Ali Baba

i'd surmise that almost all of the deeply-discounted western-branded gear on ali is counterfeit, in the sense of not being authorized by or sold for the account of the brand.  however, broadly speaking you find three types of counterfeit products--(a) junk which has no relation to the real thing but simply has a (fake) brand label, (b) cloned products which are meticulous copies of the real thing, and (c) actual, identical products sold out the back door by the brand's contract manufacturer. i've heard some of the cloned stuff--e.g. a "naim" amp and sennheiser earphone replicants--which are sold for a fraction of the real thing, and much of it sounded purty damn good. of course, none of this addresses the ethical and legal aspects of buying the copies, but the quality can be surprisingly excellent.