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Chinese fake cables How fake, how good?

I have noted a number of warnings about cheap Chinese fake cables on this site but curiosity led me to the Aliexpress site where I found a number of presumably fake big name cables from predominantly Cardas, Nordost and Siltech at about 15% of the USA or Australian price. I found Cardas Clear Light interconnects at about US$100 and decided what the heck let's give them a try at that price. Before buying I asked the seller the daft question as to whether they were genuine and got the reply that they were an OEM and constructed the interconnects from genuine Cardas cables and connectors. They arrived in a plastic bag rather than the Cardas box , not a great start but the cables looked real, and when connected, much to my surprise, they sounded really good. After 100hours or so burn in they sounded great and better than the Nordost Quatre Fils I had been using. I then took them to an Australian hi end dealer who sold real Cardas and asked rather ingenuously whether my cables were the real deal. The dealer would not commit but agreed to compare them to the real thing on a set up costing at a guess around A$100,00. Neither I nor the sales person could tell any difference so he then tried them against the Cardas Clear. Then there was some difference, not extreme but subtle, and certainly IMO not worth the price difference even if you bought the genuine Cardas Clear Light. So are these cables really fake and even if they are given my experience they are well worth a try. Maybe I'll try Nordost Odin or Siltech 770i next.
mazian

Showing 1 response by simonmoon

simonmoon's avatar
simonmoon
556 posts
 

As long as this old thread has been brought back from the dead, I might as well pitch in my feelings.

I have no problems buying Chinese cable "clones", because I am not taking any money out of the pockets of the real companies. As much as I spend on audio, I am not about to spend high dollars for cables*.

So, if I buy Chinese cable clones, I do not do it in lieu of buying the original cable, but as a standalone purchase. I am not weighing the 2 options; spend thousands on this Nordost cable, or spend under $100 for this clone, because I would never do the the former in the first place. And I doubt, anyone with the kind of money who would be able to buy the original Nordost (or whatever other high end cable), is going to be buying the Chinese clone.

The first Chinese clone I bought was about 4 years ago. My cousin, who belongs to an audiophile club in Phoenix, told me about them after his club did listening tests of a flat cable Nordost clone. I bought a pair of .5 meter cables for about $50 to go between my phono stage and preamp. It’s built very good, uses non ferrous RCA connectors.

Does it sound as good as the real thing? I have no idea. But it is as good as the more budget level audiophile cables (Blue Jeans, Morrow, and their ilk), for still quite a bit less those.

I also bought a Chinese clone of a MBL 6010 preamp as a "stop gap" a year ago, after my preamp blew up. I doubt it sounds as good as the real thing, but it sounds better than my old Luxman (a highly thought of vintage unit), for sure, and it holds its own against my friend’s Parasound JC2.

*I am not a ’cable denier’ (I hate that term)

 

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