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

Showing 1 response by merosen

Hi,
Please bear with me, This may be a little off topic.
I'm in a way a noob at this, My system was in storage for 15 years.
Before that I was very active in Audio. I have Nordost Red Dawn  -- the old flatline. I decided I wanted to upgrade cables to Heimdall 2.
I found a pair of 2 meter XLR at a very good price from a dealer.
He said they where dealer demos.
I thought I was getting a pair of regular cables,
When I got them they had green sleeving on one end.
They sleeve said "Dealer Demo-Not for Resale" with a serial number.
Other end said Heimdall 2. I didn't know dealer demos were a different cable. Looking around I noticed sellable Heimdall 2 had black and red on both ends. Me being somewhat new at this I think I got caught up in not knowing what Iwas buying. I did not know that Nordost marked there cables differently. I think he probably got samples from Nordost to see if he wanted to sell them (not listed on the Nordost site as a dealer) as he has only two other Nordost items. (One, a pair of Frey 2 XLR  with the green sleeve. The other biwire jumpers.)
He probably decided not to become a dealer.
I'm assuming that these are not fake. Am I not supposed to own them? Is this in some way illegal? Are they actually owned by Nordost?
I guess if the price was to good to be true.
BTW no returns on used items.
Any comments would be appreciated.