Sports cars tend to 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 uncompromising performance. Like sports cars, they’re also harder, more expensive, and more time-consuming to produce. They tend to make the headphones that include them bigger and bulkier than the dynamic driver alternative, which is the only place where my clever sports car/SUV analogy hits a wall.
The general argument still holds. Planar magnetic drivers are usually the preserve of specialist brands and are often fitted into headphones that cost significantly more than alternative designs featuring dynamic drivers. But apparently no one has mentioned any of this to Edifier.
Edifier was founded in Beijing in 1996 and hit the ground running in the speaker and headphone space. By 2012 it had fully acquired the venerable 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 comparisons to the car industry). Now Edifier has released a new pair of over-ear wireless 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 movies to life better than dynamic drivers, and are worth considering for audiophiles who would have otherwise bought wired headphones.
That’s the spirit
It’s worth noting that the Stax Spirit S5 aren’t the first affordable Edifier planar magnetic earphones to go wireless. As far as price and specs go, with one notable exception, it’s hard to deny that they’re the company’s most ambitious yet.
So yes, planar magnetic drivers: Unlike the much more common dynamic driver alternative, which produces sound via a conical diaphragm driven by a voice coil within a magnetic field, planar magnetic drivers use an extremely thin, flat diaphragm with implanted wires. It’s suspended in a space between two magnets that vibrate the diaphragm to produce sound. The magnets need to be large enough to cover the entire surface of the diaphragm, so this type of design tends to be larger and heavier than the dynamic alternative. It’s also a more power-hungry arrangement.
Photography: Simon Lucas
In the case of the Stax Spirit S5, the diaphragm is just 2 microns thick and is equipped with Edifier’s second generation “EqualMass” wiring. By connecting different amounts of wires of the same width in a symmetrical structure, a 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 minimum.
Esoteric nature of their drivers aside, the Edifier Stax Spirit S5 boast most of the features the market tends to demand for their price point. They use Bluetooth 5.4 for wireless connectivity, and thanks to the Qualcomm QCC5181 SoC, they have support for codecs including LHDC, LDAC, and aptX Lossless. With a suitable music source, they can deliver lossless 16-bit/44.1kHz resolution, as well as lossy 24-bit/96kHz resolution. AptX Voice is built in in an effort to deliver optimal call quality, and multipoint connectivity is available for those of us who multitask.
Battery life is impressive: 80 hours on a single charge, and if you’re careless enough to run out of battery, a 15-minute stop will last you another 13 hours. If you have an Android device running Marshmallow or newer, Google Fast Pair is available.
The USB-C connector on the right earcup can be used for data transfer and charging, and there’s a 3.5mm input on the left earcup for the same purpose. Edifier provides both cables in the S5’s packaging.