They are probably fake, but a couple of things come to mind. The first is are you sure the cables were fully broken in? Also, they may be in between real and fake. Sometimes when a dealer has long runs of expensive cables, they cut them into smaller pieces so they are easier to sell.
Fake Audioquest sky cables
One of my friend had bought an audioquest sky cable from someone that i do not know. My friend knows that i am using audioquest sky cables, and when he tried the cables in his system he had some doubts about their fake or real, then he came to me. My friend sky cables has different color shielding and different kind of 72 v dbs and same connectors but different signs on them. When we tried my friends sky vs mine, friends sky has no stage, no 3d images, sloppy bass, and very highs were very harsh. There is no doubt that this cable is fake. He emailed photos of the cable to the audioquest, and they gave very vague answers, as far as i understand from my friends telling, there are two versions of sky, early model looks like my friends sky, later model looks like mine. I think they mentioned sonic improvement between two models, but not like our comparisons. I heart fake sky cables many times, but never met one. My friend is trying to give back cable, i do not know whether he succed or not. Have you ever seenor heart fake aq sky, did you have a chance to compare with a real one, are your findings similiar with us ?