I would like the audiophile community to know that Aliexpress will not stand to help buyers from vendor fraud of products purchased off of their website. I recently order fake Audioquest cables from [Vipeos - HiFi Store] and was denied my cancellation even though placed within a 24 hour period. They promises no charges will post before shipping happens but as a fact my credit card was posted a charge within 12 hours. Expected delivery time is about 2 weeks but still the vendor refuses to stop shipment and refund my card. They rather I receive, send back, and ultimately get credit vs cash back. So be aware of this type of practices Aliexpress is allowing to happen within their commerce market place.
@rms456I'm glad to see someone else discovered this cable. I've posted on a few threads since my discovery a few years ago. Only trying to help fellow DIY'ers. When I made my purchase from the North American supplier it was only for 12''. That suppier made me a cable for the jumper on my Crossover & that wasn't cheap, but was better than the original from the networks builder. I immediately noticed the improvement on my install & went ahead & ordered from Chinese distributor.
I also was schooled from one of the members here (no names) on what type of metal for my banana plugs I should use. Thanks again! Good thing Amazon has a 30 day return policy so I made a comparison on the plugs 2 different metals. Now I haven't purchased any electronics from overseas, & can't comment on that.
@danmar123, bought the same cable from Aliexpress used in bi-amp setup. Top quality cable.
Also have returned couple of items, due to poor workmanship mainly, credits went through OK, no real trouble. For assembled power cables, I always IR test at 500V, check polarity and tightness of connections before installing. Assemblers often wire power cables wrong, but for the price, about a tenth of the real thing, well, a little bit of work, I don't mind.
Aliexpress do sell items like DACs they do state genuine, and this is reflected in the price. 99% of the time if the article is genuine, the price is higher than I can buy locally from an authorized distributor for any Fiio or Denefrips product for recent searches.
Cables are a low risk product, not much to go wrong really, but a DAC or Amplifier that you want to spend serious money on, is best spent at locally dwindling dealers.
I too have had good experiences ordering from AliExpress. No hiccups whatever in payment, receipt or condition of the items. My last order arrived in 8 days.
I have not tried to cancel an order right after I placed it.
I also had a good experience with a Chinese supplier. I purchased, Furutech Flagship a-36 cable from a supplier here in the States & was curious if the Chinese cable was the same. This was a little time consuming, but patience comes with age. The U.S. companies price was 10x the price of the Chinese cable. In the end, there was NO difference between the two cables.
20-25 transactions on Aliexpress over the past 3-4 years and never a problem. Quite happy with all the purchases. Just made another order yesterday for some tubes. Different strokes for different folks I guess.......
Each country develops along its own path. China is no different. China experienced several centuries of exploitation by the west and reacted as one would expect.
China does not uphold western concepts of Contract Law. Enforcing a contact with a mainland chinese entity is an exercise in trying to hit a moving target.
China does not support the western concept of property ownership- actual real estate, manufacturing, whole/sale retail goods, or intellectual property etc. China is run by a dictatorship that owns all property- "ownership" in the western sense is essentially tacit permission to use until the Govt decides otherwise. Many companies reported initial success in sourcing from mainland Chinese companies, then discovered their products were undercut in the market by counterfeit products either going out the "back door" or made by a brand new plant on the other side of town- but making the exact same product to be sold at much lower cost. Or in the most extreme situations- Western owners of successful chinese companies would suddenly discover they were required to add local party leaders to their board- with substantial compensation, or their workforce would disappear.
China does not recognize "international" trademarks and patents. Several years ago Apple was forced to purchase the rights to their name and trademark for use in China. It seems that a small chinese company had registered the Apple name, logo etc. Chinese courts supported the chinese company. It is quite possible that the brand names for Nordost, Kimber, Cardas in China may be owned by a chinese entity rather than the global brand. So are the chinese products fake ? It becomes a semantic argument.
A western buyer of goods made in and sold from mainland China will often receive what the seller thinks will be accepted rather than what was actually ordered and expected by the buyer.
