EA500LM vs EW200: which needs more amplifier?

The Simgot EA500LM is 21Ω at 106.2 dB/mW; the Simgot EW200 is 16Ω at 108.0 dB/mW. This page is only about what they ask of an amplifier — not how they sound, which no specification on either sheet can tell you.

The EA500LM needs 1.8 dB more than the EW200 to reach the same loudness — 0.24 mW against 0.16 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationEA500LMEW200
Impedance21 Ω16 Ω
Sensitivity106.2 dB/mW108.0 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)123.0 dB/V126.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.24 mW0.16 mW
Voltage for 100 dB71 mV50 mV
Current for 100 dB3.4 mA3.1 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
2.62 Ω2.00 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

Where the two part company

Every source in the database that drives one of them drives the other. On power, the choice between these two changes nothing about what amplifier you need.

10 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the EA500LM but cross it with the EW200 (Lake People G103-S Mk II, Lake People G111 Mk II, FiiO M33 R2R, 7 more).

280 of the 280 sources here reach 100 dB on both. That count is about power only — the output-impedance and hiss lines above are separate questions, and a source can pass this one and fail those.

Both pages in full

Each model has a page of its own with the full source list, the hiss estimate and the provenance of every figure above: Simgot EA500LM and Simgot EW200. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Simgot never published — what that maker publishes, counted.