SIMGOT AUDIO EW300 Universal "Fun-zone" IEM

[Redcarmoose]

I'm right in the middle of the SIMGOT AUDIO DSP EW300 first impressions..........and I just realized they have form-factor reduced the IEM size and weight from stuff like the EA500.....at 10 grams. Then they went and drastically rearranged the DSP unit by splitting-it in two. The TypeC Plug is out-front on its own, sending the signal to the in-DAC chip section! Wild!

People went and told SIMGOT how much they liked the size of the EW200 and SIMGOT went back to the drawing board and created a super EW200, that's in many ways more balanced than the EA500, EA500LM, the EA1000 and has more musical involvement than the EW200! Hopefully first impressions to come this afternoon?

EA500 10 grams
EA500LM 11 grams
EW300 9 grams
EA1000 Fermat 11 grams
EW200 9 grams

Here the microphone button even acts as a pause/continue switch if you have your TypeC DAP inside your pocket.

 

[Redcarmoose]

SIMGOT AUDIO DSP EW300:

First Impressions:
Anyways so I started First Impressions task on the EW300 and EW300 DSP yesterday. Now the funny part is I still only have quick sonic first impressions of the regular EW300. Though now I have photographs of the SIMGOT AUDIO EW300 DSP too. I still haven’t done the photographs of the regular EW300. Just realize the regular (silver) version gets you the IEMs themselves and a standard cable. It’s a long story but I haven’t heard both back to back, due to wanting to keep the regular EW300 box (opening experience) in good condition for photos.

Still I have @o0genesis0o (what a guy) going and comparing the two graphically so I can inform you if they measure the same with an analogue cable.

The EW300 is very well created. This IEM shows a maturity and a listening to the public on the part of SIMGOT AUDIO. They both made an IEM that has been priced close to what they have released in the past, yet have streamlined the fit, made the EW300 1 gram less than the original EA500, and tailored the sound for the masses. What I mean by tuning is you are given two nozzles a pink ring gold one, and a red ring silver one. Both tunes with the DSP EW300 are very careful and precise…….as to not ruffle any feathers out there with too much pinna gain, or even too much bass. What they have done is created an IEM in 2024 that incorporates a single 10mm DD of ceramic like material then added a Planar driver and a PZT driver for treble duties only. What this did in the end was gave an incredible balance. Though to be fair the DSP device is really really good getting plenty loud enough and being able to decode 44.1kHz, 48kHz and 96kHz.

The SIMGOT AUDIO DSP:
Here we are gifted with a device that actually holds three separate creations of the cable, the TypeC USB, the DAC amplifier section and the microphone controller which can stop and start music playing from a TypeC DAP. With a TypeA adapter you can add the cable to a computer or simply use it for a phone TypeC output. The DSP unit is very, very profoundly detailed for a simple DSP device. Meaning I went and played the EW300 with hires files and used OSTs that showcase some of the best sounding DSP bass. The bass from this simple cable was both separated into the stage, offered a clear resolve for a bass tone, and held separation from the rest of the track. Yet upon hooking the EW300 to an audiophile cable and joining it to a DAP like the Sony WM1A I was able to get a broader stage and a higher level of realism and audiophile sound. Still it probably would be expected that you go take the EW300 to a upgraded device and notice improvements. Still the improvements were less than you would guess.

The nozzles:
Both nozzles sound great, yet the gold nozzles offer a warmer and smoother outcome, while there was nothing wrong with the silver nozzles, I probably will use the gold ones more. SIMGOT even says that you can switch the nozzles per genre of music, and while that sounds like sales talk when you first read it, it actually worked in my uses?

Tone and stage.......technicalities:
The tone of the EW300 is really a step forward in the right direction, not trying to really reinvent what they have done before, but to fine-tune it. The crazy part was this IEM earned my respect, it just walked that line of offering great treble details with very little PZT or Planar off-tone. The gold nozzle even adds to subduing any timbre or static like sizzles from the two high-end treble producers. What we are left with is a joy from what BAs have done in the past. I really feel SIMGOT has looked one step further in their choice of drivers here to deliver an incredible truthful and non-fatiquing style of playback, with just enough of the bass sculpturing, just enough of the midrange and a fancy detailed treble which produces imaging into the stage in a nice way. Sure the stage is bigger from a DAP, sure the stage is not quite as big with the DSP, only there is also a special balance that the DSP does that does not sound fake or processed in any way.

