Edifier Stax Spirit S5 Review: Planar Magnetic Headphones are SO tasty!

TEAM SGG PATREON / somegadgetguy Edifier Stax S5 review! They're pricey, but they're fantastic.
I love how a planar driver produces sound, and I'm excited to see more and more consumer focused options with closed back designs. Edifier lacks ONE feature for broad consumer adoption, but we can't fault the sound quality here. This is a wonderful consumer headphone.
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#edifier #headphones #audiophile

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

Huge thanks to my Patrons! I hope you'll consider joining the community! www.patreon.com/posts/110988813

[@josephshim2744]

I'm a simple guy. I see Juan reviewing an audio product I hit that like button.

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

😊

[@minminli6248]

I just ordered mine 5 minutes ago. Adding this to the 7Hz Legato, Sivga Que and MS1 Rainbow. Also the Muse Hifi M4. All within this week. I've gone crazy... 😂😂😂

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

That sounds like a killer list to me.

[@RobertF]

Ha nice. I'm currently in season 3 of my first watch of Veronica Mars. My friends told me to watch it when it was broadcasting & I do really like Kristen Bell. But I finally listened & am loving it. Love seeing young guest stars before they were big. Great looking headset! I really want to replace my Audeze Penrose mainly because the battery life is so short.

[@LLIMIT]

I got Audeze MM-100’s for over half off by a local audio store. They’ve been amazing and made me a believer of Planars

[@wademiyataki9221]

Man, came to the channel for the Xperia and headset/headphone reviews, only to find out that he also knows about Nathan East and rotary engines? I knew there was something I liked about you besides the sarcasm.😁

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

LOL. I gotta keep the techies on their toes.

[@Goodmanperson55]

it's nice to see planars finally getting popularized. I'm suprised to see that the mass consumer end are mostly getting closed-backs when, historically, closed planars are unheard of. I guess that's one innovation that makes consumer planars worth looking into over the usual prosumer audiophile options.

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

I was shocked to see a bluetooth RIBBON headphone hit under $300. These exotic drivers are getting more and more accessible. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWmrYoKIaJ6YhKc

[@orangeyellow-me1pz]

Well, the hifinan sundara closed backs are a thing. They are planar closed backs with wooden cups.

[@farishanafiah8461]

Just imagine plugging this phone to any LG smartphones with Quad DAC. That would be the ultimate audio paradise.

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

Sigh... Yeah...

[@SaucerX]

1:59 lol I can feel the anger and share the feeling, hopefully they will return in the future or another manufacturer could pick back up on the good portable player phones

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

It would be lovely, but I fear the LG ship has sailed...

[@orangeyellow-me1pz]

Moondrop seems to be trying. They have a phone that is completely audio focused but it feels like the Marshall London phone back in 2015.

[@impulsesystems]

After a certain age, you need to buy crap at Home Depot; now, your sportscar is not the best! I used to fly a lot more than I do now. ANC is awesome but if I am sitting out in the sun, over-ear phones are not the best. Other audio nerds talk a lot about IEMs, which cost as much as any of these over-ear devices. Thanks for a realistic review. Take care of your ears, folks! Like your eyes, they are difficult to replace.

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

Oh I have professional and consumer "earbuds" that cost three times more than these edifiers. I'm a part of that chat too. The exciting thing for me is seeing the REALLY exotic stuff get a LOT more accessible. If you had told me ten years ago, that I could just buy a pair of planars, and not need a stack of desktop equipment to drive them, I would have laughed at you. Right tool for the right job. Sometimes you need the ear enclosed, sometimes you need an earbud. It's all good right now.

[@elijahpalmer6323]

I’m edging to this rn ❤ love the stax

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

👀🤣

[@orangeyellow-me1pz]

that's not even PG!

[@nplateau]

I really want to see a showdown, especially in terms of sound quality, between the Audeze Maxwell and the Edifier S5.

[@richardalvarado1877]

Wireless planars? I'm in! I hope kinera would also send their kinera gramr pro iem mic your way in the future.

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

That's another on the list I REALLY want to try...

[@adaml.5355]

I honestly prefer USB C input for wired audio these days. The fact this device has DAC/AMP built in is very convenient.

[@everettwinterlast8704]

If Edifier doesn't have Auracast capability on it's latest STAX Spirit S10 earbuds ($300) & STAX Spirit S5 headphones ($500), it baffles me.

[@falcodarkzz]

I have the Maxwell and am interested in these, would you be so kind to briefly compare them so I can get any idea

[@jondandavekinanahan7488]

How do these compare to the wired planars?Also can you do reviews on ziigaat,simgot ew300 and the cca hydro?

[@neyroniusYT]

I have s3 and find the bass in bluetooth mode not enough. In wired mode this is anoter world. I think the amp in s3 is not enough. What about s5?

[@GadZookz]

No Shadows on Maxwell but these are terrific for wireless planars.

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

I LOVE Audeze, but Edifier came to PLAY.

[@orangeyellow-me1pz]

I don't know. I'm so skeptical about something like this. Its really cool that they are planars but planars plus bluetooth? Bluetooth drops signal all the time. $500 is for excellent music listening experiences. I just can't mesh bluetooth and quality yet. Planars are for my the thick DAP that I have that is so serious that they purposefully removed bluetooth and WiFi because they create interfeatance. This was done at the behest of their own customers. If Bluetooth didn't drop signal so frequently then this would receive all my support. I still might get them for the wife. Her headphones make me want to recoil in all sorts of ways. I was going to get her a hiby r4 and some planars from hifiman but these might be better for her...maybe? I need to do more research.

[@orangeyellow-me1pz]

Dang, can't run them balanced

[@davidburns8113]

Imagine paying so much money to listen to AAC...

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

Kinda feel bad for them... Kinda...

[@Goodmanperson55]

tbf, Apple has the best AAC encoder, but its competitiveness against the newer codecs are now in question. One thing is for sure, though, avoid AAC on Android at all costs.

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

It's SO disappointing how poorly AAC is handled on Android, but the recent updates to APTX, LDAC, and LHDC are FLIPPING incredible.

[@richardalvarado1877]

They can atleast use an external dongle dac that can do aptx or ldac like the fiio btr5.

[@SomeGadgetGuy]

If it's connected to the iPhone, then it's just a direct audio signal. If you use the BTR5 over bluetooth, then the iPhone will only send AAC. A gaming headset dongle might work over a proprietary 2.4Ghz signal, but that would be because the HEADPHONES use that signal. The iPhone wouldn't know it was any different than a USB cable.

[@davidburns8113]

No