EA500LM vs SuperMix 4: which needs more amplifier?

The Simgot EA500LM is 21Ω at 106.2 dB/mW; the Simgot SuperMix 4 is 7.2Ω at 98.6 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 SuperMix 4 needs 7.6 dB more than the EA500LM to reach the same loudness — 1.4 mW against 0.24 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationEA500LMSuperMix 4
Impedance21 Ω7.2 Ω
Sensitivity106.2 dB/mW98.6 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)123.0 dB/V120.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.24 mW1.4 mW
Voltage for 100 dB71 mV100 mV
Current for 100 dB3.4 mA13.8 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
2.62 Ω0.90 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.

45 sources are low enough in output impedance for the EA500LM under the one-eighth rule but not for the SuperMix 4 (FiiO SnowSky Tiny B, FiiO KA13, FiiO BTR15, 42 more).

3 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the SuperMix 4 but cross it with the EA500LM (FiiO BTR11, FiiO K11 R2R, Rupert Neve RNHP).

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 SuperMix 4. 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.