The consumers of high end cables are not being taken advantage of. There is no one making anyone buy them. From my experience with them, while there are different flavors of sound, within a given sound type more money buys you better sound. If it is worth it to you is a decision you must make.
There are plenty of budget cables on the market, so manufacturing or purchasing fakes to me is unethical.
A good number of alibaba cables will probably be resold used as originals at some point in their lives, casting doubt on the used cable market in general which, perversely, benefits manufacturers of expensive originals.
I’m torn about this. On the one hand we have legit cable companies selling their wares with (in some cases), literally, astronomical markups. On the other hand we have shameless copycats on AliExpress selling knockoff cables for orders of magnitude less money. So who’s taking advantage of consumers here? I’d argue both. I’d also be willing to bet that no one could tell many of these products apart in blind testing. Assuming similar materials and build quality, all the rest is a big basket of biases and placebos. I’m not saying that good cables don’t make a difference, they do, what I’m saying is that price is not the determining factor. More money does not equal better sound quality when it come to cables.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Jack Ma, the head of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and China's best-known capitalist, is a Communist Party member, the official Party newspaper said on Monday, debunking a public assumption the billionaire was politically unattached.
The People's Daily revealed Ma's Party membership in a list of 100 people it said had helped drive the country "reform and opening up" process. Ma is China's richest man with a fortune of $35.8 billion, according to Forbes.
“…. Assuming you don’t work here (and statistically, you probably don’t), avoid AliExpress. They pretend to have a mechanism for reporting counterfeits, but it is littered with dead links and buttons that can’t be clicked. …
”…Some things to look out for when purchasing Kimber Kable online:
Where is it shipping from? Any Kimber product shipping from Hong Kong or China is fake. Furthermore, any Kimber product shipping across any international border is probably fake.
Has the product been discontinued?
Is the packaging missing or incorrect?
ANY "Kimber Kable" from Alibaba or AliExpress is fake.
Any items selling as "new" or "multiple available" from eBay, Audiogon, auction sites, or 3rd party marketplaces should be considered counterfeit. We cannot cover these items under our factory warranty.…”
There is no secret that scammers, retailers and manufacturer's with low regard for quality and want to make money fast, quick and easy prey upon all those people looking for deals. Let’s face it, very few of us say “cost is no object” and/or more importantly actually know how to seek quality made products (which includes knowing also what is a counterfeit product). Advertising and marketing are very slick in tricking consumers and getting their money. It’s amazing to what extent they research how to get us to buy things….
Thanx for the heads up, I sometimes see so called "deals" and get tempted DENEFRIPS DAC, JAYS CD PLAYER but something inside me says "warning WILL ROBINSON! warning" Glad you poste this and sorry it happens to anyone.
You speak of Blue Jean Cables? Yes, they are good especially the star quad bi-wireable Canare 4S11. The G version is newer but their own customer service desk told me don’t sweat the non G version especially in 10 feet or less runs.
Unfortunately with the proliferation of on-line retailers comes a multitude of "bad actors" selling knock off inferior products. As you have learned some of the internet sales sites are looking primarily at quantity and volume rather than genuine factory quality products supported by customer service and after the sale follow up. Please let me suggest another approach to adding high end top quality speaker cables to your system and that is to fabricate them yourself. It's an easy, much less expensive and satisfying audiophile activity. I've use Mogami 3103, 3104 or Canare 4S11G depending on the system power/speakers, finished with either Viborg or the house brand terminals from Performance audio where I purchase my raw cable. You might want to check out their website if you have not already done so. lots of neat goodies for diy audiophiles. BTW you can assemble the equivalent of $1000 plus cables for less than $150/$200 depending on cable/termination selection. Oh and no soldering needed as all of the top quality terminal ends use either dual allen set clamping screws or compression clamping. Hope you find my post helpful.
