Sports activities vehicles have a tendency to be much less frequent, and extra aspirational, than SUVs or people-carriers. Headphones with planar magnetic drivers are usually much less frequent, and extra aspirational, than headphones with dynamic drivers. In some methods, the explanations for this are very related. Planar magnetic drivers, which use skinny items of metallic held between magnets—are a bit like sports activities vehicles: They’re designed for uncompromised efficiency. Like sports activities vehicles, they’re additionally trickier, costlier, and extra time-consuming to supply. They have an inclination to make the headphones that characteristic them greater and bulkier than the dynamic driver various, which is the one place the place my intelligent sports activities automotive/SUV analogy rolls right into a wall.
The broad level nonetheless stands. Planar magnetic drivers are usually the protect of specialist manufacturers and are usually fitted to headphones costing an incredible deal greater than these various designs that characteristic dynamic drivers. However nobody, it appears, has talked about any of this to Edifier.
Edifier was established in Beijing in 1996 and hit the bottom working the place loudspeakers and headphones are involved. By 2012 it had wholly acquired the honored Japanese headphone model Stax, which, by way of status, is a bit just like the time Fiat acquired Ferrari. (I promise, this would be the final of my auto business comparisons.) Now Edifier has launched a brand new pair of wi-fi over-ear planar magnetic headphones known as the Stax Spirit S5 which might be no greater or costlier than a few of the leading dynamic driver designs. They’re improbable headphones that convey music and movies to life higher than dynamic drivers can, and they’re effectively price contemplating for audiophiles who might in any other case have bought wired headphones.
That’s the Spirit
The Stax Spirit S5 are usually not, it’s price noting, Edifier’s first reasonably priced planar magnetic headphones to go wi-fi. The place pricing and specs are involved, with one notable exception, it’s onerous to dispute that they’re the corporate’s most formidable.
So sure, planar magnetic drivers: Not like the much more frequent dynamic driver various, which produce sound through a conical diaphragm pushed by a voice coil inside a magnetic subject, planar magnetic drivers use a tremendously skinny, flat diaphragm with implanted wires. It’s suspended in a spot between two magnets that vibrate the diaphragm to supply sound. The magnets should be large enough to cowl the whole floor space of the diaphragm, which is why one of these design tends to be greater and heavier than the dynamic various. It’s a extra power-hungry association too.
{Photograph}: Simon Lucas
Within the case of the Stax Spirit S5, the diaphragm is a mere 2 microns thick and is embedded with the second era of Edifier’s “EqualMass” wiring. By connecting totally different numbers of wires of the identical width in a symmetrical construction, uniform driving drive may be achieved; the diaphragm will transfer backwards and forwards with the identical momentum throughout its total floor, retaining distortion to a naked minimal.
The esoteric nature of their drivers apart, the Edifier Stax Spirit S5 characteristic most of what the market tends to demand on the worth. They use Bluetooth 5.4 for wi-fi connectivity, and due to the Qualcomm QCC5181 SoC they’ve codec help as much as and together with LHDC, LDAC, and aptX Lossless. With an applicable supply of music, they will ship a lossless 16-bit/44.1-kHz decision, in addition to “lossy” 24-bit/96-kHz. AptX Voice is onboard in an effort to ship optimum name high quality, and multipoint connectivity is on the market for the multitaskers amongst us.
Battery life is a really spectacular 80 hours from a single cost, and in case you’re negligent sufficient to expire of energy, a 15-minute pit cease will maintain you for an additional whopping 13 hours. When you’ve an Android device working Marshmallow or newer, Google Quick Pair is on the market.
The USB-C socket on the appropriate ear cup can be utilized for knowledge switch in addition to charging the battery, and there’s a 3.5-mm enter on the left ear cup for a similar hard-wired objective. Edifier gives each cables within the S5 packaging.
