This is the most difficult thing I’ve tried to review so far...
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Disclaimer
This review sample was provided to me at no expense by Simgot Audio in exchange for my honest opinion.
Build, Design & Ergonomics
The quality of the build and finish would be spectacular at almost any price point for an IEM.
The IEMs themselves are almost fully metal and on the heavier end of the scale. Each unit is engraved with the word ‘fermat’, and either the letter L or R, and yes, these letters are engraved, I checked.
The faceplate is coated in glass, which is as you’d expect as eye-catching as it is difficult to keep perfectly clean.
Provided are 3 different types of exchangeable nozzles which I think are machined extremely well. They are very easily screwed-on or off and difficult to over-tighten with the provided silicone o-rings: more on the differences between the nozzles later.
The silver cable is an improvement over the lower end models. The bulk of the twisted part of the cable is highly tangle resistant, however after the Y-split, I found that the two cables were quite prone to twisting and tangling, although not particularly more than average.
The cable is also finished with what appears to be a shiny metallic ribbon. I’ll leave the final decision of taste to the individual, but I can honestly say that the whole product, in all it’s gaudiness, does have a significant wow-effect like a piece of shiny jewellery that is accentuated by it’s carry-case that also has the appearance of a small jewellery box.
The case appears to be identical to the one provided with the EA2000, so it has three holders for the exchangeable plugs that are not present in this model. I don’t have a problem with this personally as they are sibling products.
Provided are also two identical sets of silicone tips and a velcro cable tie.
Each IEM houses a single 10mm dynamic driver with a vapour-deposition coating of purple gold. Purple gold is a gold alloy with a ratio of 79% gold and 21% aluminium and this is as far as I know the first instance of it being used as a driver coating. In my experience, gold vapour deposition coated drivers have been involved in some of Ultrasones better sounding headphones (yes I do realise that is an oxymoron for some of you), and since purple gold is lighter than gold, I had some biases or expectations going into this.
Paired with each driver is a passive radiator. I didn’t find any documentation in the box or online about the size of the passive radiator, but looking at the CAD pics online and measuring the vent size, it appears to be 5mm.
I found that these IEMs fit better than the EM6L and fit my ears better than average, but I also found the stock tips useless for my ears. In the end I settled with some tips that I believe are from Linsoul, however I don’t recall the exact model.
Other than that, the wearing comfort was above average despite the added weight.
The Sound
The tuning of the EA1000 from an engineering point of view was something I was very excited to experience. The concept of passive radiators in a listening device is not a new concept. They have been used in loudspeakers at least starting in the 1960’s, let me know if you know any earlier models, and in headphones the most famous example is the 1975 AKG K240 Sextett, with it’s 6 passive radiators. Now I get to hear it in it’s miniaturised form.
The acoustic effect to my ears presents music quite differently to other more traditional IEMs.
Compared directly with my JVC HA-FW1800, the JVC gives that more traditional, direct, accurate, in-your-head IEM sound.
The EA1000 has a sort of forced holographic quality to the sound, especially horizontally.
There are elements of music that appear to be spaced very differently. I think the stereo image might be a little broken or diffused.
This becomes very apparent when playing 3D video games, which actually was a very jarring experience, with most sounds appearing to be coming beside me or from behind, even when they were happening ‘in front’ of me in 3D space.
For normal stereo music however, this IEM does a very tasteful job of taking the stereo mix and spacing it out in an almost ethereal way.
It’s not a purist sound or technically accurate, but it is mostly very enjoyable, and in my opinion has succeeded in doing something unique in trying to take the listener out of that closed headspace and into something bigger.
Red = Red O-Rings Grey = Black O-Rings Orange = Copper Filter
Regarding the purple gold vapour deposition coating, I can’t tell if it’s changing the sound. We do know that this technique has also been used in headphones since the 1980’s when the biggest Japanese brands fought to put the most exotic material coatings on their drivers, including sapphire, ruby and diamond, to increase the rigidity thereby reducing distortions in the driver surface.
