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.
@roxy54 you keep saying that. Penis envy? @bigtwin sorry the denier bit was for the other fella @wesheadley. I agree $40k is crazy but who are they praying on? A guy with puck you money? LOL they are going to do what ever they want. Gullible no more that you buying a $40.00 cable if the next guy is using a $5.00 one from Amazon…. Perspective I guess.
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@wesheadley winner of the stupid post of the day. Guarantee you that you cannot not rank five quality cables by their price. Nobody is saying a $40 cable is equal to a $40k cable-- the materials cost between those to poles would be vastly different. I think spending hundreds on a quality cable is more reasonable when you look at materials and time-- and when you look at it from that perspective, then no, you cannot qualitatively rank a set of cable's audio quality by price. |
+1 @kot Never mind that my post had nothing to do with envy of any sort, let alone penis envy. Maybe he just likes thinking about them. |
I think it’s kind of a cool ’marketing 101’ thought experiment to hear the various opinions expressed here. And audio cables are the perfect product. Most would agree that a $10,000 power cord (authentic) is a bit silly, even if most would agree after listening that the cord is an amazing addition to any system. And most would agree that a Chinese knock off at $30 virtually guarantees that it will not sound anything like the original. Still, the low price is intriguing, even so low as to induce some to experiment to see just ’how good’ the attempted replica is. Of course there are mixed results from "pretty damn good" to "plastic junk"; likely realizing that similar performance could be achieved with cheap Walmart or Amazon cables. What is most interesting to me is just where to buyers draw their own "line" in deciding price|experimentation|value|sound. For example, some would not spend $30 on an obvious fake (Nordost Valhalla/Odin PC), (too cheap), but would spend $350 on what is very likely a fake Audioquest Dragon|Firebird. Or $130 on an, ahem.. replica Shunyata Snake or Kubala Sosna or Kharma or Siltech. Interesting thoughts and thread. 😄
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