Simgot EW300 Review – Technical Beast on a Budget; Gaming Extraordinaire
My Overall Rating: 4/5 (Head-fi), 7.1/10 (Personal Tier List)
Pros:
- So. Much. Detail, but never sibilant. Highly and technical and well-executed V-shaped IEM, second to none in this price range.
- Outstanding instrument separation and directionality, especially in busy tracks
- Good shell build quality (aluminium alloy)
- Punchy bass that does not bleed into the midrange (Overall, optimal driver implementation)
- High quality stock cable
- Comfortable to wear
Cons:
- Upper treble has slightly metallic timbre
- Midrange/Vocals sounds a little thin and unnatural
- Only 1 pair of ear tips provided
- Potential channel imbalance issues (on review set)
- Not for those sensitive to treble, treble quantity might be a bit too much.
DISCLAIMER:
Simgot sent this set to me as a review sample to keep. There will undoubtedly be subconscious bias as human psychology - I'm not about to deny that. However, I will be as honest as I can possibly be given these circumstances. Don't take my word for it, watch some of my TikTok reviews and see it for yourself.
INTRODUCTION:
The EW300 isn’t a new product, and I was already familiar with the name a year ago, and at first, I was skeptical that an IEM company would put BOTH a planar driver AND a piezoelectric driver in a single IEM shell. On paper, it sounded like it would be treble murder. However, I only first listened the Simgot EW300 DSP at e-earphone in Tokyo, Japan, in December 2025. First impressions were already positive. I didn’t have time to really judge the sound, but it was already balanced enough, nothing struck me immediately as ‘wrong’, so it subverted my expectations for a huge amount of treble.
I am thankful to Simgot for sending me these to review, as I’ve been wanting to have one for a long time
The Simgot EW300 has a 1x 10mm Dynamic Driver handling the bass/lower midrange, 1x 6mm Planar Driver handling mid/high midrange and treble, and finally a Piezoelectric Driver handling the upper treble. (My speculation, there is no official description.)
The Simgot EW300 (Standard Edition, 3.5mm) retails for $80 USD on Linsoul’s official website. Let’s talk about in detail below.
UNBOXING/ACCESSORIES:
- 3 pairs of 1 type of Silicone Eartips
- 6x foam filters
- 8x O-rings
- 1 pair of Gold Nozzles (with Pink O-ring), 1 pair of Silver Nozzles (Red O-ring) (installed stock)
- Black carrying case (hard shell)
- 2-core OFC Silver-plated cable (0.78mm 2-Pin) – Cable handles well and is light too. No microphonics and does not tangle easily nor retain memory. Non-swappable terminations. Chin slider stays in place.
BUILD & DESIGN:
Fairly light shell, made of sturdy aluminium alloy, so it doesn’t scratch as easily as conventional aluminium shells. Much lighter than the Hidizs MY LIN in my previous review. I’m sure these will last for years given good care.
The design though, is a hit or miss for certain people. I mean, I get it. There is a cross on the left faceplate and a heart design on the right faceplate. I personally couldn’t care for the design, but I don’t dislike it. It just doesn’t interest me enough.
COMFORT:
I was surprised at how comfortable the EW300s are. Sure, it’s easy for an IEM at this price to be lightweight. But the shell shape doesn’t have anything offensive, nothing sticks out physically to cause discomfort. It doesn’t seem like it was designed with ergonomics in mind, as can be seen by the conventional shell shape. Rather, the proportions of the IEM in terms of shell shape just work for my ears. I can wear them for many, many hours at a time without any discomfort, sometimes forgetting that it is there.
Eartips provided worked for me as well in terms of comfort, though I wished they had provided at least another type of eartips, either Liquid Silicone, or different bores. I switched to the Hidizs Sea Anemone just because they were a slight bit more comfortable.
SOUND:
Testing Gear: Topping DX1, DX5 II, Ifi Zen DAC V1, Ifi Zen CAN V3 (from DX5 II LO), QKZ TC Pro Max
Are they hard to drive? No. Very easy in fact - 75% on a 30mW@32ohm dongle is borderline deafening.
Tuning Nozzles:
- Silver Nozzles (with Red O-ring) provides a more vocal forward signature, which I think is appropriate for my taste.
