Edifier STAX Spirit S3 Wireless Planar Magnetic Headphone, Bluetooth Hi-Fi Headphone with Hi-Res & Snapdragon Sound with Mic for Audiophiles, Home, Studio Electronics

5.0 out of 5 stars

Worth the investment

Bought these headphones a few weeks ago, having used other Edifier products. I’m typically a cheap person, but decided to make an investment in reliable high-quality headphones. So far, this pair has been great. I really love the look aesthetically. The black is very sleek and cool looking.More importantly, the fit is very comfortable, and I can wear these whether I’m running at the gym or walking through the grocery store.Most importantly, the audio quality is terrific as well. It’s great with phone calls, and of course music and podcasts. This is a 5-star review for a reason.

5 people found this helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars

Edifier headphones.

I like everything about it.

5.0 out of 5 stars

Best sound if you don’t want ANC

Exceptional sound quality, better than px8, bathys, xm5, airpd max if you don’t want ANC or transparency mode or dac on usbc.Comfort is good up to 6hrs string, included leather and cloth earpads are good for cold and warm weather.Excellent batter.Connectivity is as expected, no drops observed, able to connect to multiple devices.Again no ANC or Transparency mode.

4.0 out of 5 stars

I hope they are for you

I honestly wanted to just love this set of cans after reading reviews and watching videos. I didn’t find the creaky issue so many said they had. I found them to be very comfortable even after hours of listening. The ear pads are really soft, a nice touch. The case I feel for the price should really have been a hard case. Sennheiser for way less, gives a nice case to protect the headset. The noise canceling, is passive. For most typical office type scenarios I found them to be more than adequate. The battery life speaks for itself. As for the sound, it depended on what I listened to as to its performance. Live rock music was outstanding. Prince sounded as I had never heard before. But when I listened to music from groups like C+C Music Factory it fell flat. I could hear things I’ve never heard in those songs before but there was no true low end. Country, seemed a bit lackluster to my tastes. I just have a need for a more eclectic set of headphones. This is why I had to return them. I know people are going to think my take on these is crazy, but it’s just my take. I like my music to have a really decent bass presence. Trust me, I think if you have a chance to listen to them, you really should. As for me, I’m going to keep hunting.

7 people found this helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars

Worth Every Cent !!!

If clear sound separation is your main priority, if you want to hear all the little details in your music, these do the trick. For me, it was like rediscovering my music catalog (alt/classic rock). The bass will not ‘rock’ you, however.

2 people found this helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars

Amazing headsets.

Its a great headset. The headphones need to be TURNED ON and then PLUGGED IN. When the output device is off , headphones need to be unplugged and turned off aswell else they stay on until you notice. Its not that easy to get a hang at first but its a decent headset. The quality is AMAZING physically and audibly. Good materials great audio. too heavy for those that want light headsets. Download the Edifier connect app to have some more control over the headsets. I had some time with them and really enjoy them.

One person found this helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars

Excellent sound quality

The more I listen to these headphones the more I realize just how good they are. I enjoy the wired sound on these headphones.You can hear the Stax influence on the sound quality. When I originally purchased I thought they were somewhat expensive.However the build quality,sound quality are excellent.very pleased with purchase . Plug the wire in hook up to a Fiio or qudelix through iPhone lay back and enjoy the sound !

3 people found this helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars

These could be the best wireless

Among the best sounding headphones I’ve owned, very comfortable.

4 people found this helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars

Good Sound Quality and Long Battery Life – Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound

