Furukawa power cables

No no no. Get one of those $100 cords and report back so we will know. Audiogon is also work.

Curious as to why “made in Japan" cables ship predominately from China and Hong Kong?

Not familiar with them, but do find this odd (just ran an Ebay search).

DeKay

It does look like a legitimate company, but it is odd that all products ship from China. I have bought Japanese products, such as Oyaide, and they all ship from Japan and are expensive.
Perhaps China is their worldwide distribution center; perhaps not. I would contact Furukawa on their website.

Some Sony products are made in China. Some "made in USA" products like iPhone and many audio products are made in China, I.e., manufactured or assembled in China. All tennis rackets including Yonex, a Japanese company, and Babolat, a French company, are you guessed it, made in China. It's much much cheaper skilled labor in China. 

That's true, Geoff. Japan now uses China for production just like the US.

To add to the confusion...
http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26761

https://www.audioasylum.com/messages/cables/159632/furukawa-pcocc-power-cord

Isn't that the company that had the nuclear reactor melt down a few years back? Those cables probably glow!

ozzy

"Curious as to why “made in Japan" cables ship predominately from China and Hong Kong?"

Possibly they are counterfeits. I know Furutech advises against purchasing “Furutech” labeled product that ships from China or Hong Kong.

Fukushima was the site of the nuclear disaster. Close. Very close. For the purposes of staying on topic I used to have a white power cord that was surplus from a commercial aircraft comm section. Sounded quite good. 

There are many fakes in eBay, especially from China.

Why would anybody fake an inexpensive cable? I.e., industrial cable.

Spoke to my dealer. He said those are probably fake if shipping from china. He also advised that there many fakes including PS audio power cables, shipped and sold by US sellers on eBay. Even relatively cheap cables 50-90$ would still bring a massive profit margin on cables that may cost less than a dollar to make in China. 

The argument that huge profits can be made by knocking off the cables in China is exactly the same argument used by real companies to have their products made in China. Companies like Casio (Japanese), Tannoy (UK), Parasound (US) now have Made in China engraved on their products. If I were to sell knock of cables, I’d pick something like say, Nordost, Audioquest or Tara Labs, not one that sounds vaguely like it might be somewhat radioactive.

There are PS Audio AC-12 top of the line cords for $379 here. PS Audio sells them directly for $1200. Are they fake or not? 

@geoffkait 

Assembling a product in china by an actual company e.g. apple, casio, tannoy is different from making  knock offs in someone's basement and selling them as an actual product. 

PS Audio cables on ebay are probably fake. Also, it appears some third party amazon sellers sell fakes as well. I've seen Analysis Plus Pro Oval Power Cable on amazon for 100 bucks. Is this a fake? 

ei001h OP
@geoffkait

Assembling a product in china by an actual company e.g. apple, casio, tannoy is different from making knock offs in someone’s basement and selling them as an actual product.

>>>>Gee, you don’t say? No one is saying anything to the contrary. But that’s the whole point, the capability and motivation to produce very good replicas/knockoffs exists in China. This issue is undoubtedly on the list trade issues we have with China. Have you seen the Made in China knockoffs of expensive cables like Audioquest? They do not (rpt not) look like they were made in someone’s basement. Have you seen the Made in China knockoffs of Babolat tennis racquets? They don’t look like they were made in someone’s basement. Have you seen the Made in China knockoffs of Casio G Shock watches? They don’t look like they were made in someone’s basement.

ei001h then wrote,
PS Audio cables on ebay are probably fake. Also, it appears some third party amazon sellers sell fakes as well. I’ve seen Analysis Plus Pro Oval Power Cable on amazon for 100 bucks. Is this a fake?

>>>>>I bought an Analysis Plus Pro Oval Power Cable for less than $100 bucks on the Internet. It’s not (rpt not) a fake. That’s the going price. And it’s a very good power cable, too. Deal of the century!

Furukawa is a Japanese company that is licensed to produced Ohno Continuous Cast Copper wire. This is the same company that supplies Audio Sensibility, Audience, Audioquest, Furutech, Oyaide, PS Audio and some others.  Whether this is the same company as the one on eBay, I don't know.

I don't know what the reality of the situation is but the single crystal copper power cords with Acrolink Cryo connectors on eBay are way cool. From Hong Kong. If it's fake it's quite a good fake. Of course, whether the copper is really ohno single crystal from Furukawa and the connectors really are Acrolink Cryo remains to be seen and might take some doing. But that's the beauty of it!

