Intro
If you’ve been following the IEM world for the last year or so, there’s no way you haven’t heard of Simgot. They’ve released a handful of IEMs that have made it to “full-hype-mode” – a milestone that most IEM companies would kill to have happen to them over and over in the same year. Better yet for the brand, the Simgot fanboys came out of nowhere and are incredibly vocal in their admiration.
Then the EA500 got an upgrade to the EA500LM (lithium-magnesium) and practically broke the internet. The hype came so fast and hard…I can’t remember an IEM that was talked about like this. It was incredible hype.
In typical McCullough Audio fashion, life got busy, and I was forced to wait to write this review until well after the hype died down. This isn’t a bad thing though, as I don’t want excitement to influence my reviews – I’m usually a little late to review for this purpose. This time was just a lot later than usual.
With such a talked-about IEM, the reviews were all over the place. Some said the EA500LM was a complete waste of money, and others claimed it was a gift directly from god and that it will solve world peace. All joking about world peace aside, the reviews were at extreme odds with each other.
So which is it? Is the EA500LM a giant turd or a shining diamond? This uninfluenced review will tell all, so keep reading.
Tech Specs
Driver Configuration: 10mm 2nd Generation Of Dual-Magnet Lithium-Magnesium Dynamic Driver
Sensitivity: 123db/v@1kHz
Impedance: 21Ω
Frequency Response: 20 – 20 kHz
Connector: .078mm 2 pin
Price: $89.99
What’s in the Box?
Following the theme of the Kiwi Ears Melody, the accessories are pretty spartan. Like the Melody, it seems that Simgot opted for less accessories and saved the money for the incredible driver and IEM build quality.
The EA500LM comes with a generic carrying case that’s perfectly adequate, but nothing special at the same time. It also has one set of eartips (SML) that look like typical generic chi-fi tips, but are actually pretty nice. The core of the tips is more solid than most and the outside of the tips are softer and more flexible than most. Again, they’re not anything super special but they’re not super generic either, despite looking like it.
It comes with a decent cable, albeit a little on the thin side, making it feel cheaper than it probably is. Last, the EA500LM comes with 3 sets of tuning nozzles and some rubber gaskets for them. The silver and red and the silver and black nozzles aren’t worth reviewing because they’re far too bright or similar to the gold and red nozzle. The gold and red nozzle is what this review is based on.
The build of the IEMs themselves are absolutely stunning. The shells are made of highly polished metal. They are solid in every sense of the word and have some heft to them. Weighing in at 11 grams, they’re dense, but that only adds to the sense of build quality. Really, they’re built better than some high-end flagship models that are out there. It’s worth holding these in your hand to feel the craftsmanship. Of course, with any high polished metal thing, they are fingerprint magnets – there’s no getting around that. But who cares, once they go in your ears, you can’t see them!
Fit, Comfort, & Isolation
While the EA500LM are dense-boys, they are very comfortable in my ears. The fit is a bit on the shallow side, so sizing up the eartips really helped with stability and comfort. They’re on the small to medium size so they should fit most ears pretty well. Isolation is average for a vented dynamic driver IEM, so they’re not super “block out the world” but also don’t let in all outside sound.
Sound
Overall
First and foremost, tip rolling is a must. The sound of the EA500LM is incredibly susceptible to eartips and how they fit in your ears. I suspect this aspect contributed to the wide range of reviews.
In my experience, with the wrong eartips, the EA500LM can sound shrill, sharp, and lack all bass, even though they technically fit and seal well. On the other end, I also experience decent sounding tuning, but terrible detail retrieval, soundstage, and general muddiness throughout the frequency range. I settled on the Spinfit Omni eartips as they provided the best sounding result as well as the best range of technicalities. More on all of that later though.
Within the first few minutes of listening to the EA500LM, I knew this driver was something special. It’s a top-tier dynamic driver stuffed in there with great extension on both ends and excellent resolution, although a little enhanced from the treble tuning. The treble never drops off and just keeps going and going and going, all the way to the limits of hearing. This extension combined with the cohesiveness that only single dynamic driver IEMs give, really makes the EA500LM special.