The DSP compared to others:
Comparable to all the strange or altering DSP units out this year, this is the most natural and musically involving, I feel. Really this is a step forward for SIMGOT to where they didn't reinvent the wheel, but continue to humbly listen to the community and dial their product in one more level. The EW300 reaches a marvelous level of both sound design and maturity, despite the size and despite the confusion of three releases at once, I probably like the finish on the DSP model the best and can see myself using the DSP cable with phone use out and about. For an audiophile anyway, this is a rewarding phone set-up, then getting home......there is enough progress with desktop or full-fledged DAP to be satisfied there too.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Spoiler: Going back to the very first EW300 listen on day one

SIMGOT EW300 and EW300 DSP
Upon reading Head-Fi you can’t help but find SIMGOT AUDIO as a presence. Since March of 2023 SIMGOT AUDIO has gained marketing traction…….there is no denying that. Yet SIMGOT as a manufacturing brand has been around for a long time. What changed? Well to start with the EA500 made its debut. Such an IEM gained wide-spread recognition and acceptance around here, and really everywhere for that matter. Yep, the EA500 is insanely popular and still arrives as a force to reckon with. Why? The EA500 somehow introduced tuning nozzles to the community. Sure, for $79.00 the EA500 sounded great, but in a stroke of genius SIMGOT went ahead and offered a way (with the nozzles) for the EA500 to be heard differently by each user. But more than that the EA500 offered-up a sound that was both contrasty and vivid, deep bass and a flamboyant midrange and treble. This “big” sound took the community by storm, along with the fact that SIMGOT went and mailed a whole bunch of sets out to reviewers, to pretty much guarantee market saturation. You see, if a product is good there is no better way to show such facts of life as to make sure the product gets in the hands of people who want to talk about it. And sure, while being a huge hit for SIMGOT the EA500 was not perfect. Where I still hear slight issues with the EA500 for some may be the boost from 1.5kHz to 8kHz.

Now this lead-in to the review is almost conceptual and not meant to be totally factual, yet it will be holding tuning ideas and results. Meaning I heard the EA500 yesterday, and remember what I thought about it……still I haven’t yet compared the EW300 to EA500 in listening yet. But to try and talk about these tuning ideas are a double-edged sword in that most manufacturers go ahead and add treble energy to provide clarity and focus to the listener with most genres of music and with most sources. The opposite of this would be a boring tune, holding less clarity and brilliance. Of course this becomes subjective as there is never a bonafide tune to make everyone and everyone's ears happy. With that said obviously there is more to this tuning equation, but to simplify matters, besides the upper midrange peaks and treble peaks there is the question of balance held. What this means is the over-all signature is constantly reflecting off itself to understand and provide a balance or lack of balance. This idea of balance supersedes subjective hearing ideas to a point, and goes to either emphasis or de-emphasis individual treble/mids or bass tuning ideas. Meaning more bass seems to point to a de-emphasis treble, or a hot midrange. And remember often we can align a signature closer to our desired response by folding in a cable or different source playback personality. Yet, beyond the balance there is also realization of instrument generation and vocal generation which transcend this balance to a point. Meaning as listeners often we reach contentment in listening due to a style of reality in playback that is due simply to the IEM drawing a better picture. Yep. So to imagine how this works…….let's imagine IEM playback that would be normally too thin. Inside this thinness though is the realization of realistic sounding vocals and instruments. It is slightly on the airy side of the street, though this response goes and makes the subdued bass seem even more vibrant. To be sure, we are experiencing a different than normal style of playback, but there is a new found balance of sorts, one that we can find thrilling and enjoyable due to our music still sounding real, correct and even, though it is definitely on the more airy side of acceptance. Some would say this feature of playback can be found just by looking at graphs, yet graphs don’t show reverberations or timbre, stage or at times the true balance exhibited by an IEM tune.

