Simgot EA500LM is might worth the hype, but not with its stock tips.

PROS

• Imaging
• Fast Driver (Resolution)
• Good Amount of Slam in Bass
• Easy Drivability
• Microdetails and Microcontrast

CONS

• Metallic Treble
• Not optimal timber
• Unrefined lower treble
• Tip Dependency
• Too fast bass decay

I bought Simgot EA500LM with my own money, so all thoughts and opinions are mine and no one influenced me to write anything good or bad about the product.

Disclaimer

•  This IEM is reviewed with no-foam nozzles since they sounded the best to me.
• This IEM is reviewed with Flat Sources. So expect no colouration.

Tip Rolling

Before beginning the review, I must warn you about the tip sensitivity of Simgot EA500LM. This IEM is extremely sensitive to tips and wrong tips might break its tuning for you. This is one of the most tip-sensitive IEMs I encountered, along with Tripowin Olina.

Stock: With stock tips, the treble sounds unrefined. The bass and mids are well balanced but the range above 4khz gets very bumpy and uneven. 

Final E: With final E the bass gets a boost and the the mids take a veil turn. This is my least favorite tips to use with the set. The treble gets refined but everything else falls apart. Resolution(Perception of micro details reduced a lot ).

Spring Tips: Treble gets uneven but other things are OK with this tip.

Divinus Velvet: This tip made the LM a lot better. The Treble got fixed and micro details perception wasn’t reduced. The balance between the sub-bass and mid-bass stayed the same. The mids became a lot better.

Source Rolling

Simgot EA500LM is very transparent towards the source too. It will adapt the nature of your source to a great extent so use your sources to your taste. 

With Aful Snowy Night it becomes warm and mid-focused losing all the treble sparkles. With M1P DAP it becomes liquid smooth with richness end to end. Moondrop Dawn Pro, makes it as true to itself as it can. 

So choose your sources very wisely. It does get more thump & more authority with more power, but you won’t need anything over 4vrms.

Hype Talk

Now before going any further let’s discuss the hype it is getting and does it is worth the hype that it is getting. In one word, no. It won’t throw out every IEM under $200. Not technically and surely not tonally. 

There is a lot of debate about Simgot EA500LM ‘s comparison with EM6L and EA1000 (check out the reviews of these two). To my finding, both of them sounded better to me than Simgot EA500LM. EM6L is overall a better set for me and EA1000 without its upper treble harshness is a lot better sounding IEM too. 

But is it a bad IEM under $100? Absolutely not. Simgot EA500LM ‘s technical ability this IEM provides is simply excellent.

Now, after setting up the ground for the review, let’s start dissecting its timber before analyzing the frequency response.

Timber

I am not a fan of its timber. Nor that it provides unforgiving timber for the price it occupies, but it could’ve been better for sure.

Drums

They sound fine. The low-end and the pinna accept the drum hits very well. Snare drums can project the attack of the mid-bass of this IEM properly. Although cymbals sound a bit too much it paired with a flat source. It helps to pronounce the trailing edges though.

Violin

They sound very average too. The metallic nature of the driver gives it an essence of inorganic feel. The low end is elevated too. The higher registers sound good though, full of air and details.

Guitars

They sound above average. Its straight-up not made for something like Classical Guitars. But acoustic guitar sounds very fun. Full of details, bite and crunchiness to offer. Electric Guitars might get a little bit hot with this IEM, they retain a lot of details and are transient but you might have to lower the volume to enjoy them for a long period.

Wind Instruments

They sound full of air and speedy. Prolonged listening is still not possible with them. But they are enjoyable none the less.

The cello/Bass

They sound a bit exaggerated but they also project their authority on the bass shelf. They don’t sound either lifelike or organic. Furthermore, they are a hell of a lot more enjoyable though, if the music fits well.

The vocals

The worst part of the IEM is the vocals. With the aforementioned divinus velvet, they are somewhat palatable but with its stock tips, it could sound veiled in some songs. Not only that sometimes it can feel a bit too metallic to fully enjoy the textural information of the vocalist.

