, confident, and straightforwardly enjoyable a pair of headphones this is to listen to. Where attention to detail, sound-staging, and simple fidelity are concerned, the Stax Spirit S5 are better than most.

No matter if you listen to a 320-kbps MP3 of the Smiths’ “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore” or an altogether heftier 24-bit/96-kHz FLAC file of “Bad Guy,” by Billie Eilish, the insight into the minutiae of the recording is profound. No detail is too fleeting, too transient, too deeply buried in the mix or too far toward the edge of the soundstage to elude the S5. The headphones are capable of putting everything into perfect context rather than holding it up as evidence of their powers of analysis. They're an entertaining and musical listen that includes every scrap of information available.

Photograph: Simon Lucas

The S5 are vaultingly dynamic in volume and intensity. They track these fluctuations with something approaching fanaticism, creating a big, coherent soundstage on which to lay out a recording, and they control it properly. Every element of the recording has room in which to operate without being impacted by any other element, yet they manage to do this without losing sight of the fact that they’re dealing with a performance. There’s a unity and a singularity to the way they present even complex music that’s by no means a given no matter how much your headphones cost you.

The tonal balance is nicely neutral, and the integration of the frequency range from top to bottom is smooth to the point of imperceptibility. Bass sounds are deep and substantial, but carefully controlled to the point that rhythmic expression is confident and momentum levels are always high. Midrange fidelity is impressive, too, and the Edifier are more than capable of allowing vocalists of all attitudes, techniques, and levels of competence to articulate themselves fully. The top of the frequency range is just as substantial and information-packed as the rest of the presentation—but if you like to listen at dangerously high volumes, you’ll find the treble response gets just a little hard and shouty.

As an exercise in democratizing some relatively esoteric technology, the Edifier Stax Spirit S5 are a roaring success. As a pair of fairly pricey wireless headphones, they have plenty about the way they sound to recommend them. Whether or not people can be persuaded that active noise cancellation is somehow a distraction from the main event remains to be seen.