I recently tested the Edifier STAX Spirit S3 Bluetooth headphones on my Android phones, including a Xiaomi MI 11 that supports Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound and an LG Velvet that does not. The headphones are designed for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound, which delivers high-resolution music, crystal clear voice calls, lag-free gaming, superior connectivity, and extended battery life. The sound quality of these headphones is impressive when paired with a Snapdragon Sound-compatible device. The music is full of life and has a pleasing range and presence, providing a warm sound that captures the beauty of songs and their arrangements. However, the sound quality is less impressive when paired with non-compatible devices, and there are cheaper options with better sound quality and active noise canceling, such as Sony’s WH-1000XM4 and Bose 700 Noise Canceling Headphones.The headphones come with two sets of ear pads that can be swapped out, providing a comfortable fit for hours. The standard ear pads are soft leather and provide reasonably good passive noise reduction, while the alternate set of ear pads are smaller, flatter, and cooler, converting the headphones to on-ear headphones. The headphones are made of plastic (which seems be fairly common in even premium headphones now), which is a bit disappointing, but it still feels solid and of good quality.The Edifier app is available in the Play Store and has useful features, including a notification in the Android slide-down notification shade that shows the headphone battery level and allows you to select between different sound modes, such as Classic, Hi-fi, and STAX, or to enable the low-latency Game Mode. The full Edifier app also allows you to customize the double and triple-tap functions of the power key, set a shut-down timer, erase the Bluetooth pairing record stored in the headphones, or return the headphones to their original factory settings. However, there is no equalizer that I could find, and there is no button for checking if the firmware version of the headphones is up to date.Overall, the Edifier STAX Spirit S3 Bluetooth headphones are a great choice for those with Snapdragon Sound-compatible devices. The sound quality is impressive, and the headphones are comfortable to wear for extended periods. However, they are not recommended for non-compatible devices, and there are cheaper options with better sound quality and active noise canceling.

4.0 out of 5 stars

Interesting features and VG sound – but a tough sell in North America

These Bluetooth headphones from Edifier are designed for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound which is the brand name for a chain of Qualcomm sound optimizations designed to deliver high-resolution music, crystal clear voice calls, lag-free gaming, superior connectivity, and extended battery life. Some of these optimizations are hardware-based and some are software based but all of that Qualcomm technology needs to be licensed and that’s the rub–many companies were already fed up with high licensing fees and broad patent abuse (according to separate lawsuits from both Samsung and Apple) associated with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon CPU chips and quietly stopped supporting Qualcomm’s aptX codecs after the Bluetooth 4.2 standard enabled full high definition music playback with improved connectivity and no interference or sound drop-outs using the standard SBC codec which is free.I did a search and no phones from Samsung or Apple support Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound. Some Motorola models do but given the commanding market share that Samsung and Apple phones command here these headphones are going to be a tough sell in North America which is a shame.I tested the Edifier STAX Spirit S3 Bluetooth headphones on two of my Android phones–a Xiaomi MI 11 which supports Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound and an LG Velvet that does not.With the LG Velvet, these headphones sounded OK, offering a clear and balanced sound that was flat and had little presence. You can always EQ music to preference but the sound on these isn’t nearly as crisp as Sony’s WH-1000XM4 Bluetooth headphones which are $50 cheaper and also include active noise canceling. Bose 700 Noise Canceling Headphones also sound better and cost less. Licencing Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound technology clearly isn’t cheap and these headphones simply aren’t good enough to recommend if your phone isn’t compatible.The sound when using these headphones with my Xiaomi MI 11 was very different–much fuller with noticeably more presence. Rather than providing strictly accurate sound, most premium headphones are tuned to take advantage of the speaker set-up or to create a specific sound. Beats headphones emphasize bass at the expense of everything else while the tuning on Bose headphones is significantly less drastic. The sonic tuning on these Edifier Bluetooth headphones relies entirely on Sandragon Sound Technology so the difference between using these on my LG Velvet and Xiaomi MI 11 is night and day.With Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound music was no longer flat but full of life with a pleasing range and presence. Plucked instruments sound full and clear while percussive instruments and bass have a subtle snap. The overall sound is balanced so if you like a lot of bass you would need to use an equalizer or the bass boost feature on your player.I like to use Lindsey Buckingham’s self-titled 2021 so album when I test Bluetooth headphones and speakers because Buckingham is a true studio rat who adores Pet Sound era Brian Wilson and utilizes an unusual variety of sounds. Plus it’s a great album. These headphones provided a warm sound that could have been crisper but captured the beauty of Buckingham’s songs and their careful arrangements.I used these headphones for a couple of weeks listening to a variety of music from new wave like Depeche Mode and The Psychedelic Furs to the guitar-driven power pop of Enuff Z’nuff and The Shoes and the more delicate singer/songwriter sound of Leona Naess’ latest album Brood X. These headphones emphasize the fullness of sound over the crispness of individual instruments so they won’t appeal to everyone but for me, they made music listening a pleasure. Whatever album I played sounded really good.The Edifier Stax Spirit S3 comes with two sets of ear pads. The standard ear pads are soft leather and completely cover the ear providing reasonably good passive noise reduction and a comfortable fit for hours. But thay can be swapped out with an alternate set of ear pads that are smaller, flatter, cooler and convert these to on-ear headphones. Ear pads are held in place by 4 small plastic clips which work well enough but I would personally figure out which ear pads I wanted to use and stick with them. I don’t know how well those plastic clips will hold up if you regularly switch between both sets of ear pads.The Edifier app is available in the Play Store. One useful feature is the app notification in the Android slide-down notification shade which shows the headphone battery level and allows you to select whether you are using the standard leather style ear pads or the smaller ones that they call ice feel. There are buttons to choose between 3 sound modes–Classic, Hi-fi, and STAX, or to enable the low-latency Game Mode.Classic is the default sound you get when connecting these headphones to a Snapdragon Sound compatible device. Hi-Fi eliminates the tuning and provides a more accurate sound similar to what I got using these on my LG Velvet. If you like to equalize music or use another sound modification Hi-Fi mode without the default tuning may produce the best result. STAX creates an auditorium effect by adding a light amount of reverb.The full Edifier app gives you access to customize the double and triple-tap functions of the power key. You can also access the User Manual, set a Shut-down Timer, erase the Bluetooth pairing record stored in the headphones or return the headphones to their original factory settings. There is no equalizer that I could find and no button for checking if the firmware version of the headphones is up to date.In terms of build these headphones are made of plastic which is disappointing but Bose and Sony also use plastic for their premium headphones so that seems to be the norm these days even when you’re spending $300-$400 on a premium pair of headphones. Hinges allow you to fold the headphones so they will fit in the included case. Also included with the headphones are a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging, a 3.5mm headphone cable, and a 6.35mm headphone jack adapter but no USB adapter for phones that don’t have a headphone jack.After 3 weeks of daily use, I still haven’t needed to charge these yet. According to Edifier battery life is 80 hours and a 10 minute charge provides 11 hours of music.The fact that these headphones don’t have active noise canceling isn’t an issue for me but at this price point you can get premium Sony or Bose headphones with ANC which is something to seriously consider even if you do own a Snapdragon Sound compatible device. If you aren’t using a compatible phone these headphones are probably a waste of money.

