Revisiting Chinese Knockoff Cables

I think all of my cabling now (RAC, XLR and PC) are pretty much knock-offs. Mainly the Odin Golds and some Odins. Purple Nordost knock-offs, as well.

Original cabling I have consist of a few A+ Silvers (RCA, speakers and PC), Acoustic Zen Krakatoas, AZ Hologram II speaker and I'm sure a few others.

I've done comparisons, but it was so long ago and only for the IC's I think, that I don't recall what I heard (or didn't). How I approached it was since the cabling was so inexpensive compared to hi-fi cabling that when I swapped out the ICs as long as I didn't need to rush the old ones back in quickly, it was a win.

The only issue I've had with them is that the speaker connectors seem to be done somewhat poorly. I've had to replace most all of them for one reason or another.

I've never followed these knock off threads so forgive me if this has already been covered. Has anyone ever confirmed the provenance of these cables? Is it just some random factory building generally similar cables and slapping existing names on them? Or are these at all tied in with the original supplier who makes them for Nordost etc? Maybe hard to know for sure, just wondering if we've got any good leads or anything. 

Following up my last post, I reached out to RAL, the 1m digital cable is $589. No bueno, so I searched Ali-Express and found a  ERUMPENT Sterling Silver RCA Coaxial Audio Cable for DAC TV Subwoofer Professional Digital RCA to RCA Spdif 75 Ohm HiFi Cable 1.5M shipped for $118.00. It only took 2 weeks to arrive. I applied a light coat of MAD SCIENTIST graphene enhancer an hit play. From the very first note the sound was 3D huge compare to my other digital cable (no name). Now both the able and the graphene nee a couple days to meld

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808065125988.html?ug_edm_item_id=3256808065125988&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21USD%21%24127.00%21%2490.17%21%21%21%21%21%40210143c117521338939485342de9f1%2112000044380727038%21edm%21%21%21&edm_click_module=item_detail&edm_log_data=edm-item-list-one-column.store-product-log-link&tracelog=rowan&rowan_id1=aeug_edm_84127_1_en_US_2025-07-10&rowan_msg_id=8853biz_add_cart%3A0%3A0_578346165%24c05a03c09c63482fb52a3a153d39f437&ck=in_edm_other&mem_info=b1nTMBb%20YrxWzLWMYKkTRA%3D%3D-100103-aeug_edm_84127-F0tH1zwMsDosuDBLZgM0RlSVMaDxL0pcZaZIxW3BjuU%3D&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

@996turbo911 I experimented with these cables, specifically the Nordost knockoffs for power and interconnects. There are quite a few suppliers of the Nordost type cables, or were when I was looking, so some are surely pure fakes. I spent a lot of time up front comparing the visual details of the various vendor products in comparison to the Nordost products of the day, and purchased those that were virtually identical. I dissected the cables and they are meticulously made with seemingly  high quality parts that match the Nordost cable descriptions. However, in listening to the balanced interconnects, I did not find them particularly good. I have tried quite a few others since then, and maybe have a better ear now, it might be worth popping them back in to see how they sound.

@996turbo911 I experimented with these cables, specifically the Nordost knockoffs for power and interconnects. There are quite a few suppliers of the Nordost type cables, or were when I was looking, so some are surely pure fakes. I spent a lot of time up front comparing the visual details of the various vendor products in comparison to the Nordost products of the day, and purchased those that were virtually identical. I dissected the cables and they are meticulously made with seemingly  high quality parts that match the Nordost cable descriptions. However, in listening to the balanced interconnects, I did not find them particularly good. I have tried quite a few others since then, and maybe have a better ear now, it might be worth popping them back in to see how they sound.