Chinese fake cables How fake, how good?


I have noted a number of warnings about cheap Chinese fake cables on this site but curiosity led me to the Aliexpress site where I found a number of presumably fake big name cables from predominantly Cardas, Nordost and Siltech at about 15% of the USA or Australian price. I found Cardas Clear Light interconnects at about US$100 and decided what the heck let's give them a try at that price. Before buying I asked the seller the daft question as to whether they were genuine and got the reply that they were an OEM and constructed the interconnects from genuine Cardas cables and connectors. They arrived in a plastic bag rather than the Cardas box , not a great start but the cables looked real, and when connected, much to my surprise, they sounded really good. After 100hours or so burn in they sounded great and better than the Nordost Quatre Fils I had been using. I then took them to an Australian hi end dealer who sold real Cardas and asked rather ingenuously whether my cables were the real deal. The dealer would not commit but agreed to compare them to the real thing on a set up costing at a guess around A$100,00. Neither I nor the sales person could tell any difference so he then tried them against the Cardas Clear. Then there was some difference, not extreme but subtle, and certainly IMO not worth the price difference even if you bought the genuine Cardas Clear Light. So are these cables really fake and even if they are given my experience they are well worth a try. Maybe I'll try Nordost Odin or Siltech 770i next.
128x128mazian
American equipment manufacturers have been blurring the line for years. Audioquest made a video walk throuh of their plant to prove they were made in the USA. Well I call BS!  The plant had spools of product and soldering stations but where is the foundry and the plastic extrusion machines, chillers and heavy equipment to make even bare wire yet alone insulated wire in a co-extruded sleeve? My uncle worked at Anaconda Copper in Hastings NY and the infrastructure is huge and Audioquest has a tiny building where they supposedly "manufacture" cables but in reality they are terminating bulk cable made elsewhere.

Apple probably has the best designed and built phones in the world and they are made in China by Foxcon. Why would people believe that anything made there is garbage? My guess is that most of these things are made in China and the bulk product is sent to be finished and packaged in other countries.
With that said I have some genuine Tara labs cables and some from Alibaba.  I have a very resolving system and I can not discern which is which sonically or visually. So YMMV and the price was exceptional.

Audioquest didn’t say they made their own wire, knucklehead. Nobody does, hel-loo!
It’s not really that hard, astlmostzal, all you need is a hole and a bunch of electrons. Anyone could do it. Even you.