3 people found this helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars

High-End Headphones That Are Worth the Money

I am a headphone snob. I’ve been using a pair of V-Modas for a few years and love them. But I’ve noticed they’re cutting out a bit, and I was worried they might be slowly dying.I’ve never heard of this brand, but I love trying out new high-end headphones. Like most headphones in this price range, the product comes in a nice, snazzy box, and the materials are carefully packed.I took one look at the instruction manual (the print is tiny, and I don’t see well) and decided to wing it. It was easy to charge and set up without reading the instructions, which is good.I easily paired it to my TV and phone. I could immediately tell the sound was great. Yes, it’s even better than the V-Moda–and they are wonderful. Clear, clean. It works great when listening to TV programs as well as music. I’m also looking forward to using it on phone calls.The headphones are lightweight. I even forget at times that they’re on.It comes with an aux-in cable and an additional set cooling-mesh earpad.VERY happy with these headphones.

2 people found this helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars

So comfortable

These sound great and are very comfortable. They go completely around your ears, so your ears aren’t getting smashed. They come with two types of ear pads, one leather and one cloth. The leather is really soft and feels nice, but they are kind of hot. I wish it was easier to change the ear pads. You have to pry them off with a little tool they include. I thought I was going to damage something the first time I did it.

One person found this helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars

Sonido y duración de la batería excepcionales

La fidelidad del sonido, buenos bajos, las almohadillas extra y la batería, son lo más destacables

The best in class for sound quality; not without it’s fault but easily dismissable from it’s wins.

