EDIFIER Announces STAX Spirit S5 Wireless Planar Magnetic Headphones

Edifier just unveiled its STAX Spirit S5 Wireless Planar magnetic headphones, its second product since it acquired the famous brand. The STAX Spirit S5 improves on the quality of the audio experience with its 2nd gen EqualMass wiring technology, 2μm thin film and a new calibration approach of the planar drivers, which Edifier say achieve a performance comparable to legendary electrostatic headphones. Based on the Qualcomm QCC5181 Snapdragon Sound Bluetooth audio SoC, the new Spirit S5 headphones also deliver an expanded range of wireless audio options.

Among the very exclusive number of highly recognized ultra-high-end audio builders, Metaxas & Sins, a greek family affair based in Switzerland with headquarters in Amsterdam, is by far the most exquisite. All the company's designs are simultaneously design masterpieces and beautiful, unique art pieces. The most recent proposal is the Ethereal Electrostatic Headphone Amplifier, combining horology (the study of mechanical time-keeping devices) with reverie.

Grell Audio, the company founded by German headphone engineer Axel Grell, announced its first product. The Grell TWS/1 (199.99 USD/EUR) is an understated design using dynamic drivers, implemented over a Qualcomm Bluetooth 5.2 platform. In terms of unique features, the TWS/1 offers a frequency-selective ANC function, filtered by a patent-pending Noise Annoyance Reduction (NAR) psycho-acoustic model, bundled with Sonarworks' SoundID for calibration and personalization.

In its August 2020 edition, Voice Coil featured an article by experienced speaker designer Igor Levitsky, highly recognized in the industry for developing some of the best planar magnetic speaker and headphone drivers for some of the most reputed brands, focusing precisely on this type of technology. It seems clear that we will see more and more headphones and speakers using thin-film drivers, as the industry is now perfecting the use of different types of diaphragms and materials. The August 2020 edition of Voice Coil includes the first part of this article, completed in the September 2020 edition.

audioXpress continues to combine the best of innovations in audio, audio electronics, and DIY audio every month! In our July 2017 edition, we have two great product reviews of the Earthworks M50 Measurement Microphone and the Benchmark DAC3 HGC Stereo D/A Converter. We visit Hypex Electronics and discuss its Class-D High-Fidelity concept, we interview amplification visionary Pat Quilter and we have two great DIY projects. That and much more now available on print and download.

Do you want to know how good audio from smartphones actually is? Would you like to know which sound measurement apps are available for smartphones? Or would you prefer to build The PhaseBuster, a unique way to manipulate the phase between stereo channels? Or would you prefer to build a headphone hybrid amplifier? All that and much more can be found in audioXpress November 2015, available online.