"As if that fool is an authority..."
"Think he is more of an authority than you, for sure."
Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him?
You seemed to have answered this for us.
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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“- what materials are used by the chinese to allow them to produce a Nordost Valhalla or Odin counterfeit they can sell for $50 and still make money - who builds all this stuff? Have you seen a factory tour? I bet child labor is involved - pretty sure the CCP is grateful for your contribution” Don’t disagree but isn’t this the case for all the Chinese parts and components used in products made/assembled outside of China including USA. At least the assembly labor and some of the parts are not. Not even getting into raw materials. I don’t think any of my USA made audio components don’t have ties to Chinese parts or materials. |
@maxima95 +1 Exactly!!! |
@audphile1 Your question - what materials are used by the chinese to allow them to produce a Nordost Valhalla or Odin counterfeit they can sell for $50 and still make money, raises a disturbing issue for me. That being, you can actually build a cable for $50 and still turn a profit. The price we pay for cables cannot be supported by the cost to manufacture. IMHO. And I don't have fake cables in my system. I paid thousands and resented the margins every time. We are involved in a hobby that allows manufacturers and vendors to take advantage. Again IMHO. You only need to look at the $7,000,000 power cable to know something is not right.
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