Fake Cardas: Myth or Reality?


Recently I've been trying to sell an older version (without Furutech) of Cardas Golden Reference power cord. For some reason, I have got a lot of questions asking whether this cable is authentic and whether it has a certificate of authenticity.

Are there really that many fake Cardas cables out there, or is this just a smart marketing scam by Cardas to create fear in people so as to make them buy from only select distributors and allow Cardas to better control retail prices? I cannot imagine that counterfeiters would have nothing better to do all day but produce only fake Cardas cables on a mass scale, where in my view there are a lot of much better power cables out there, such as Stealth, Synergistic, NBS, Shunyata, Nordost, etc.

I have purchased other power cords that cost many times more than the Golden Reference, but I have not heard from these manufacturers about fakes in the marketplace. Many of these brands do not issue the so-called "certificate of authenticity". In this day and age, if they can produce fakes of the cable, don't we think that they can also produce fakes of "certificate of authenticity", just as there are fake driver license and ID cards.

Frankly, I don't really care if I sell my GR cable because it is not a major expense for me as compared to how much I've already sunk into my system. It is just annoying to have to answer all these emails, and I think it would be rather disingenuous of Cardas if all this talk about so many fakes of their products in the market were not true....
avguy
Yes, there are a lot of fake Cardas. I personally got a pair. I bought a pair of 1/2M XLR Golden Reference a few years ago. They have no logo on the connectors. The seller told me they were re-terminated by the dealer. I didn't suspect anything at that time. Some times later, I saw a message on Cardas website about the counterfeited cable so I sent mine to Cardas to authenticate and it turned out they are completely fake.

If you aren't sure, I suggest you contact Cardas and have them authenticated.
There are better cables that would yeild more money than counterfiet Cardas. I am willing to bet that some of the fakes may even sound better than the real thing. Sorry I have taken in on trade Cardas cables in the past and sent them back to have the termination fixed. Of course I tried them in my system once they were shipped back from Cardas just to find out old school Oxygen free copper Radio Shack 1m RCA interconnects beat the crap out of authentic Cardas Golden Reference 1m RCA cables, " Atleast in my system".