The quality of what they are selling, and the fact that they are using other manufacturers names are two separate issues. Those other companies have spent time and money to get their names recognized, wether or not you are a believer in their “snake oil”. In this country it is illegal to use another’s name, and i doubt those companies would want to spend endless money and time trying to get remedy in the Chinese court system. They might win in the end, but is the cost associated gaining them more, or costing them more. I have no doubts that the cables have huge margins in them, margins that the Chinese are willing to forgo, and have fewer levels of overhead to cover, so even if they were identical, they can sell for less. What they should do is create an their own marketing, and at those prices I bet they’d find plenty of buyers, which might force the big names to figure out how to be more competitive themselves.
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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- 219 posts total
- 219 posts total