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Has anybody bought or heard a Chinese knock off amplifier?

There are a lot clones coming out of China and power amplifiers seem to be along for the ride.
Mark Levinson, Goldmund, and Accuphase are some of the big names I see replica’s being advertised for sale. These replica’s range in price from $500-$2000. My curiosity every time I see these always is do they even sound like the brand they are trying copy? Another thought that comes to my mind when I see them is, are they even safe or reliable. I myself wouldn’t touch one of these, but that’s me. Has anybody heard one? If so it would be interesting to hear some opinions regarding these amplifiers.
hiendmmoe
fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,496 posts
 
If you haven't seen them already you obviously don't want to.
The cloners are betting on no comparisons because customers of authentics don't care and customers of clones will never live with the real thing.
ebm
9,311 posts
 
Yes i got the big egg roll amp 1000watts rms.
larryi
3,716 posts
 
I saw an amazing looking linestage which had parts that looked like vintage Western Electric transformers, capacitors and resistors.  The buyer paid big bucks (I think it was something like $15,000), but the parts turned out to be Chinese counterfeit parts.  The parts really looked quite good (made to look aged), but an expert spotted discrepancies in the decals on the parts.
divertiti
222 posts
 
Don't know what these knockoffs you're talking about, but I've owned and used Chinese designed and made gear like Line Magnetic and Denafrips, they were all superb.
larryi
3,716 posts
 
There is the whole gamut of Chinese audio gear--original designs, designs based on existing gear from other manufacturers and outright counterfeits (meant to actually fooling someone into thinking it is an original piece from another manufacturer).  I've seen, for example, Chinese counterfeit tubes (Telefunken 803S) and counterfeit Audio Note interconnect cables.  It takes quite a bit of skill to pull off realistic counterfeit goods, something that a manufacturing juggernaut like China has in abundance.
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