So one thing you might’ve noticed is that instruments sound metallic to me, and that is the biggest concern I have for this IEM. This is not the IEM I would recommend if you are chasing absolute realism through your gears.

Tonality

This is a V-shaped IEM. The midbass is more pronounced than the subbass. Not that the subbass is less in any way or form. The bass is very full and the attack is very fast too. What bothers me is the decay, it’s too fast to give the sound a natural feel. 

The mids are recessed and lack warmth. Although it is full of textures. The female vocals are very prominent contrary to the male. 

The lower treble is forward to a point that some might feel that it is sibilant (I am not treble sensitive). The upper treble is beautiful and airy. Trailing edges are well preserved and airy with a lot of details.

So keeping the timber in mind let’s discuss the different genres of music and how it can play them.

Genre Compatibility

Hip-Hop

This IEM is exceptional for this genre under $100. The bass feels so good. Subbass it present to give songs a platform throughout. Midbass slams hard and it makes sure that you feel every drop and every beat. The treble is full of details which effortlessly pronounce micro details revealing the nuances of the track.

I whole heartedly recommend this IEM to a Hip-Hop fan and it could save them hundreds of dollars. It is that good.

Modern Pop

This IEM is very good in this genre too. The bass is excellent and matches the mastering of newer pop songs. (Since modern pop songs are mastered keeping consumer-centric earphones and headphones in mind, which are typically bass-boosted). The mids are spot on and the treble is sparkly enough. 

If you listen to a lot of Pop/Modern Songs I can recommend this IEM blindly too.

Rock

For rock, this IEM is above average. The bass might get a bit too much here and there as well as the treble, but if you keep the volume in control this can play rock music very well. The imaging capabilities of this IEM make me enjoy the genre even more. With little nuances to micro-details, everything will sound well preserved.

I won’t recommend this IEM if you only listen to Rock. But if you’re like me who covers 30-35% of listening sessions with just rock music this IEM will work out for you.

Blues

They are very average for blues. Since they don’t project the organic nature of the instruments and atmosphere. The treble is great to produce fast attack and bite but it fails to provide the warmth of analogue at the same time.

Orchestra/Western Classical

The technical abilities of this IEM make this genre a joy to listen to but at the same time, the difficulties while producing timber kept me from having a great time. The details are excellent and the imaging is phenomenal for even 2X of it’s price tag.

Technicalities

Soundstage

The space is large enough for an IEM at any price point. And the most important thing about the sound stage is you can hear the blackness between the instruments. Due to its very high detail retrieval, it can produce a sound stage with such blank spaces. It is nowhere intimate, and the shape of the sound stage is round enough and covers the head on both axis almost equally.

Imaging

The imaging of this IEM is very good. Even expectations at twice/thrice it’s price point. You can pinpoint instruments with precision. The pan and swap of the instruments are borderline mind-blowing. Even up to the point that it can compete with IE600 for its positional cues.

Details & Resolution

The resolution of this Simgot EA500LM is above average as well as detail retrieval. It surpasses IEMs like Olina/IE200 and can compete with something like Performer 5. Especially details of this IEM are one of the wow factors of the IEM.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, Simgot EA500LM is great IEM if you are a newcomer to this hobby and trying to not sacrifice anything over another aspects of the audio. I think this IEM covers the newer genres of music more than the music created before 1990. 

But if you’re a seasoned audiophile trying to buy a budget IEM for daily use, I would like to recommend you look at other options. The tuning is not really up to the mark as well as the timber of the instruments.  

Ratings

Overall Rating – 5.72/10

Tonality = B-

Technicality = B+/A-

Non-Affiliated Purchase Link

ConceptKart – https://conceptkart.com/products/simgot-ea500-lm-iem

ACCESSORIES

The Box Consists of

1. IEM
2. Very average 3 sets of Ear tips
3. Above Average Quality Cable
4. Three Sets of Tuning Nozzle (No Foam, Half Foam, Full Foam)
5. Rubber Gaskets

The Wire

The wire is pretty solid

• Pretty good in-hand feeling
• The construction is nice
• Doesn’t have memory too much
• Microphonics are not present
• Thick enough