Trying these brands is definitely a gamble. I was lucky to have tried Xangsane, which is surely a great brand, but then just recently I tried a set of the "best" cables by Ataudio, and though pretty to look at, they were a great (though not costly) disappointment.
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.
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@bigtwin What you just posted about the Furutechs is exactly why cables seem to make a huge difference.If you had the Ali Furutechs for a few years initially then tried the Silversmiths you may have been thrilled at the improvement. I do believe that often when some of us come across something that elevates our listening pleasure, we become enthusiastic and come here to share the joy with fellow hobbyists. Our families and friends aren't interested, lol. The only OMG moment I've experienced with a cable is with a power cable on my amp(American made).I tried Cardas and Nordost ics from Ali out of curiosity and they both were very good but not perfect for me. |
@jtcf I suspect you are correct about having the Ali cable first and then moving on to the Silversmith. That's why I hypothesised that my lack of the wow moment could be the fact I have always started with quality cables. Cheers. |
Russia population : 143,556,000 Engineers each year : 454,436
United states population : 333,2888,000 Engineers each year : 237,826
Iran population : 88.551.000 Engineers each year : 233,695
Now Iran produce as much engineers as Russia in spite of half the population size , but almost 4 times more engineers than the US as Russia did...
What do you think of the education in America now ?
In India and in China now they start to educate but their population is huge to feed and educate but slowly they will exceed America on all counts in Education not only scientific education but history and other matters which means nothing in North America now...
Ask Hollywood how many movies they created about the Byzantine roman empire ? A more than a great part of our own history and civilization for a millenia ...
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