It is because of the above ideas that I have never exhibited a preferred tuning profile, I don’t have one. I mean sure, I do have likes, but I personally believe a graphed and publicized “tune curve” is an explanation of a reviewer's naïveté, that or a simple sham, to gain followers...........readers and viewers. I say this because on the surface it does make sense, yet if you follow reviewers' collaboration results they widely vary from IEM to IEM. Part of this occurs due to the philosophy that each driver, each IEM and each example of IEM replay can be looked at as individual.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance_theory

Honestly the above Wikipedia is a distraction from this write-up, yet I think we can all agree each style of driver inside an IEM emits an unchangeable tone indicative of its make and model. A personal driver individual character tone creation style, while blended into other aspects of the frequency response though crossovers or build construction, such dynamics can be pushed or pulled. But……….but what about nozzles? Well that’s the point of these included concepts……..that many a Head-Fi member has gone and spent an afternoon or two trying to personalize the experience. Now the nozzles in use at times (as example the EA500) can be taken further than expected, with the addition of extra filter material not even provided by the manufacturer, or provided as a tuning-kit months later (by SIMGOT) after the IEM was produced.

Technicalities v actual (end) tune:
You see really it is a combination of both to arrive at a desired place of contentment. Nothing is set in stone, as listeners at times we can even wonder from a single response tone. Yet probably it is how the individual IEM technicalities play out that (may) mean more as a desired IEM character? Meaning I care maybe more about the realization of factual vocal and instrument generation at hand. Sure these two values cross over in the center of this concept as how can a tone be replayed realistically by the reverberations, timbre……and stage, if the actual tone is off…..too bright, too dark. It can’t. But there is a leeway at hand to where we can accept many ideas as to tone, again in relation to tonal balance.

First impressions:
Here we could say SIMGOT have built upon their past. Arriving at a profound middle ground in tuning….holding just enough treble spice as well as providing enough bass slam to take the whole signature home. As such these tonal ideas would mean very little if it wasn’t for the correct technicalities at hand.

I found my first SIMGOT in early November of 2022. I reviewed the SIMGOT AUDIO EM2R Roltion. At $109.99 this 1DD 1 Knowles BA was a little of a disappointment gaining only 3 stars here at Redcarmoose Labs. As such I continued with better success from the brand. Really this IEM was the quietness-before-the-storm!

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/simgot-em2r-roltion.26084/reviews#review-29526 November 7th, 2022
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/simgot-ea500.26361/reviews?page=2#review-30453 March 26, 2023
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/simgot-ew100p-ew100.26454/reviews#review-30887 May 28th, 2023
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/simgot-ew200.26518/reviews?page=2#review-31446 August 8th, 2023
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/simgot-em6-l.26639/reviews?page=2#review-31512 August 17th, 2023
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/simgot-ew100-dsp-universal-iem.26676/reviews#review-31557 August 24th, 2023
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/si...ear-monitor.26790/reviews?page=3#review-32122November 5th, 2023
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/simgot-lc7-iem-cable.26954/reviews#review-32760 January 20th, 2024
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/simgot-dew4x.26983/reviews#review-32799 January 25th, 2024
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/simgot-ea500-lm.26966/reviews?page=2#review-32939 February 8th, 2024
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/si...lanar-1-pzt.27255/reviews?page=2#review-34438June 27th, 2024
https://www.linsoul.com/products/simgot-ew300

So I have heard my share of SIMGOTs, maybe over my share. And sure in my review I will talk about individual driver character, seemingly taking character traits to push a signature response personality into focus. But as of now on first listen I’m primarily focusing in-on over-all balance and tone. And I have to say this is very very middle of the road as far as tonality goes. And that is not boring in any way middle of the road, but the DD a 10mm ceramic like driver is responsible for both lows and vocals, with the 2 PZT and Planar drivers only concentrating on highs. Remember early on in this write-up where I talked about balance, yet on the airy side. Well this tone is not that, now keep in mind I haven’t tried any other nozzle that they came with out of the box, nor tried the DSP model. Yet it is safe to say at this point that we have a surprising winner here of an IEM, and maybe most importantly the most advanced tune SIMGOT has pulled out of their proverbial hat? As such while the stage is not the very biggest (from memory) in the SIMGOT line, it is populated with convincing images of very good renditions of musical truth. To where sure we have some extra bass, but the midrange and upper midrange are blossoming (out) to life, and holding the most convenient and accessible tone and creation!

 

[Redcarmoose]

Here we can see the EW300 DSP and regular cable EW300 shells measure the exact same from an analog cable.

 

[Redcarmoose]

New review out!
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/simgot-ew300.27470/reviews#review-35305