Counterfeit Chinese Cables
I thought that I would write this for those who are curious about one of the many counterfeit Chinese interconnect cables that are available these days. I know that there have been threads about the subject before, and I was always curious because they seem to be such a bargain. I don't really recall much about what any members actually said about the performance of these counterfeit cables, and I didn't look back and do any research, but a couple of months ago there was a thread that came around to discussing the quality of Chinese made components, and oldhvymec said something that made sense to me.
He said that people that say that what they are making is junk should consider that much of what is in our gear, and a lot of our American brands are actually manufactured there. I decided shortly after that that I would take the chance on a set of interconnects, because I suspected that the interconnects going from my pre to my amp were the weak link and needed upgrading. The interconnects going from my DAC to my pre were Kimber Select which are very good, but the other set were LAT International (now defunct) which had cost $500.00 when new, but I had reason to believe they were lacking because I have one of their digital cables that turned out to be very poor sounding in comparison to others I own.
I decided on a one meter pair of counterfeit Nordost Odin interconnects for a total of $104.00 from Aliexpress. I received them a couple of weeks later. They appeared to be well made, and the locking fake WBT rca's were very impressive and are very tight.
First impressions after installing them were light, thin sound, lacking bass. Each couple of days brought improvements, but from the beginning I noticed that they were quieter. Now, weeks later, I can say that they are drastically better that the LAT's in every way. Detail and ambience are much better, but it's the focus and separation of instruments that is most noticeable.
I have no way of knowing if they are really a copy of the Nordost design, but I am impressed enough that I am going to try a counterfeit Nordost digital cable.
Obviously, this isn't a comparison that is useful to most, because there probably isn't anyone here using the LAT's, and everything is system dependent. I just wanted to relay my positive experience.
I replaced 2 WW XLR ICs ($$$$) and a Pangea Premier SE Coax ($MSRP $169) with fake Odin IIs (purchased from DIY HiFi). Out of curiosity, later I ordered a Odin Gold XLR. First I had it going to my Audio Alchemy DDP-1 dac and the Fake Odin II to my LSA Voyager GaN 350. After a couple months, I kept thinking to swap the 2 XLRs: the improvement was amazing, so I ordered another Gold, which is scheduled to arrive in the next 2 weeks. Ill report once I get them broken in
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@decooney Yep + 100 imagine the improvements and getting real OCC copper. |
Well, for me… I am not interested in playing around with more cables… I did extensive research among well reviewed cables, auditioned and chose what worked best on my system. The only reason I tried these was because of this thread. I was interested in forming my own opinion. Once in a while, I go test my intuition. I will test things internally think just “couldn’t be”… to make sure I am maintain my objectivity. I remember nearly 18 years ago I was having an heated discussion with a climate change denier. I realized I had not refreshed my true knowledge for ten years. So, I went back and built my knowledge from scratch. I read source publications, NOAA, NASA, a couple summary books, fundamental peer review papers. I even deeply researched the two legitimate scientists that claimed climate change was not real… I literally found the tax documents showing one had received $500,000 from oil companies and that he had founded a radical fundamentalist church (the documents of him founding the church were on line… and news about it). Well, my internal knowledge was good on that one. Ok… sorry, got sidetracked.
So, if I needed cables would I buy and try these? No. I really do have an ethical problem… they are certainly no Nordost killers. There are lots of well reviewed cables at all price points available from companies that do their own research and development and cross no ethical boundaries. Buy from them. |
