I have been curious and decided to test them out. System components, for reference, are Jeff Rowland 501 Monos, Rowland Capri Pre-amp,
Oracle CD 2000 MK III, Blusound Vault 2i, Chord Hugo TT2, Chord Hugo M scaler, Audio Physics Avanti, Nordost Valhalla speaker cable, Nordost Heimdahl II interconnects, Nordost Shiva Power cords.
I bought the Valhalla power cord ($1200.00) and the same exact copy
from Aliexpress and tested them against each other.
I played the exact same section of a song off an SACD switching the power cords only connected to the pre-amp. Back and forth back and forth at least a half dozen times each. I can only tell you what I heard and what my experience has been realizing that not everyone hears the same things and systems difference will impact the results. I am impressed with the fit and finish of the products coming out of China..These people are audiophiles as well. Just talk to some at CES and you know they take it all as seriously as we do.
In the end, I'd say there may have been a slight decrease (1-3%) in the openness of the Chinese Valhalla but that may be a factor of expectation bias. So I currently use the Original Valhalla with the pre-amp and the other with the separate power unit to the Oracle. I have since replaced the Heimdahls and Shivas with Odin 2's and am actually blown away with how damn good the sound is to include transparency, staging, decay, transients, taught-ness, and accuracy. I also did the same experiment with a Transparent Reference power cord. You can definitely hear differences between the two, mostly darkness but it was there. I believe the Chinese are very good at reduction, evaluation, and reconstruction utilizing the same materials the difference being the availability of a very large, intelligent, and devoted workforce. I have three sets of interconnects and 6 power cords all for less than the original Valhalla.
Hope this helps.
