EW200 vs SuperMix 4: which needs more amplifier?

The Simgot EW200 is 16Ω at 108.0 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 9.4 dB more than the EW200 to reach the same loudness — 1.4 mW against 0.16 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationEW200SuperMix 4
Impedance16 Ω7.2 Ω
Sensitivity108.0 dB/mW98.6 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)126.0 dB/V120.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.16 mW1.4 mW
Voltage for 100 dB50 mV100 mV
Current for 100 dB3.1 mA13.8 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
2.00 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 EW200 under the one-eighth rule but not for the SuperMix 4 (FiiO SnowSky Tiny B, FiiO KA13, FiiO BTR15, 42 more).

14 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the SuperMix 4 but cross it with the EW200 (FiiO BTR11, FiiO K11 R2R, Lake People G103-S Mk II, 11 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.

What each one needs from 80 to 105 dB

The gap between these two in decibels does not change with volume — it is a property of the two headphones. What changes is the size of the numbers, and it changes fast: every 10 dB costs ten times the power. The row that matters is the one nearest the level you listen at, and for most people that is nearer the top of this table than the bottom.

The SuperMix 4 is more demanding than 32% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the EW200 than 11%. Both figures use the same measure as the rest of the site: whichever runs out first against a 2 V, 100 mW dongle, voltage or power.

dB SPLEW200 powerEW200 voltageSuperMix 4 powerSuperMix 4 voltage
801.6 µW5 mV0.01 mW10 mV
855.0 µW9 mV0.04 mW18 mV
900.02 mW16 mV0.14 mW32 mV
950.05 mW28 mV0.44 mW56 mV
1000.16 mW50 mV1.4 mW100 mV
1050.50 mW90 mV4.4 mW0.18 V

105 dB is included because forum power figures are usually quoted there or higher. It is also a level that damages hearing in minutes — how many minutes is its own calculator.

The cheapest source that satisfies both

SourcePriceHeadroom, EW200Headroom, SuperMix 4Output impedanceNoise
JadeAudio JA11$2019.8 dB6.9 dB0.5 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO KA11$2931.9 dB19.0 dB0.7 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO BTR13$5928.8 dB15.9 dB0.6 Ω1.0 µV

Of the 280 sources here, 280 reach 100 dB on both. That is the easy axis. 34 of them also publish an output impedance low enough for both under the one-eighth rule and a noise figure that stays below the audible-hiss threshold with both — the rest either fail one of those or never printed the number at all, and 208 of them are in the second group.

The cheapest of the 34 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 19.8 dB of headroom on the EW200 and 6.9 dB on the SuperMix 4, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 2.00 Ω and 0.90 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 9 dB and 15 dB below the 20 dB SPL this site treats as the point where a quiet room stops hiding it.

Cheapest that satisfies three published numbers is not the same as best, and none of it is about how either headphone sounds. To put either model against a source this page does not mention, or to change the target loudness, use the amplifier matcher.

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 EW200 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.

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