Edifier STAX Spirit S5 review

Apologies for the wind noise on the right channel, it's a heatwave here this week and the fan was running!

My Neowin written reviews:
STAX Spirit S5:

STAX Spirit S3:

Link to the Alternative A2DP driver for Windows:

[woodyssoundup]

I understand why they don’t have ANC but I wish they had the option on these. I traveled a couple times with my S3’s and I had to have them cranked to max to try to drown out airplane sound and I ended up just popping in my AirPod Max’s because it was more comfortable to listen at a more reasonable level with outside noise blocked out than blaring loud and still hearing engine noise. I feel like if headphones are wireless, companies already assume people will use them more for travel so ANC would be nice to have. Not a deal breaker, I’d still love to hear these compared to the S3’s which I’ve owned and loved since release

[richardmalone]

Nice review, will they be releasing these in the Australian market

[mrpurpleman]

thanks, this is the best review of hps on the entire internet. I don't think you could have got any more simple yet technical while somehow managing to cover all the little things. And its good to see others showing and using the alternativeA2dp Windows software. Shame you could not get LDAC and aptx low latency to work but BT codecs are an pandora's box. These S5s should get better in sound quality once you enable Snapdragon Sound and Lossless codec which the S5 supports but I believe on the S24ultra its currently not fully enabled perhaps? they are very slow to adopt and enable BT codecs.

[gonrossi]

Where did you buy the ananda nano earpads ?

[shrey_doshi]

How is the sound leakage on them? Considering it for daily use in public while travelling

[jaysonsoo]

After trying Edifier Stax Spirit S5 for a few days, I found that its volume seems to be lower than S3.

Is this normal? Because as far as I know, the impedance of S3 is about 24 ohms, while the impedance of S5 is an astonishing 120 ohms.

This means that when using the same Bluetooth connection (phone) to play songs, the volume of S5 will be lower than that of S3.

This should also explain why I think the sound details of S5 are way better than S3?

Have other people who bought this headset discovered this problem?

[Otts]

But I thought dynamic drivers produce better bass than planar? 🤔

[TBMartin]

You say the best closed back headphone on the market, does that include wireless headphones like the Bowers and Wilkins PX8 or the Sennheiser Momentum 4?

I ask because I own them but im more of a planar fan (Love my 7Hz Timeless IEM) so these have perked my interest somewhat but because i already own them two, i don't know if i should get these

[zehahaha]

I just got my S3 last year @$200, too soon for an upgrade I guess

[angisensual]

So would you say these are kinda comparable to the Nanos or Nanos are still in other level? Nice review btw 😸

[komi]

S3 is not from the last year, it's from the year before, prices fell down from $400 to like $260 even before S5 came out, great value even compared to wired closed backs

[ulasklc]

Edifier needs to do a 5-6 band eq not 4 and up to 16 khz and with at least 6 db gain not 3.