FYI, the amps in question that Clear Day cables used to develop them is Quick Silver monos
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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They go in a box in the basement. Not really fair to sell them. I thought of defacing them and selling them, but not worth the time. In the case of the power cords, I pirated the connectors for some domestic name brand OCC cords I bought that would benefit from the upgrade. The power connectors are top notch on the cables knockoffs that I bought. FWIW, I did not find that the power, speaker or interconnect cables were anything special. All nicely made, but guessing that the underlying copper/silver quality is poor.
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@questforhifi I've wondered about that same thing. The Valhalla 2 Reference Speaker Cable is listed at $750 CDN (OCC wire) on the HI FI Audio site. Also listed for $635 CDN (OFC) on the same site. No one seems to have answered your question yet. $750 is a lot of cheese to try out a set of knock off cables. Also not sure that I would ever believe the OCC claim on Ali. They clearly state OFC in the product description. Maybe it just cost $35 extra to type OCC in the title line. 🤣 Nordost Valhalla 2 Reference Speaker Cables OCC Silver Plated Loudspeaker Wire with Gold Plated Serrated Banana Plugs
The Valhalla 2 Reference Speaker Cable consists of twenty-eight conductors divided into four groups of seven. Each conductor is made from solid core 99.999999% oxygen free copper and plated with 85 microns of silver. A Dual Mono-Filament wrap is applied and helically wound around each conductor before a precision FEP jacket is extruded over the outside. The transmission speed of the cable is extremely fast, at 97% the speed of light. V2 exemplifies state of the art technology with very wide bandwidth signals and minimum phase shift. It delivers incredible transient response and dynamic resolution, preserving depth of musical detail and allowing listeners to follow complex recordings with ease. Plug: gold-plated spade connectors or Nordost low-mass Z plugs. |
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