Well I’ve been running pink noise through my system for about 22hrs now… any thoughts on when I ought to check back in w/ the state of the cables? 50hrs? 100hrs?
Counterfeit Chinese Cables
I thought that I would write this for those who are curious about one of the many counterfeit Chinese interconnect cables that are available these days. I know that there have been threads about the subject before, and I was always curious because they seem to be such a bargain. I don't really recall much about what any members actually said about the performance of these counterfeit cables, and I didn't look back and do any research, but a couple of months ago there was a thread that came around to discussing the quality of Chinese made components, and oldhvymec said something that made sense to me.
He said that people that say that what they are making is junk should consider that much of what is in our gear, and a lot of our American brands are actually manufactured there. I decided shortly after that that I would take the chance on a set of interconnects, because I suspected that the interconnects going from my pre to my amp were the weak link and needed upgrading. The interconnects going from my DAC to my pre were Kimber Select which are very good, but the other set were LAT International (now defunct) which had cost $500.00 when new, but I had reason to believe they were lacking because I have one of their digital cables that turned out to be very poor sounding in comparison to others I own.
I decided on a one meter pair of counterfeit Nordost Odin interconnects for a total of $104.00 from Aliexpress. I received them a couple of weeks later. They appeared to be well made, and the locking fake WBT rca's were very impressive and are very tight.
First impressions after installing them were light, thin sound, lacking bass. Each couple of days brought improvements, but from the beginning I noticed that they were quieter. Now, weeks later, I can say that they are drastically better that the LAT's in every way. Detail and ambience are much better, but it's the focus and separation of instruments that is most noticeable.
I have no way of knowing if they are really a copy of the Nordost design, but I am impressed enough that I am going to try a counterfeit Nordost digital cable.
Obviously, this isn't a comparison that is useful to most, because there probably isn't anyone here using the LAT's, and everything is system dependent. I just wanted to relay my positive experience.
Showing 10 responses by rfnoise
Been following this thread for awhile… just ordered two pairs of what I’ve decided to call “Nordin Odost” XLR off AliExpress, not looking to be bowled over by performance, but simply because I have a pressing need for a couple pairs of balanced interconnects and they were priced similarly to the other more basic cables I was looking at on Amazon. |
Hmm… now you’ve got me wondering which ones I ended up ordering… Do you happen to remember which vendor had the better connectors? |
The ones I ordered were the non-gold version from “hifi-diy store”. I just picked the one that seemed to have the most unit sales and positive reviews. Maybe I’ll think about trying a pair of the ones you provided a link to as well. I’m sure in the past I’ve spent more than $40 on countless things more frivolous and less interesting than comparing two cables out of sheer curiosity. |
Another thing I’m curious about is the quality of the ubiquitous “carbon fiber plug” connectors (xlr/rca/5-15p) and whether or not they’re any good. They appear on a ton of cables on AliExpress, including several of the Nordost knockoffs. Heck, I have a pair of Underwood HiFi’s $400 gold series interconnects that use these connectors. As an aside, I have a sneaking suspicion that these cables are sourced through the same channels as the much cheaper cables we’re seeing on AliExpress.For instance, the $349 Underwood gold series power cable looks pretty much identical to the ones sold on AliExpress as an Accuphase/shuko cable. https://www.underwoodhifi.com/products/linx https://www.underwoodhifi.com/products/valiant https://m.aliexpress.com/item/33016795882.html?gatewayAdapt=Pc2Msite
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It’s interesting to me the amount of pearl-clutching generated here by obviously fake knockoffs being sold to informed people who never would/could buy the real deal, whereas the idea of sourcing dirt-cheap cables from China and marketing them at a greater than 10x markup is something that no one seems to bat an eyelash at.
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Well my XLR neardost odin 2’s showed up yesterday. The connectors were as @rolox described, with the rear plastic shell. I put one pair of the clones between my preamp and amp, and the other between dac and pre. I definitely noticed a difference, more detail, more air, and maybe more specificity in separation of instruments. But at the same time, a little lean, and dry in the mids. Wasn’t really sure how I felt about it. I’d intended to just listen with the new interconnects, but impatience got the better of me a I hooked up the pair of the flat Valhalla clone speaker cables. Holy smokes! That was a change for the better, and not a subtle one. I think the best way to describe it is to say that if my cables were photos, the old ones were slightly out of focus, and with too little contrast, and that has now been resolved. It really felt like something that I hadn’t realized was between me and the music had been removed. On one song, I actually heard distinct soft backup vocals that I’d never realized were there. It was eerie. Still kind of wondering about the interconnects tho, although I’ve only had a chance to listen to them for a couple hours.
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I was picking up on informal nomenclature I’d seen others use in this thread. Apologies, I didn’t mean to confuse you. Are you intending to carry on with burning the cables you received? If so, I look forward to reading your results. Your initial impressions were somewhat discouraging, and your experience with the real deal provides valuable context.
These are the cables I ordered:
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