How Is This Possible? Must be Counterfeits

I bought a bi-amp speaker cable set from Aliexpress  , so four cables, the Odin branded with the wood block and spade connectors. The cables arrived within a week, so that’s a good start

Before the cables were used, it was worth to test the cables for polarity and resistance. So the red had to match with red, and black with black, all cool there.

The resistance measurement told the truth on how these particular cables were made. The resistance measured with a Fluke 289 in relative mode varied from 1 ohm to 80 ohms. The branded Furutech connector was heatshrinked onto the cable, and the clamping screw just spun and stripped, so clamping the cable was useless.

The vendor was sceptical that the readings wouldn’t affect the sound, but eventually saw reason and granted a full refund. They paid for the return shipping to a local agent.

So now, have bought Furutech a36 diy cable, connectors, and the same spade furutech connectors as the Odin, let’s see how that works.

These cable brands mentioned on here do not manufacture cables in the first place but buy from actual manufacturers (or import from China) and resell them.

Do not buy fake cables though. Buy no brand cables or WBC/Canare cables on Amazon so that you can return for a full refund. Cable burn-in is totally fake. Just be smart and don't waste money.

As an update , the Furutech cable, connectors arrived. The spade connectors still stripped at the cable support, but held firm on the actual conductor connection. Resistance values are all below 1 ohm now. The new cables are a different sound than with the SPC 10 AWG, not worse for sure, more relaxed, certainly no loss of fidelity. Can listen for hours without fatigue.

The cable itself is marked Furutech and dimensions match the specified sheet from Furutech. Are they fake or just surplus from.an older design, I’d go with the latter.

I purchased a half dozen of the higher quality Odin 2 power cables from Ali (RM Digital store), to compare against real Heimdall 2 power cables. There are cheaper versions of the Odin 2 but they looked poor quality.

Let me first say that for $150 USD, the sound, and build quality of these cables is exceptional. The connectors are perfectly made, amazing quality. The sound is just excellent, nothing at this price will even come close.

But compared to Heimdall 2, the real Nordost was better on every audiophile metric except for bass. The Odin 2 has 3x the gauge current capacity of the Heimdall, so that would be the reason for the great bass, especially with power amps. But apart from that it was no contest.

So I have never heard a real Odin 2, but based on this test I have no doubt the real thing would destroy the Aliexpress clone. Don't kid yourself this is even close to the real thing.

I also did this same test with fake Stillpoints Ultra SS footers. The gap between real Stillpoints and the fakes was even wider than the power cable test. Not even in the same ballpark, the fakes were only 30-40% of the real thing. But the fakes were still good footers for the price.

One of the brands that seems to be copied extensively is Furutech. The Chinese knock offs are not that easy to spot, plus they duplicate the plugs well. Unfortunately, there are loads of Furutech cables out there that are being sold as legit, when in fact they are all knock-offs.