Note: all opinions are my own and this item was bought with my own money with zero discounts or influence from any external factors.Tl;dr: These are probably the best you’re going to get for their price in terms of raw sound quality, paired with microphones that have no business sounding as good as these do and an 80 hour battery life, but beware they lack most of the “modern” functions of many bluetooth headphones.Summary:The Stax Spirit S3, despite the name carry more similarities to the Audeze Penrose/Mobius and LCD-1s than they do anything remotely related to stax. With that said, it’s a clever marketing stunt to slap a random acclaimed headphone brand on your entirely unrelated but intrisically connected company; good job at capturing attention of audio nerds with that, Edifier.Features/Whats missing:As mentioned above, these carry Audeze DNA, making use of what seems to be the same or similar planar magnetic drivers to the open-back LCD-1’s, albeit with a much less roomy sound and somehow less bass despite any profiles used.Alongside this, we have an 80 hour battery life (wow) which can charge to 10 hours with only 10 minutes and takes about 1 and a half hours to fully charge (I am yet to even need to charge these). Oh, and physical buttons, something I wish we would have kept given 70% of the time touch controls are a pain to use and being an industry standard doesn’t make them any better than buttons, see iPhone missing headphone jacks for reference. The buttons are easy to find, generally very clicky, plasticky covered with rubber, not the best sounding when you depress it as it sounds like a little twang but it’s buttons, what do you expect?Edifier has a barely advertised and uncustomisable application which is used to change the tuning between “Classic”, “Hifi”, and “Stax”; I personally found Classic to be somwhat v shaped harman-esque signature, Hifi to be a little bit more articulated but keeping in line with the harman vibes and Stax to just be very treble oriented and well… Not for me. I stick with Hifi.So what’s missing? ANC, Transparency mode, LDAC, customisable EQBuild: It’s “okay”, alot of people have whined and cried about it not being build excellent but it just feels as “okay” built as a XM4 or the LCD-1’s, not amazing but passable once you acknowledge you should be using it to play music instead of using them as earmuffs (shoutout to the idiots complaining about creaks when they’re missing when you play music).Sound:They sound like planars.. Wait, let me elaborate; these are very accurate, probably even more accurate than the Focal Celestee’s (£999) with good imaging, layering, seperation and as I said, accuracy. They’re not super bassy but they slam enough for me with enough subbass and midbass to make me smile when playing songs such as Kazuo’s “WATCH OUT!”The mids are nice, they’re a good listen for both male and female vocals and place the singer a realistic manner, reverberations in songs such as Brandon’s “Elastic” from his voice and guitar play are almost life-like and supremely accurate, similarly Alina Baraz’s “My Whole Life” sounds beautiful; the voices of these singers are very intimate but placed far enough for you to not feel as if you’re listening to a claustrophobic pair of headphones. If I had to compare I would put them above any closed-backs I have heard in terms of accuracy and placement and the spaciousness, granted they fall flat against even the KSC75 in those respects.Highs:I don’t really know what to say about highs, a lot of what I listen to is mid-centrics however instruments such as cymbals along with female vocalists sound rather pleasant, there is enough decay and control to avoid sibilance especially when listening to songs that can sound rather sibilant on other pairs. JYOCHO’s “Lucky Mother” is a rather busy track with alot of mixing between a flute, vocals and cymbals and all of which sound defined, proper, and smooth which is nice.Conclusion:They’re good, damn good even if you can ignore the lack of features.