In any case, every time you change nozzles on this IEM, you may catch a glimpse of the alluring purple gold coating, which is at the very least something to smile about.
Moving away from the abstract, I never felt wanting for resolution or transient response. Technically the drivers are doing an awesome job of digging out detail in recordings and even have higher than average separation, which they absolutely should have at this price point.
Timbre and tone is definitely on the brighter side, with vocals being pushed quite far forward due to the elevated area around 5 and 6KHz.
My ears hate ear-canal gain, so pulling this area back around 5dB with EQ brings these back into a ‘normal’ tuning, after which timbre is excellent. I’ve always been a big fan of single dynamic driver IEMs which often offer a far more homogeneous sound compared to mixed transducer IEMs or headphones.
Bass is still just a hairs width into bloomy territory and treble is also a margins width into the splashy zone, so it’s not perfect, but neither do I believe that was the goal of this IEM to begin with.
Passive isolation is the only part of this IEM that I would consider a weak point, as it is average at best.
Now onto the interchangeable nozzles: they do two things.
Firstly they reach three unique acoustic targets. That’s very simple to understand, with the biggest changes occurring between 2-3KHz and 5-6KHz.
Secondly, the way these nozzles do this is with the use of physical acoustic filters, or lack thereof, which brings me onto an important tangent.
• The black o-ring filters use foam to tune the sound.
• The red o-ring filters are fully open nozzles without any acoustic filter.
• The copper coloured nozzles appear to use a thin piece of fabric with a hole in the middle.
The most important difference for me personally was between the red and copper, and the black.
The black nozzles, filled with their foam, totally alter the presentation of the IEM, going from that uniquely crafted holographic space, to the ordinary in-your-head, boring, traditional IEM presentation.
The ‘emptier’ copper and red nozzles both preserved the unique sense of space and staging that makes these IEMs so different.
I would go as far as saying that the black nozzles ruin the sound.
Of course on paper, it doesn’t appear that way, but the squiggly lines never tell the whole story.
In the end I settled on the copper nozzles with their fabric donuts.
These preserved the holographic aspect of the sound and at least to my ears, provided a bit more bass texture, while taming some aggressiveness in the treble.
In the end I found that tuning the IEM by EQ was far more productive, however it was also not without it’s limits.
Comparing the EA1000 again with the JVC HA-FW1800, which follows a very similar tuning philosophy, I found that that the EA1000 does not take kindly to a bass boost.
To my ears, both IEMs suffer from a slight lack of sub-bass slam.
The JVC takes EQ like an absolute champ, blasting out relatively clean, thunderous bass well into the excess.
The EA1000 unfortunately gets quickly bloated and instead of churning out a deep slam you get thick mud.
But let me be clear; the stock bass tuning, texture and presentation is already almost perfect. I think most people would only be concerned with EQ’ing the upper midrange and maybe the treble tuning.
Conclusions
Build quality – check.
Ergonomics – check.
Objective sound qualities – check.
Objective tuning – mostly check.
Subjective sound presentation – this is where I draw the line on giving a full recommendation.
There will surely be people who do not like this, because it is deviating from the objective truth.
I can only give full recommendations on products that I believe have the highest chance of pleasing the most ears from a subjective and objective perspective.
So while I think the acoustic presentation of these is really special and truly enjoyable in the way it makes music more alive and even euphoric, particularly in it’s presentation of vocals and upper mids, I think depending on the type of music recording or other tasks it may be given like video games or TV, there may be people who actually become dizzy from it.
Even I found that with some specific electronic music tracks, because I couldn’t quite place the stereo-image in front of me, my brain found dissonance between reality and expectations and I almost got something close to motion sickness, which was very quickly remedied with a different piece of music.
I also might be an outlier, since I also easily get VR-sickness after 5 minutes of gaming but it might be something to look out for.