- Gold Nozzles (with Pink O-ring) relaxes vocal forwardness in the upper midrange. I don’t really like this as vocals are pulled weirdly behind the mix. But it’s not inherently a bad tuning change, just up to your preferences.
- My measured graph reflects the audible differences as well. Note the only difference is in the upper midrange region (1-4khz).
- * Note that there was channel imbalance in the bass (>1dB) and upper treble, which reflected consistently in multiple measurements. I was a little disappointed as usually brand-new IEMs don’t exhibit this amount of channel imbalance. I understand though I have to lower my expectations as it is a budget IEM after all. If I saw this in a $500 IEM I would have major complaints though.
^ Note the channel imbalance above for a new IEM. ^
General Sound Signature:
V-shaped with added upper-treble emphasis. To me, they are a fun, but uniquely analytical listen. The below sound signature impressions will be according to the Silver nozzles (with the O-ring).
BASS:
I would describe it as a moderate amount of bass in general. The bass quantity plateaus out in the sub-bass, but what stands out is the generous amount of mid-bass. This makes bass guitar plucks very satisfying, especially in ‘The Workout – Paul Jackson, Jr.’ and provides the ‘oomph’ that I’m sure the general audiophile population will enjoy. Bass speed to me has average technicalities. It can feel a bit lost, like it’s struggling to catch up to high paced bass heavy tracks such as ‘Rumble – Skrillex’. I’m really nitpicking at this price.
MIDRANGE:
Instruments/Vocals in the midrange sound very clean, and it is lacking a bit of warmth. Why is that so? The lower midrange is audibly scooped off, as they had to make space for the emphasised mid-bass somehow, to create a bigger contrast between the emphasised bass and the rest of the midrange. Leaning vocals sounding thin, but the rise in the upper midrange has just a touch of forwardness but still completely balanced, making vocals sound almost clinical. The guitar in ‘I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance – Diana Krall’ has a very natural midrange timbre, but Diana Krall’s vocals in the same song lose a little lushness. I see this issue of the lack of warmth of midrange in other reviews as well, and I can see why.
TREBLE:
We can’t talk about vocals without talking about the treble, as both the midrange and the treble contribute to the ‘naturalness’ of vocals. The upper treble is emphasised, reminding me of previous 1PLN driver IEMs. Where naturalness is sacrificed for detail. Hence, vocals have a little too much air, or upper treble, for my liking, leading it to sound artificial.
In instrumental tracks, hi-hats and cymbals have a ton of presence, and I could hear every detail down to the individual notes of hi-hat rolls in ‘Neurotica – Polyphia’ with a high level of clarity.
This also affects the spaciousness of the sound, which will be discussed below.
Timbre: Slight PZT metallic timbre in the upper treble. Midrange sounds mostly correct, though a little thin.
Details: Both macro and micro details are emphasised due to the treble elevated tuning and the driver configuration. Probably the most detailed sub $100 set I’ve heard to date.
Imaging/Separation: Great. Every instrument has its own space in the mix, nothing sounds muddy. I can picture each instrument’s location with high accuracy. Had a Battlefield 6 marathon recently with this IEM. Absolutely sublime experience hearing enemies from various distances from my head. Would recommend this for gaming.
Soundstage/Spaciousness: Above average. Due to emphasised upper treble, adds airiness and the spaciousness effect.
My Preferred Configuration: Silver Nozzles (Red O-ring)
Conclusion:
Very unique, very fun, very technical, and a very balanced sound profile. These are 4 adjectives I rarely describe any IEM with, much less anything under $100. I still can’t believe Simgot managed to pull this driver configuration off. It’s the ‘best’ IEM for gaming under $100 in my honest opinion. The imaging and detail is stellar and has exceeded my expectations. It’s not just a lot of detail, it’s detail tuned with finesse. Apart from gaming, I think this IEM works best with instrumental genres such as Funk/Jazz. I wouldn’t necessarily get this for EDM/Electronic music, as upper treble from hi-hats might get a little too much even for me. Maybe something warmer with less detail will work.
If you’re sensitive to treble, this set will not be for you. If you’re tired of airy-sounding IEMs - if you don’t like Planar IEMs in general, then this IEM will also not be for you.
So, overall, I would recommend this IEM if you like treble/technicalities. The value proposition is really good.
Thank you for reading! And catch y’all in the next one. 👋
