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.
@milhorn The very fact that you believe that an audio system can be evaluated over computer speakers with YouTube as a source discredits anything else you could say. As far as all samples of the same cable sounding different, well maybe the ones you make have that problem, but I don't think that you can give any proof that this is the case with other brands, and I haven't heard other members complaining about it either. |
Captain Obvious here. Counterfeiting, proper, is the deceptive manufacture of something under another company’s mark without their knowledge. It is fraud. There is no grey area. Reverse engineering and shared sourcing, by contrast, is a common modern practice. It can be challenged in courts as copyright and patent infringement but the burden of the plaintiff is different. As a marketer, I understand the goal of many brands as being a guarantee of certain quality and/or value to purchasers. Just IMO, a savvy buyer may well be making a good value purchase with a lookalike cable…just as they may pay too much for the impression of brand quality that is not counterfeit. Make sense? |
OP, about @mihorn . I try to be positive… but yeah… you are 100% correct. Indicating you can’t tell the difference on a YouTube video does completely discredit a post. Actually pretty funny. |