Check the Specifications on the ad you linked - origin = Mainland China, and Brand Name = Yter. Nordost cables are made in the USA. Yter does appear to be a known and sold cable brand, but I have no idea if this is one of their products.
I ordered the AQ digital coaxial for $180(Eagle Eye AQ product as advertised) which I was planning to compare against with my Supra, my DH Labs, my Wireworld 7 glass(just for kicks), a Blue Jeans cable and an Amazon special.
Did I really think it was real, no. Was I curious as to the sound, yes. If received I do plan to send back if they do a full refund and they say within 7 days, the cost of shipping too. Do I really believe this, no. If my CC company can reverse payment, I will send it back on my own dime. If none of the above happens, I plan to send it to a YouTuber that does these comparisons on video and let him listen then cut it open. This might cost me $180 but it gives me the opportunity to share this story and let consumers decide what to do. Thanks for all that have participated. 🙏
Very good information. All documents have been screen shot and delivered to my CC company. They believe by suspending payment, Aliexpress for the above reasons you state will not fight it. Agree with all your commentary. 🙏
Even if you get what you paid for, which is not much... WHAT A HEADACHE! If the website states you can cancel, and they refuse, take a screenshot... your CC company can use it to expedite your refund.
ALSO - Fake-product dumping is unethical and illegal (think Trademarks, Tariffs & Safety issues - see U.S. Customs & Border Protection websites for details).
IMO This entire community must avoid sellers of fraudulent gear - FULL STOP. As they used to say, if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
Ads like this are bordering on fraudulent if not over the line. They are misrepresenting that the product shown in the ad that they are offering to sell are Nordost Valhalla 2 speaker cables. Maybe there is another habitable planet in some other solar system or galaxy that sells these cables for the advertised price in the ad, but you wont find the real deal on planet Earth for that price! These are knock off cables and you might as well go to Home Depot and buy lamp cord for a fraction of the price. Someone else said it above: caveat emptor which is latin for buyer beware. If it sounds too good to be true, then it is probably is fake.
Perhaps there is a disclaimer somewhere in the ad that says these are fake Nordost cables, but I didn't see it.
What also bothers me about the ad is that Alibaba is prepared to allow - or turns a blind eye to - third party vendors who advertise fake product on their website to unsuspecting purchasers.
I use Amazon too, almost for everything thing. 🙄.
Even they allow you to cancel within a certain time period after an order has been placed. True, if to late you have to receive and return but in these cases it just a trip to my local Whole Foods and the return is easily complete.
i do agree with “buyer beware”, but Amazon doesn’t have fake knockoffs, ie AudioQuest products.
I don’t get it. You ordered from a foreign seller, known to be overseas. You deliberately ordered replica products. You changed your mind midstream.
I can’t cancel Amazon if it’s shipped. Monoprice same. I recently ordered a $650 replica amplifier, came within 7 days, was well reviewed and many had sold.
Caveat emptor. But to blame the vendor for not allowing themselves to be subject to the whim of a global market ignores why you are using that marketplace.
I got a fake product, wanted to return it, but useless customer support were bouncing me around. Procedure is definitely made like that on purpose, so you can never get a refund.
In the end, i opened a complain at paypal, uploaded photos of a fake product, explained that happened, and they refunded me fully.
But yeah, Aliexpress is only for things you can afford to lose or not get any support.
I too had a negative experience with aliexpress, I ordered a couple memory cards and a usd card adaptor, all mid line brand name items. Both cards were fakes, labeled as 256 gb but only 8 gb capacity. The card reader was partially defective, the memory card could be read but the extra usb port was useless. I was fortunate enough to get a refund but I didn't have the items that I wanted for music in the car. I think aliexpress is a dumping ground for counterfeit and fake chinese junk?
Had two picks in the queue, and I asked a question to eliminate one. I used the communications button to narrow the choice. He seemed very helpful with advice. We talked about fake vs real cables. Bad choice of questions I guess?
I was just being tongue & cheek when I said he didn’t like my question. Actually he was eager to assist. Sure?
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