Simgot EM6L Review: A Five-Driver $109 IEM With a Weirdly Big Soundstage

Named Best Budget in our Best IEMs guide.

This IEM contains multiple drivers with a 3-way crossover, and tries to achieve the Harman 2019 target. It all sounds very promising, as marketing materials usually do. But how well does it actually perform in practice?

The Simgot EM6L is priced at $109, which I would consider to be in the budget range for an IEM, although some people might call it mid-range.

Small shells, a secure fit and a braided cable

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It features a glossy black shell that's made with a high-precision 3D printing process. There are no visible imperfections or rough texture, making it impossible to tell that it was 3D printed.

The IEM shell is rather small, making it a great fit for those with smaller ears. I believe that their round shape prevented them from falling out by increasing the contact area and thus creating a bit more friction.

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It has a 2-pin connector and comes with a fantastic, for this price range, cable. It's made out of oxygen-free copper and is silver-plated. Some of you might not care about what it's made out of, but I appreciate the effort put into making sure that the entire signal path is of high quality. It's braided as well, to minimize interference and make it look better. On the visual side, it perfectly complements the IEM with its gold and black color scheme. It has great ergonomics and doesn't cause any discomfort like some cheap cables do. Overall, it stays out of the way and doesn't interrupt the listening experience.

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One dynamic and four balanced armature drivers

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In terms of the drivers, there is one dynamic driver and four balanced armature drivers, which are controlled by a hybrid three-way crossover.

The impedance of the IEM is listed as 26Ω, and the sensitivity is rather high at 119dB/V. All of the drivers work together to produce a frequency response of 8Hz to 40kHz, which is beyond the typical human hearing range - but that's a very good thing, especially in the lower limit. It indicates that there's very little or virtually no low-frequency roll-off.

A near-Harman sound with a mid-bass bump

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Looking at a frequency response graph, you can see that the treble and sub-bass are mostly in line with Simgot's goal of achieving the Harman 2019 in-ear curve. The lower end of frequencies is lifted to match that target. However, in the mid-bass, there's some additional energy, that can be perceived as bloaty. It surely makes for some additional warmth - if you're into that and you don't mind its muffling effect on vocals, obscuring some of the finer details and clarity.

Treble is pretty smooth in terms of peakiness, however, its amplitude is not being compromised in any way, besides not extending exactly to 20kHz.

Finally, we come to the soundstage, which is where things get intriguing. The EM6L can be described as having a "weirdly big" soundstage. A wide soundstage typically enhances the listening experience, creating a sense of spaciousness and immersion. However, we lack a bit of pinpoint precision in the placement of instruments within the sound field. Although it can be wide, it doesn't provide a sense of large scale, which some people desire. This is usually challenging to achieve in in-ear monitors, and these ones are no exception.

But what it does provide is great channel separation, which in IEMs is often very good, as there's very little sound leakage. You might be surprised by how much of a difference it makes!

These in-ear monitors can do one more thing pretty well: punch. Not necessarily slam (meaning a large surface hit), but they can punch you with a concentrated and small surface type of hit.