In the case brought up here, the amplifier is an obvious low-end knock off that doesn't hide what it is.
But I maintain that in the high-end audio realm, when the component appears legitimate, and looks the same as the real one, it almost certainly is. I’ll submit another, more lengthy post outlining additional detail should folks want, but for now, as an incredible amount of European, Japanese, and North American production shifted to China, with the resulting loss of control by these entities, it actually costs more to copy and produce a good knock off in China than the original.
The typical, familiar HEA company outsources production to one of what’s known as the Big 5 in China. Over the course of the past decade, they’ve in turn outsourced their production to one of the bigger (think huge) electronic manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta of southern China. Any component (amplifier, digital front end, loudspeaker, wire) with obvious CNC work that doesn’t carry boutique HEA component pricing, and doesn’t show absolute proof of domestic manufacturing operation almost assuredly took this route.
The Chinese Big 5 company, acting as the middleman, will submit an order for 100 of component X. As the cost to the actual manufacturer of having to do another production run of even one of Component X actually exceeds turning out 200 or more in the initial run, they make sure to manufacture extra in case of problems with function, appearance, loss in transit, shipping damage, or whatever. So, let’s say 110 (it’s usually a good bit more) come out of this production run, and for whatever reason, it took 103 to fill the order. What do you expect happens to the remaining 7? The entity that placed the order isn’t going to pay for or accept the extra, and the manufacturer won’t give them away for free. Does anyone think they get destroyed or just evaporate into thin air? No, they wind up getting moved through "alternative" channels, which may even include the ordering entity, who then push them through outlets other than the familiar foreign company whose name (or, maybe they slapped another on) appears on the faceplate
But I maintain that in the high-end audio realm, when the component appears legitimate, and looks the same as the real one, it almost certainly is. I’ll submit another, more lengthy post outlining additional detail should folks want, but for now, as an incredible amount of European, Japanese, and North American production shifted to China, with the resulting loss of control by these entities, it actually costs more to copy and produce a good knock off in China than the original.
The typical, familiar HEA company outsources production to one of what’s known as the Big 5 in China. Over the course of the past decade, they’ve in turn outsourced their production to one of the bigger (think huge) electronic manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta of southern China. Any component (amplifier, digital front end, loudspeaker, wire) with obvious CNC work that doesn’t carry boutique HEA component pricing, and doesn’t show absolute proof of domestic manufacturing operation almost assuredly took this route.
The Chinese Big 5 company, acting as the middleman, will submit an order for 100 of component X. As the cost to the actual manufacturer of having to do another production run of even one of Component X actually exceeds turning out 200 or more in the initial run, they make sure to manufacture extra in case of problems with function, appearance, loss in transit, shipping damage, or whatever. So, let’s say 110 (it’s usually a good bit more) come out of this production run, and for whatever reason, it took 103 to fill the order. What do you expect happens to the remaining 7? The entity that placed the order isn’t going to pay for or accept the extra, and the manufacturer won’t give them away for free. Does anyone think they get destroyed or just evaporate into thin air? No, they wind up getting moved through "alternative" channels, which may even include the ordering entity, who then push them through outlets other than the familiar foreign company whose name (or, maybe they slapped another on) appears on the faceplate