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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
erik_squires
15,647 posts
 
I have this issue with cables, generally. The price differential rarely relates well to any perceptible changes in sound quality.


sbayne's avatar
sbayne
480 posts
 
China's companies over the years have done a lot of manufacturing "off the books" meaning the item may be made on the same line as the legit product but simply is not shown in the accouting sent to the company requesting the work. Its very easy for them to hide extra runs of a product if the company - which is usually in the USA - doesn't have someone on site. This goes on in many industries, not only high-end audio. These products never go into the dealer network and therefore cannot be accounted for. I've heard the comment that authorized dealers sell excess inventory and create "Gray Market" products. That may occassionally occur but what happens more often, and on a much bigger scale, is the Chinese manufacturer is simply selling directly to an exporter the extra product it manufactured off the books. They count on doing this and often calculate it into their quotes when pricing a cost for manufacturing a product. So is it "counterfeit"? The answer is yes but it may be the exact same product you would buy from an authorized dealer.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Without knowing the invisible details and without using exactly the same high performance materials what chance do they have? It’s not as if you can reverse engineer these things. One thing I’m pretty sure the Chinese can’t duplicate is jewel like finish. Of, course if someone never saw the real thing he might be easily fooled. And even if someone was able to make an EXACT COPY they would lose money unless they charged $$$$$. I mean, come on! At the same time, I suspect the fake Chinese cables get good feedback. 😀
astelmaszek
125 posts
 
@geoffkait Clearly, the culture that invented carving and polishing jade is incapable of creating jewel like finish.

And how would they lose money? Breaking down the cost of Nordost Odin speaker cable is about $10 a foot of wire and insulation. Yes, 20 gauge, 99.999999% OFC silver coated single crystal wire can be had for about .30 a foot x 26 is $7.80. Teflon is pretty cheap. Total cost of material for 2 x 10ft Odin cables is about $200. Everything else is fluff, but no more than another $200 wholesale.
andysf
268 posts
 
I thought Cardas cables were made in the US.
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