Otherwise, I’ve been seriously enjoying using these over the past few weeks and they get a solid recommendation as a IEM that is bravely doing something really quite different and fun, in style.
Bass:
The EA1000 has average bass that allows the hits of a drum to be decently dynamic and impactful but remains snappy and fast in terms of decay. I could see that Simgot attempted to go for an engaging, but still neutral level of bass for the iem. However, I feel that more subbass and a more lengthy decay would benefit the tuning a bit more to accommodate the more mid forward and bright tuning.
Midrange:
Simgot’s signature sound is a harman-like sound with some changes in the lower midrange, likely designed to even out the brightness of Harman IE. The Harman IE target is often considered a benchmark, but I find it can make vocals sound thin. This adjustment partially addresses many listeners’ complaints by alleviating the ‘thin’ vocals.
However, the brightness of the mid and upper treble continues to be a significant issue for people who prefer a more natural listening experience. While it surprisingly does not introduce any sibilance to ‘s’ and ‘t’ sounds in the voice, I would urge listening to this set before buying as it can be a potential deal breaker if you are particularly sensitive to raised mid and upper treble
Treble:
Here the EA1000 runs into some issues. The treble is very bright and can lead to some fatigue when listening to instruments such as electric guitar or hi hats. This is an absolute dealbreaker for me as it restricts my listening times, with the issue seemingly getting worse even if I lower the listening volume.
I have tried various nozzles and eartips provided in the box, however none alleviated the issue to an extent that is comfortable for me.
Technicalities:
The Simgot EA1000 offers a good soundstage for a DD driver with notable height and depth. The elevated treble region definitely gives a sense of elevated detail and accurate imaging. Instrumental separation and imaging is quite good for a single DD and sounds quite holographic. However, I did notice that the iem sounds almost echo-ey, which negatively impacted my experience with the bass slam and dynamics.
The timbre is completely off, I couldn't get any enjoyable sessions out of my piano playlist or any instrumentals. I suspect its due to the tuning.
The detail however is quite decent if you're into the type of iem that forces out detail with treble, its mostly non-sibilant which is another plus.
Conclusion:
For those who enjoy an exciting tuning that delivers forward, intoxicating female vocals and without sibilance alongside punchy tactile bass, the Simgot EA1000 would be a good fit at this price point. However, if you have issues with brightness and want a more full sound, I'd look elsewhere.
Pros: - Still the same Simgot house sound
- Not as thin as as other models.
Cons: - Average in technical performent
If you're interested in graph comparison, here's the link
+ i'm a normal asian dude with some music producing background
+ i like clean balanced sound signature with focus on sub bass and lower treble, especially looking for a good dynamism and harmonic playthrough, i like vocal, not necessary mid dominant, can consider myself as treblehead
+ 60-68db listening session
+ Avarage score 4/10 (Quarks/ 7hz Zero) Middle score 6/10 (Tanchjim Kara)
+ Bias score is i like it or not, doesn't sum on overall score
+ Same value systems like crinacle
- Bass (6/10): Well rounded bass, enjoyable, definitely a step up from EA500 however, lacking excitement and that subwoofer kind of bass from EA500 (EA500 bass isn't good either, they just have different feeling, depends on what you like) - Mid (7/10): still that goodness of Simgot house sound, both tune and detail is just about right - Vocal (5,3/10): Vocal sound more foward and correct versus EA500, still sound average, somehow. - Treble (6/10): While sibilance issue (that i have with EA500) is fixed, it sound less airy and lack shimmering when compare the two, still gonna give an edge to EA1000 since it's tuned more mature. - Detail (5,3/10): Macro detail (6/10), Micro detail (4,5/10) - Soundstage (4/10): Average - Imaging (5/10): slightly better than just stereo.
Bias (7/10): Balanced Overall: 5,5/10
Value: (niche) Thank you to Simgot for providing this touring unit for Vietnam
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