Use a Dremel tool and it should be easy. Why do you want to remove them anyway?
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.
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@spenav the cables sold by RM Digital are a VERY different lot, much more expensive, and you can immediately recognize them even just looking at pictures, especially when it comes to the latest "Odin Gold" generation. They use a totally different wire. I'm sure they probably are very good, and well built, but the thing is, most positive reviews that you read online are for the cheap ones sold through some other stores, at a 1/4 of the price of the RM offerings. and indeed, the "cheap" versions (at least those that come from good vendors and ave been put together with care) DO sound fantastic. Maybe I'll try some RM at some point but, I need a lot of cables, and there's a point were "attention to detail" doesn't matter if the difference is mainly cosmetics (I don't care if my cables don't look like the real deal, I just buy them for the sound quality and low price). |
@rolox that’s an excellent summary which all but mirrors my experience. I have found that it’s been a (generalised, YMMV) 5:1 value ratio, i.e a $50 IC cable on AE buys you its $250 US equivalent in performance. Of course that doesn’t consider system synergy, but I’ve now tried enough of them (9 ICs now, all well reviewed or reliably recommended on forums) to average out my experience. Some have bettered and others haven’t met that comparison, but ALL have been significantly better than they deserved to be for the price. I’ve otherwise favoured Transparent, Audioquest and Wireworld cables. |
@spenav I totally agree and have been trying to tell people here to pay the $30-40 extra and get the RM Digital versions. They seem much better quality than some of the other AliEx Odin knock offs. |
Wood blocks on the Authentic Nordost cables serve to direction. Also they conform to the cable to help reduce vibrations and noise. As with most reverse engineered products from offshore suppliers they do not have the IP or engineering capacity to understand the implementation of these technologies. So grinding or chiseling those blocks off the knockoff product will not be detrimental as I highly doubt their product is directional, ultrasonically treated (burn in).
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