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.
I think that we've been through all of that a long time ago, and I never said that it was good to use another company's name. What I did say was that I don't believe that Nordost lost a penny from the illegal use of their name because they are two different customers. Anyway, I don't have any interest in those counterfeit products now, but I do think that Xangsane makes great interconnects and digital cables for a very low price. I hope that clarifies things for you. |
@roxy54 I share the same impression: I doubt Nordost lost a penny from the counterfeits. Two different ends of the market. Budget brands, on the other hand, might have lost a few customers. I've been using a lot of those Odin counterfeits but have since switched to Xangsane pure silver which is a phenomenal cable (interconnects and digital cable) Still using "Odin" power cables I used Duelund speaker cable for a while but I was not fully satisfied. The similarly priced "Valhalla 1" SC sounds much better to my ears. But at least there's no fake Nordost branding on it :) |
I purchased; FURUTECH Flagship OCC HIFI Speaker Cable Fever Grade Audio Cable from China & from here in the States, both equal lengths. The cable price I paid for in the States were 10x’s more then the cable from China. The bottom line is, that there’s no difference whatsoever between the two! Makes me wonder if we're all getting ripped off? |
