That's usually the case, the "fake" cables are off the same manufacturing line using the same materials, just without the inordinate amount of mark-up and profit. When you consider the idea of getting ripped off, you gotta wonder who is really doing the ripping off.
Chinese fake cables How fake, how good?
I have noted a number of warnings about cheap Chinese fake cables on this site but curiosity led me to the Aliexpress site where I found a number of presumably fake big name cables from predominantly Cardas, Nordost and Siltech at about 15% of the USA or Australian price. I found Cardas Clear Light interconnects at about US$100 and decided what the heck let's give them a try at that price. Before buying I asked the seller the daft question as to whether they were genuine and got the reply that they were an OEM and constructed the interconnects from genuine Cardas cables and connectors. They arrived in a plastic bag rather than the Cardas box , not a great start but the cables looked real, and when connected, much to my surprise, they sounded really good. After 100hours or so burn in they sounded great and better than the Nordost Quatre Fils I had been using. I then took them to an Australian hi end dealer who sold real Cardas and asked rather ingenuously whether my cables were the real deal. The dealer would not commit but agreed to compare them to the real thing on a set up costing at a guess around A$100,00. Neither I nor the sales person could tell any difference so he then tried them against the Cardas Clear. Then there was some difference, not extreme but subtle, and certainly IMO not worth the price difference even if you bought the genuine Cardas Clear Light. So are these cables really fake and even if they are given my experience they are well worth a try. Maybe I'll try Nordost Odin or Siltech 770i next.
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I’ll take Chinese ’fake’ OFC copper (99.95% copper or the higher purity 99.99% copper) cables anytime of the day over extortionately priced strange hybrids be they interconnects or speaker wires. I have absolutely no need to be deceived by ’genuine’ manufacturers anymore. Seriously. If someone wants to decry fake cables then let them present some evidence that their own are superior in performance. It shouldn’t be hard should it? Resistance induction and capacitance are all easily measured yet strangely NEVER EVER mentioned by manufacturers and dealers. Ask yourself, why not? This is nothing like the fake headphone scams where the similarities are largely only cosmetic. Or cheaply made computer parts such as Power Supplies, RAM or SSDs. Sometimes too many corners get cut. On the other hand some Chinese goods can actually be of high quality. I’ve had several ’unknown branded’ phones from China and they rivalled from my iPhone 6s Plus in performance apart from inferior camera quality and lack of updates (which I didn’t need as I don’t keep them for more than 2/3 years anyway). One budget model even bettered the iPhone in battery life and screen quality as it had an OLED screen which Apple didn’t adopt til much later. And all of this at less than 1/4 of the price. Great value for the consumer I’d say. Back to the main point I’d say if manufacturers argue that Chinese cables are a scam, then let them present some or even ANY evidence that their products aren’t a FAR FAR bigger scam. Overpriced cables remain the oldest and greatest scam in the already dubious world of domestic audio retail. https://copperalliance.org.uk/about-copper/conductivity-materials/oxygen-free-high-conductivity-copp... |
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