Cheap Interconnects from Hong Kong

I have often wondered about the Audioquest speaker cables being sold on e-bay from Hong Kong.The cables look authentic and some of the buyers have 100% positive feedback and have sold numerous ones of these.

It is frequently easy to spot counterfeit AQ cables. I would say the majority of the ones on E-bay from a multitude of Hong Kong sellers are fake. If you look at a genuine AQ King Cobra you will notice that the cable jacket itself is composed of a mix of black and red interwoven strips, with a bit more black than red. The red strips are grouped together in rows of blocks along the length of the cable that are as wide as the black strips separating the red rows. Most of the ones on E-bay have fatter red sections. The width of the red and black strips is not equal. When you look at a real AQ King Cobra cable you should be able to see three complete rows of red blocks on half the diameter. Also, real AQ cables are really not shiny at all, while E-bay rip offs often have a bright sheen. The cable is the most important and difficult to manufacture part. The connectors are relatively inexpensive in bulk. E-bay counterfeits often have real AQ connectors on fake cables. Some have fake connectors and cables. I personally would not buy cables from Hong Kong on E-bay.

I just bought AQ gibraltar from hong kong on ebay. If these are fake my ears don't care. They are that good. One thing these are not the current version but an older version. I had bedrock before and the printintg matches and the cable is similar but the sound is not similar. These cost more but they sound so much better in every way. I will by interconnects from same seller. I feel i saved $800.00.

Hong Kong is also a great place to buy high end watches. I've seen them for as much as 99% off MSRP. I don't know how they are able to get such a good deal from the manufacturer. (/ sarcasm)

Short answer is yes, they are fake. Now they may in fact be the raw materials supplier to AQ, XLO, or Kimber , but they are not selling authentic product.

Now as to that making an audible difference???? My $60 Bell & Ross is still ticking.

I bought Audioquest optilink-5 for $120.00 from eBay Seller in Hong Kong not long ago. IT'S FAKE. It sounds so dull. My AQ optilink-A that I bought from local Magnolia HiFi sounds much much better.