AQ Diamond Unboxing Video

Another unboxing

Work with the seller first to try and obtain proof of purchase. Ask the seller about covering cost of shipping to AQ to confirm authenticity if you can’t get the necessary documentation proving it.
If that doesn’t work out go thru Audiogon.

@bishop55 -

     I would think: contacting the cable’s maker would be the best course, for the most decisive answer.

                 https://www.audioquest.com/contact-map

     An Audioquest resource, for verifying cable authenticity, on this page:

          https://www.audioquest.com/beware-of-counterfeits/authenticate

@audphile1 

I'm afraid asking the seller to ship to AQ wouldn't matter and I doubt they would actually do it sense they are in asia, it does explain why they are selling fakes. It is obvious the cable is phony. The listing photo is of the real cable. However what the seller actually sends you is completely different.

I've watched your videos are they are consistent with real audioquest products.

If you pay attention to the cardboard color in the listing is white as snow. The product you will receive will not have the "aq usb" on the plastic and will have a yellow hue to the internal cardboard.

I've also reached out to Audiogon support and it appears they are turning a blind eye to everything I have told and shown them. Be very careful purchasing from Asia, no matter how good the sellers feedback is, even if the listing photo is of the real cable theres no guarantee they will actually send you a real one as is my case. I'd also recommend going and checking any audioquest "products" you've purchase and compare them with what I've shown you, you may have been screwed. The fakes are all over ali express and some can be found on ebay.

From now on I'm only going to be buying from authorised dealers.

You can go thru PayPal assuming you used services and goods option, or another similar type of payment. And continue to work with Audiogon. If this seller sells fakes he/she needs to be at least banned from the marketplace. 
 

Also you can post this seller’s ID in the Member Reviews section of forums to warn others. 

To be honest, it is puzzling…

The seller has 4 pages of feedback and it is all stellar except your one negative feedback. That seller is dealing cartridges, cables, whatever.
I’m not saying anything here except that it makes no sense to me that they would take the risk selling a fake cable while having perfect feedback. Just odd….

Why can't you contact AudioQuest? Send them the picture.

ozzy

They don’t authenticate anything using pictures. They do physical cables only and if they find it’s a counterfeit the cable is destroyed. They’re doing the right thing by killing it so it’s out of circulation.

Word to the wise …insist on an OEM CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY

I’ve had CARDAS scope out suspected fakes for me, including Pre-owned listings as fakes flogged on REVERB and AGON. Right from the pics . If they don’t supply an OEM COA… chose wisely.

In their words, an estimated 20-25 percent if ALL CARDAS listings on the major forums are illegal and cheap-build inferior counterfeit fakes .( mostly from China where this shite is a national sport ….)

Hence,,,,IMO…( based on my CARDAS experiences)

(1) AQ should be able to identify the obvious fakes from the pics.(Uber cheap and crap build connectors, different markings , different colour sheathing , poor quality lettering, blah, blah,…. );

(2) the few more clever fakes may involve actually shipping these dodgy sourced cables to AQ, wherein they have to remove the connectors to inspect them and also inspect and examine the actual cable construction and sheathing (ditto for CARDAS).

BUT ….and its a BIG “BUT” ….be prepared that you won’t get the fake back either if it is identified as an illegal counterfeit fake. ( “knock-offs” are no-name attempted near-copies that are NOT the same as illegal use of OEM Trademarked brand name plunked onto counterfeit cheap- build POS fakes )

Wow, you really jumped the gun leaving negative feedback. The Diamond has been around for a while. AQ has been known to change braiding & packaging over time (even on the same model). That’s one heck of a leap to assume you’ve got a counterfeit based on the minor packaging differences, and nothing else. You abandoned all faith in the seller, did NO due diligence on your part, and left a neg. You also mentioned the cable is "defective" in your feedback. Is it? If it doesn’t work, then this case should have been as simple as requesting a full refund. If it does work (your paranoia aside), you’re not being fully truthful in your feedback.

I’ve bought cartridges from this same Asian (Hong Kong) seller, totaling much more than this cable, and they were all 100% authentic A-stock. I have full confidence that he sells only genuine articles, and if any mistake happens he’ll resolve it promptly. He has every right to be pissed. I wouldn’t deal with you either.

AQ has had a long history combating counterfeits, so you’re not wrong to be cautious of that, but this was not the right way to handle a transaction. In general it feels like the counterfeiting problem was at its peak in the days of Sky interconnects and K2 speaker cables - and seems like they’ve got this better under control with current models. Anyways, they will authenticate a cable for free (and dispose of counterfeits when found, like they should). I've sent in a number of AQ cables over the years an never got a fake. Because I'm a careful buyer who doesn't freak out on his sellers lol. 

@mulveling 

I did try to work with the seller and did my due diligence. The seller obviously understands what he is doing, that is why he rejected my return. Me & the seller know the cable is a worthless. The packaging is packaging. You can ask the seller why I received different packaging that matches nothing in their listing because he still hasn't explained anything.

Maybe you had a good experience with seller buying a cartridge but I challenge you to purchase the Diamond Cable and see how that plays out.

@bishop55 is it defective as in not working? Or is it working but you suspect it isn’t authentic? This much isn’t even clear.

The negative feedback the seller left you hints at a possibly offered option to authenticate this cable. But at this point I’m assuming it’s all has gone to crap. 
 

So is the cable working or not?

From the AQ website:

Beware of Counterfeits

Only Buy from Authorized AudioQuest Dealers and Distributors

One of the unfortunate consequences of building a successful premium brand is the appearance of counterfeit products. AudioQuest is not immune to this problem. While we make every effort to combat counterfeiting, we continue to see various products being sold as "AudioQuest" that are NOT genuine.

