Gold coated brass speaker spades

A local dealer had an unhappy customer come in with cables the customer bought on the internet which he thought sounded crappy.  I heard it and it was indeed crappy, particularly surprising because the cables were supposedly ultra expensive Audio Note Sogon cables.  When the terminations were cut off to look at the actual wire, it was NOT the right internals.  The wires were pretty nice looking fakes with genuine Audio Note spades on them.  Were they Chinese fakes?  I don't know the origin, but, Chinese fakes are getting impressively hard to detect visually.  I saw a line stage supposedly made with Western Electric parts where all the parts turned out to be fake (it did not sound good). 

A dealer/builder I know was looking for some Western Electric input transformers to make a high-end clone of their 133 amp.  A Chinese source was offering a pair for $10,000.  This is the going rate of those transformers.  It may have been genuine, but, it may just be the case of the fakers getting wise--don't sell your fakes at deep discount, that only raises suspicions; sell it at the going rate and make even more money.

I've seen fake tubes, fake cables, fake capacitors, fake transformers, and stuff to help you make your own fakes, like company decals.  

@soix 

There's nothing but logic equations there -- no science at all

Anyone who is able to compare size to size is able to see what makes difference even without listening and comparing. I didn't fall onto pretty Chinese fakes  given the fact that the only purpose for those ultra high-end wires for cheap was for the creative scammer to purchase and resell as real. For me even those tempting deals of around $100...200 per pair of Siltech were too pricey and unnecessary. I use mostly studio grade wires that are a lot cheaper than home-audiophile grades and a lot more sincere. I'ts been over decade or more when Alibaba/Aliexpress and DHGate became a part of ebay, but before that all of those fakes were finding a lot more success than failure so that the quantity of "trained" audiophiles that would notice difference is substantially smaller ones who would not find any differences. You are matching too much to yourself and you gotta know that there are far more people than just you. 

$100...200 per pair of (*fake) Siltech were too pricey and unnecessary. I use mostly studio grade wires that are a lot cheaper than home-audiophile grades and a lot more sincere.

Well, there it is. Why pay anymore when $20 cables conduct electricity perfectly fine, and I hear stuff emitting from the speakers? If it is good enough to make the light bulb glow, it is good enough for me.

@czarivey Your last post is telling and not even worthy of a response. Suffice it to say your opinion is in the vast minority here, but you enjoy your Mogami and Kimber 8tc cables and whatever power cords — the rest of us know (and hear) better.

+! @soix 

@czarivey saying that the Chinese cables exist only for resale by scammers ignores the good brands that are well made, sound great (like Xangsane) and are not using any other brands name.