The EA500LMs are tuned very much like most of the other Simgots out there of the era. It’s a wide U-shaped signature that’s fun to listen to. It’s mostly balanced, with a hint of extra mid and sub bass, and a healthy scoop of upper mids and treble. It really is a fun listening experience, but you’ll never fully escape the treble.
Bass
The bass. Wow…the bass.
The EA500LM has a healthy amount of sub bass, natural-style mid bass, and glides effortlessly into the lower mid range. Because of the extra spiciness in the upper mids and treble, the sub bass never feels like too much.
The mid bass, while not “tucked-in” like Harmann-style tuning can be, isn’t overemphasized either. It’s smooth and easy to listen to, while having some impact and making instruments like bass guitars and kick drums sound super natural with a hint of that live performance feeling. While riding this fine-line, some tracks felt uber-natural and others felt a hair on the thin side – it really comes down to the production of the music.
“But wait,” I hear you saying, “you started this section off with some pretty evocative language. What you’ve said doesn’t seem to fall in line with that!”
To that, I say, hold your horses, the best part about the bass is to come!
So here it is: the quality of the bass is absolutely superb. It has speed, natural decay, great texture, beautiful tonality, and fantastic detail retrieval. The EA500LM’s bass reminds me of planar bass but without the unnatural decay. This is the first glimpse that the driver is unbelievably good. I could wax poetic about the bass here all day long, but just trust me, it is magnificent.
Mids
The lower midrange is slightly scooped out, by only a couple of decibels, similar to most Harmann-style tunings. This affects the lower midrange by allowing the bass to influence itself here, creating a slightly warm-style midrange. There is no bleeding or bloat in the bass, it just helps create some contrast and warm up this area a little bit.
The upper midrange has fairly unique tuning, seemingly a signature of Simgot IEMs. The pinna gain is perfectly smooth and natural like most greatly tuned IEMs, but at the upper end of things, it is boosted by 3-5db and continues this trend into the lower treble. This makes things in this area a little aggressive while adding a sense of detail and resolution. The upper midrange isn’t for the faint of heart and if you’re sensitive to sibilance or instruments in this region, you’ve been warned.
Cymbals in this area can sound a bit thin, splashy, and intense, depending on the recording. While musical vocals didn’t seem to have much of an issue here for me, watching videos and listening to podcasts with the EA500LM can make voices sound hollow, thin, and have a strange timbre.
Treble
The combination of the emphasized lower treble and great extension all the way to 20kHz makes the EA500LM sound more intense than you’d expect, leading to some off-timbre and un-naturalness overall. This IEM is definitely bright and there is no way around it. However, this extra intensity and extension here help give the EA500LM a crazy sense of detail retrieval and super airiness that some IEMs well above this price range can’t even come close to achieving. Again, this driver really is really spectacular.
Technicalities
As alluded to in the treble section, the upper mids and treble can be a little sharp and intense, but the trade-off is added perceived resolution. This helps push the already great driver into amazing-land in terms of resolution, especially for a single dynamic driver IEM. Again, compared to a planar driver, the EA500LM comes darn close in terms of resolution without the weird planar speed. It’s super impressive.
With the right eartips, imaging and instrument separation is unbelievable and darn near holographic – and this is a single dynamic driver doing this! To my ears, the stage is much wider than tall, but it also has some good depth to it as well.
For a single dynamic driver, the technicalities are off-the-charts good.
Conclusion
While the Simgot EA500LM definitely has some trade-offs, overall it’s quite impressive and a great technical exercise of an incredible driver in an IEM that costs less than $100. While the tuning of the midrange and treble isn’t to my preference, I can continue to appreciate the EA500LM for what it is – something special. This might be exactly what some are looking for though, and for them it’s an absolute homerun. The ratio of price and performance are astounding. If some extra spicy treble is in your wheelhouse, I couldn’t recommend the EA500LM enough. If not, EQ down that upper midrange and lower treble and you still have yourself a banger.