The sound
Contents
We have to say: the Simgot in-ears are comfortable. The medium tips fit the ear just fine, and they’re light enough to stay snug. The fit is certainly not bad either. In short: the first impression is good.
ESS dacje… nah…
What strikes us is that the included ESS dacje is noisy. On the phone more than on the laptop, but it is audible. That doesn’t work well with reviewin these in-ears, of course. We quickly attached the Dragonfly RED to the phone and PCs. That dac is very quiet and can drive this set of in-ears just fine.
When we then let some fine test tracks pass by, it is striking that these in-ears in themselves do not paint a bad picture. There is more than enough detail to listen fairly deeply into the music. The mids comes through the drivers nicely and rhythmically. The bass is a little less powerful and full to fully balance with the mids. We also notice a slight roll-off in our measurements. However, we prefer this to those pumped-up basses that completely drown out the middle. That really destroys music.
This is more a little bit of taste and balance that brings a little more “glow” to the midrange. That tends to be more pleasant when you want to listen for longer. For example, in The Doomed by A Perfect Circle, the bass kick is certainly there, but there we miss what is underneath: the subbass in the kick. The real kick. A decent high-end over-ear can often do that better than this in-ear. However, we must be realistic: this pair costs around 200 euros. It is no HD800 or IE900 from Sennheiser.
If we then go to the treble area, we certainly hear air and detail, but again we miss some top end, air and a bit of texture. It seems as if this Simgot contains a driver that shows its glory in the mids, but really cannot reproduce a fullrange spectrum without some roll-off in the bass and treble. And that makes sense with one driver. With normal speakers we hear the same with broadband – single unit – speakers: there is a compromise. This is also the case here, although it is less clearly audible than with ordinary speakers: there the roll-off is much more audible. However, this is also logically explainable: the driver is larger and an in-ear works with pressure build-up in the closed ear canal and not directly with airflow in a free space.
So what now?
The Simgot King Wonder – EN1000 – is an in-ear that certainly gets a few things right. Think comfort (it’s really snug), the detailing, the well-followed and open midrange and if it’s your thing: the looks. It’s an in-ear that should be seen. Is that enough to compete here in Europe? Not really. It doesn’t sound better than competitors and the cable gets tangled really quickly, which is annoying. Then there is the issue of availability: the Simgot is only available through Amazon. And then only the American one. You understand that the story then becomes really difficult. Warranty and returns are a hassle. And the established brands just have that better organized.
Will it always be like this? Probably not. The Internet shows that there are more brands than we know here – in Europe. And that they too can make decent products. However, in our opinion it is still too early to make a purchase without a little more experience. The moment the lesser known brands from far away places become available through regular channels, things will change.