13 people found this helpful

Cuando lo que te importa es el sonido

Seré breve en mi resumen. Habiendo probado unos cuantos cascos bluetooth, en este rango de precio (y en alguno superior) estos son los que mejor se escuchan en todos los sentidos. Por 400 euros quizás sean un poco caros, pero si los encuentras en oferta por 300 o menos ni te lo pienses. Sus pros por encima del resto de cascos bluetooth son dos (y medio):- Son planar magnéticos, y se nota, tienen su firma de sonido característica. Mucha separación de instrumentos, un sonido muy limpio, unos graves marcados pero que no saturan y si escuchas música con mucha sibilancia lo vas a notar (no es nada desagradable esto último, simplemente es característico). Por eso y a mi juicio, tienen los mejores drivers que puedas encontrar en unos cascos por este precio.- Su batería dura 80h. Es lo que advierte el fabricante y en mi experiencia, desde que los compré llevaré unas 15-20h de reproducción con el volumen en torno a dos tercios del máximo volumen y la batería está al 73%, echad cálculos, pero es más o menos lo que se anuncia. Así que estos cascos duran y duran.- Sin ponernos demasiado técnicos, y por eso he puesto el matiz de “y medio”. Tienen snapdragon sound. Esto si tienes un móvil compatible del todo (que no es mi caso) parece que es una maravilla, aunque dudo que se note demasiado la diferencia con el codex aptx adaptative funcionando en un móvil normal y corriente. Este último sí es mi caso, mi móvil tiene un procesador snapdragon 8 gen 1, pero no es compatible (por lo visto) con snapdragon sound, por lo que hace uso de aptx hd o apts adaptative, lo cuál no es malo para nada. Yo recomiendo si estáis en este caso ir a las opciones de desarrollador y poner la transmisión en 24 bits y 96 khz, que la soporta sin problemas y sí he notado ligeramente la mejora de calidad al subirlo. Sin embargo, si tenéis un samsung con procesador exynos, un mediatek o un iphone, olvidaos, solo os va a funcionar en sbc, que se siguen escuchando de lujo, pero sí que diría que no tanto como con aptx. Pero bueno, esto es una cosa de codecs bluetooth y si eres un usuario estándar simplemente tienes que entender que en un xiaomi 12 se va a escuchar de locura y en un iphone se va a escuchar muy muy bien, ese sería el matiz. Sus contras, pues bueno, lo son para el que busca ese “algo más” en los cascos. Para mi unos cascos son para escuchar música y todo lo demás me da bastante igual, solo quiero que sean bluetooth por la comodidad, pero el resto de cosas ni me van ni me vienen, dicho esto:- No tienen cancelación de ruido.- Su fabricación es de calidad, pero con mucho plástico- Su aislamiento pasivo es, digamos, poco. El que está a tu lado no escucha demasiado la música porque no dejan de ser cascos cerrados, pero si no tienes la música puesta tú sí que lo escuchas a él. Como digo, no es demasiado problema en cuanto pones la música, pero está ahí.- La app no permite demasiada personalización, solo tres modos (clásico, hi-fi y stax) y recomiendo el último porque es el que más separación de instrumentos consigue, aunque el clásico tiene más base. Si esperabas ecualizar al gusto, olvídate.- No tiene LDAC, así que para los que no tienen un procesador snapdragon, bueno, lo dicho anteriormente, te quedas con el sbc. Como apunte extra y para terminar decir que he tenido anteriormente los sony xm3, los xm4, los shure aonic 50, los bowers and wilkings px7, los dali io6, los beyerdynamic amiron, los hifiman sundara (que son cableados) y estos son, para mi, los que mejor se escuchan y los que más cómodos se me han hecho en general. Estoy muy contento con ellos. Para todo el que busque algo más que un sonido increíble, que tire por otras opciones y para esa gente y como recompensa por llegar hasta aquí, ahorrate los 500 euros o lo que sea que valgan los sony ahora mismo y cómprate o los shure aonic 50 de oferta (170 euros), o los sound core q45 (150 euros) o los 1more sonoflow (80 euros) los he probado todos y se escuchan mejor que los sony mientras te ofrecen más o menos lo mismo a un precio mucho menor.

36 people found this helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars

Build quality & sound

Build quality is plasticy and it feels like it’s easy to break.Sound quality is really clear and give very nice details in sound. Soundstage is wide.It’s on par or probably sounds better than the focal bathys.

5.0 out of 5 stars

Spectacular

Outstanding sound, truly amazing

5.0 out of 5 stars

Absurd battery, good audio, and lightweight.

Audio for both microphone and speakers are crisp and clear. Connection is solid and connects immediately.The mesh pads are confortable but will make a bunch of noise when even slightly moving, so i would recommend just sticking to the leather pads. Sound overall is good with nothing standing out, which is in a way a good thing. So it can be used with several types of media. Sadly it cannot connect to a PS5, so you’ll have to use a wire to connect to the controller, but that is a problem with the PS5 and not the headset.While pricy, this is pretty much the best wireless planar headset available. With an amazing battery life, you can enjoy this for long periods of time without worry.

7 people found this helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars

Reasonable price for high quality headphones with some caveats

At the time I was able to purchase these for $300 and at that price point they seem a good value for the money. The headphones use leather wrap around and on the ear pads. They also come with a second set of “cooling ear pads”ProsPlanar magnetic Bluetooth headphones (not many exist)Very good audio qualityVery good microphone qualityGreat battery life2 sets of easy to change ear padsNice carrying caseWeight is fine for long use.ConsControls are only 3 buttons making it difficult to memorize how long to press each button, how many times to price etc. when you want volume control, track seek, pause etc.Really wish they used a higher quality material for the band and arms. The plastic creaks a lot, it’s audible with the headphones on (not if audio is playing).No LDAC support. The best codec is Qualcomm Aptx HD. Most people probably won’t notice a difference but it’s an important missing feature for those who care. Aptx HD is 24bit/48khz sample rate vs LDAC 32bit/96khz.App is pretty barebones but does what is needed if you want to use it. Not much value added.

8 people found this helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars

Wireless

The Edifier Stax Spirit S3 are a superb set of cans. I own high end models of Focal, Beyerdynamic and Grado and these Edifier Stax are a great addition to my collection. love the Bluetooth features and sound stage. happy with purchase. Eddie J.

One person found this helpful