Try the Signal Cable MagicPower cables for less than $100 shipped and made in the USA.  I love mine on all my source components and preamps.

Thanks geoff for pointing out my deliberate feeble attempt at humor.

Back to the topic... I purchased some very high quality items recently from Hong Kong. If these are knockoffs or fake I can't tell. 
On the other hand, I also purchased the same items from China and they were definitely inferior to the Hong Kong version.

ozzy

I've had similar experiences to Ozzy's. Lots of good stuff from Hong Kong.. China is more hit and miss.

Our hobby was started by guys who made their own gear and now few even attempt a very easy power cord build . Furukawa used to supply Oyaide OCC copper and when they stopped production Oyaide researched and now produces their own which is even better than the PCOCC from Furukawa . Here's my recipe for the best you can find and cheap for the quality: 
You need shielded power cable and connectors for both ends here is the cable :
https://global.rakuten.com/en/store/chuya-online/item/92509/
This is Oyaide's heaviest , a 10 gauge cable using their 102ssc copper( Google that) .This is the great supplier from whom I purchased .Their Ebay store has higher prices .

For connectors you don't want plated brass, find copper conductors and if plated , only gold or silver are acceptable unless you are trying to use the cable as a tone control device . Here are the U.L. approved plugs I would have used had I found them before the more expensive ones I did use ( which are slightly better in limited supply and I won't reveal ) :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Valab-Rose-Gold-Plated-Copper-AC-Power-Cord-US-Male-Plug/302440808862?ssPage... Look at vendor's other items for the female IEC plug .
No soldering. Wire cutters, strippers a phillips screwdriver are the tools you will need. You will be amazed at the results. Do your best to not nick the wires and definitely research how to assemble or get help . To get polarity correct, the wires go directly into the IEC plug ( and you Should do that end first). On the power plug end you will need to make the black and white wires exchange sides so black goes to Line ( marked L ) , making sure no strand of wire shorts to the other side. Get a friend to help/coach you and DO NOT attempt this if you don't yet understand . It's not  that hard , but is lethal done incorrectly .

Lethal? Whoa! I’m out! 😛

Lethal, that's funny. Circuit beaker prevents that. My take on ripoffs.
Cord companies scream fake fake. yet only Kimber shows a photo of
fake, why others not? If they are fake, Show us like Kimber! yet they don't, something smells fishy. If you search a few years back, couple of guys who paid for PS Premier cables, tried one from China, keep in mind they had been discontinued a couple of years, conclusion was same exact cable, right down to incremental break in points. How do you fake that?  

shadorne informs me that cables don't make any audible difference so there should be no difference between real cable and fake ones. Am I missing something? 😳

Almost wet my pants laughing so hard. Groffkait ever consider stand up comedy? Bill Burr look out.

perfectpathtech

Almost wet my pants laughing so hard.

Provided that you are old enough to have been properly toilet trained then it is time for you to begin the process of wearing items such as "Depends" there is no need for you to be emabarrassed about this situation it does happen to some people as they get older. My father had this problem in his later years and todays "adult diaper's" are actually quite discreet you can also order them online. Good luck to you.

The points made by @biketech60 reinforce my belief that the main problem with high-end cables is the shameless mark up. The just don't cost anywhere near, as in not in the same universe, what it costs to manufacture, distribute, and ship. How can I trust a company that wants to get me to pay 10 times the cost of the components used in a power cable?!? And no matter how they spin it 102ssc is not PCOCC.

I have a Spectral preamp that has an outboard power supply with cheap factory cabling into and out if the the power box and have tried upgrading the cables and there was no audible difference in sound.I have an expensive set up and have upgraded most of the power cables but spending more than $100 to get decent connectors and shielding is useless.The power comes from the plant down the power lines into the house wiring addding a firehose $5000 per cable is ridiculous.The very best audio equipment is not improved by adding 3' of ultra expensive power cable from the wall plug to the input.

 

 

@peterfd unless you have an under-gaged, high impedance power cable. But if you have a low impedance power source, or some type of shielding, or... it can make a lot of difference.

At the very least a good power cable can help you to reduce REFI near the component, no?

@peterfd. I too use Spectral. Why do you make your claim? What power cords have you tried?

Buy I cable and get a free Egg Roll or LO Main.

I did buy the cable and it seems okay, though I have been trying to learn whether the amount of shielding is adequate to be any use.

I got it from Aliexpress, called:

Hi-End Furukawa T1 5N OFC copper multi conductor power wire