Knockoffs- how can they just advertise so easily?

So that shunyata power cord and box look pretty real including the signature on the label of the connector. But real thing isn’t what you’ll be getting.

What’s sad is this will potentially end up on USAM or here and be sold as a genuine item causing frustration and financial loss. This really pisses me off but there’s nothing any of us can do.

There’s a whole discussion on this forum dedicated to knock offs and some folks just get off on plugging in an Odin power cord purchased for $40. Those work pretty good to tie your garbage bags with.

Look elsewhere with two basic core tenets in mind:

(1) you will only get what you pay for … full stop
(2) These cheap build crap listings are illegal fakes sold by dodgy internet merchants operating in a ruthless regime sheltered away from our laws protecting patents and trademarks , that would be lead them to be quickly shut down here.

Note : The colloquial terms “knockoff or “dupe (duplicate)” are often mistakenly interchangeably with cheap “counterfeits” that are NOT like quality made copies,they are NOT the same things? These cheap Chinese listings are NOT a “knock-off”.

ILLEGAL COUNTERFEIT FAKES
Counterfeit products are designed to visually loosely resemble authentic products in appearance . Visually, these counterfeit goods illegally use unauthorized trademarked international brand to look almost identical to the original authentic products, ….BUT are made from cheap low-quality materials and crap build quality. Counterfeit goods involve the unauthorized use of the intellectual property of a brand owner by using the brand owner’s trademarks to deceive consumers into believing they have purchased a genuine product.

LEGAL KNOCKOFFS:/ non-branded copies of the OEM
On the other hand, a knockoff can still be legal and resemble a branded, authentic product, but generally will NOT be identical to it. Knockoffproducts do not contain the registered names, trademarks or logos of the original product. and consumers should understand that they are not buying an authentic product …. AND …. they should do their own due diligence vis-a-vis comparison to the authentic product for:
(i) the quality of the parts& materials used in the knockoff , and
(II) the quality of the build quality assembly into the final product.

SUMMARY

(1) Knockoff products are those that copy /imitate the physical appearance and makeup of other products but which do not copy the brand name or logo of a trademark.

(2) The cheap counterfeit fakes are anything but copies or near copies of the OEM. The cheap crap build units from China are not “ knock-offs”. They are illegal counterfeit crap build fakes illegally infringing on the OEM trademark or patent. They are just crap build POS and ILLEGAL counterfeit fakes sold on dodgy websites like EBay and Ali Baba originating in China and like elsewhere; where shamelessly selling illegal POS quality fakes is a national sport.

The YouTube video at the bottom is a good summary read .Read for yourself the review following …

http://www.element-acoustics.ca/audio_visits.php?aid=41

We can see that counterfeit cables DO NOT have the technology and manufacturing technique, and it is very costly to duplicate the same construction. Therefore, the counterfeit cable can only very clumsily and poorly duplicate its appearance.

Since the fakes are not “knockoffs” in build quality and materials, so who views them as peers to OEMs too in sound performance? If you do plunk them in YOUR system (extreme limitation emphasis added), Fine . No worries , ….I guess …. and just carry on? Each to his own, I guess .

Thanks for the distinction @akg_ca and clarification- counterfeit it is.

I was also wondering, since from what I have read Audioquest cables are in fact made in China, that the parts one sees are the genuine products from the same assembly line as the authentic one, and maybe they just cheap out on the metal inside? 

I could see the factory workers just "loosing" some of the parts like the plastic connector bodies, sheathing, and making these cables on the sly, in some other production factory, or maybe the whole cable is entirely made in the same building by the same workers on the "nightshift" and everyone there is okay sharing the profits from selling the counterfeits. 

Many of these "counterfeits" are made in the same factories as the originals.   a company orders 10,000 and the disreputable manufacturer makes 20,000 and the sells them undercutting the OEM, stealing the intellectual property and all the other investments that OEM has made.  You may find they all have the same serial number or fake serial numbers but they are identical.  This is a very difficult problem to fix since the Chinese government has no interest in fixing it.

Jerry

Fake Cables Discovery 1 - counterfeit Nordost

Nordost’s roots were in the Military, Medical and Aerospace industries

. It gives the company access to the most advanced materials technologies known to man. Ever since the launch of the first audio products in the early 1990s, Nordost has always insisted on the highest quality, extruded FEP for use in cables’ dielectric and jacketing. FEP has many advantages; primarily, it is the most consistent and best performing dielectric material available, with the exception of air; which is where micro mono-filament technology comes in. The micro mono-filament technology is a process developed by Nordost to reduce the effect of the insulation material. It uses a thread of FEP which is helically wound over each highly polished conductor. A precision FEP jacket is then extruded over the thread and the conductor. A number of proprietory methods are used in this difficult and extremely precise manufacturing technique.
.
Now that we understand the construction of a genuine Nordost cable, it’s simply not easy to make.

We can see that counterfeit cables DO NOT have the technology and manufacturing technique, and it is very costly to even attempt to duplicate the same construction. Therefore, the counterfeit cable can only clumsily and poorly duplicate its outward appearance. When opened up, it’s obvious that it is crummy fake.

YouTube [Fake ODIN2 dissected vs the OEM ]

Some things we can notice on these counterfeit Nordost cables:

- Fake Nordost uses cheap and rubbish rubber /PVC insulator.

- They don’t have the manufacturing technique for proper twisting; instead they need an inner wire for the twist.

- They have poor printing; sometimes misspellings.and really obvious poor qualyu results They also don’t have the requisite NORDOST OEM serial number on the cable sleeve tgst matches the OEM paperwork supplied, and often no OEM wood box.

- They have poor soldering points, and also counterfeit connectors.

- The counterfeit can’t twist conductor like Nordost, they have to use inner wire ( cheap POS crap)

-

This counterfeit Valhalla power cord even comes with fake Wattgate plugs.

I’ve