These counterfeits DO NOT meet AudioQuest quality standards and in fact, often turn out to be nothing more than common hardware store-grade cables hidden beneath an attempt to match our braid patterns and plugs.

The persons most hurt by these phony offerings are our potential customers, who in good faith may make a purchase feeling that they have stumbled upon a "too-good-to-ignore" deal. Also hurt are those who, while realizing the cables aren’t genuine, hold hope that the cables are at least “close” in quality. Sadly, this is very rarely the case.

We advise customers to buy only from authorized AudioQuest dealers and distributors. AudioQuest cannot ensure the authenticity of any product purchased from an unauthorized AudioQuest dealer.

AudioQuest can neither honor the warranties of products nor provide any level of support for products purchased through the following Marketplaces:

• Newegg
• Sears
• Walmart

If purchasing from a marketplace such as Amazon or eBay, please verify that the seller is authorized.

To visit the official AudioQuest Amazon Store, click here.

To verify that a dealer is authorized to sell AudioQuest before purchasing, click here.

Think you purchased a counterfeit?

if you click on the “online dealer” link…. Dunno …. Does your dealer appear among the authorized dealers …..?

You bought the cable from non authorized dealer from Asia no doubt at a discount. You feel you have been ripped off because the cable and packaging doesn't look right. Did you purchase your previous AQ cables from an authorized dealer? If not, how do you know that cable is legit too? Bottom line, if you want the real deal, buy directly from AQ or an authorized dealer. Remember, you get what you pay for.

You live and you learn.  

If it's too good to be true,  it usually is. 

Was it new or used?

How much less than MSRP did you pay?

I once bought a fancy”Audioquest” hdmi cable on eBay at about 10% of retail as an experiment. Was it fake? You bet! Did it work? Yes, but a real Audioquest cable that I had (a supposedly cheaper model) had much more vivid picture.

ebay has turned into a cesspool. 15 years ago it was an exciting place to buy stuff (I got a great deal on a very nice Stellarvue app refractor, you can’t fake Starlight instruments focused!). 
 

Don't buy from China or Hong Kong on EBay, is my advice.

Try and trust your ears

I just purchased a cart from him. Dude is fantastic. It was overnited from Hong Kong and I didn't ask nor pay for it. My second purchase from him and he's flawless. Be careful jumping to such broad claims. 

If it's a fake Cut it open and let's see the guts, if your really sure it's a fake what's it matter! My AQ coffee I bought from Best Buy, only because They gave me a huge CC one time looked just like the Diamond did in that unboxing video. Maybe the seller didn't know he had a fake! Either way he should've excepted a return, why risk a negative FB. I wouldn't bought it without him taking returns.

Also a fellow could swap out a real one for a fake and try to send it in, works both ways. I'm not implying you did that but I'm sure it's happened before somewhere like the turntable guy awhile back after 30 days he was scammed when the buyer said it was damaged.

OP said “they are selling fakes. It is obvious the cable is phony.” Another post he said the cable is “worthless.”  I think he is jumping to preconceived conclusions without first getting the facts and disrespecting an Audiogon seller with lots of positive feedback vs OP with no feedback prior to this transaction.  He should send the cable to Audioquest to authenticate and if cable turns out to be fake, then he has a case.  A couple of years ago, I bought AQ Colorado cables (no box) from a seller on this platform and when I got it and compared to a pair I already owned, they sounded like crap and my first initial reaction was these are fake.  I worked with the seller and we agreed to have AQ authenticate and he would refund if indeed they were fake.  AQ authenticated as genuine. So, all was good on both parties. 

So based on what I have read so far here is my conclusion.

Agree with seller that both negative postings will be deleted If:

1. The seller will let you send the cable (at your expense) to AudioQuest and if they agree it is fake, he will refund your money. Minus your shipping cost.

2. If the cable turns out to be genuine then you will post so on this thread and let the seller know that you are satisfied.

ozzy

I would not assume its fake based on packaging. I have many Vodka ethernet cables, all purchased from authorized dealers, packaging not exactly the same for all.

@bishop55 - how much did you pay for the cable? I went briefly through the thread, but I didn’t catch it. 

This is one reason I like Triode wire labs cables. Each cable has a serial number.

@willywonka …respectfully, does each single cable have a unique serial number? The reason I ask…is a serial number may not buy you that much either… only if you can use it to validate with mfg.

I think the best, but not perfect answer is to request and maintain original receipts for purposes of authenticity.

One thing I still find really suspicious is when cables like Valhallas were being sold without their original wood cases …who would spend tens of thousands on cables and throw out the custom boxes (and doc)…??!!

There are no serial numbers and no certificates of authenticity (silly slips, anyways - CoA is a gimmick for Franklin Mint type of trinkets to certify that you have genuine worthless junk, lol) with AQ. The solution is simple - send it to AQ for authentication. I'd absolutely bet it comes back authentic. The posted pics are very far from approaching proof of counterfeit. With 0 feedback, OP won't gain many sympathetic ears until he does this. 

I am in Industrial printing, which includes packaging.

The industry, like most others has been hit with supply line shortages. Packaging materials taken for granted for years/decades are suddenly unavailable for the forseeable future. Package producers are scrambling to get any types of materials so consistant feel or color may not be possible. Furthermore, a compartively small company like AQ, that doesn’t order millions of packages every month will get lower priority than those that do.

A package that has slightly different appearance is not automatically going to be a counterfit.

Agree with mwinkc. Also, I’ve personally seen both the aq Columbia packaging and the jacket material change dramaticly between purchases from legit dealers.