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Chinese Cables that sound good

Please share your chinese cable purchases that sounded good, and even horror stories of cables that didn't work out.

People get lured into aliexpress and other sites when the see expensive looking cables that appear very similar to well-known audiophile high-priced units, but at a fraction of the cost.

THIS THREAD IS NOT ABOUT IF ITS RIGHT OR WRONG TO COPY OTHERS' DESIGNS.  ITS ABOUT WHICH CABLES SOUND GOOD AND/OR PERFORM WELL.

There are lots of chinese cables to choose from:

- Power cables 

- USB cables (separating signal and data)

- Speaker cables

- Interconnects

- HDMI / IIS cables

 

I've tried a pair of Xansane silver plated copper, braided, speaker cables, to replace generic 12AWG copper that I was using.  The pair cost around $230 CAD.  It appeared to be made well.  However, I didn't notice any difference in the sound of my speakers.  2nd however, I also didn't take notes beforehand or do critical listening...I was just expecting to be blown away somehow but I wasn't.  I will be DIY'ing my future cables (power, interconnects, USB, and maybe speaker) using the DIY Helix cable information found on this site (link to thread).

But for now, I want to see what worked for other people.

 

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oldhvymec
5,101 posts
 

roxy54 how are the digital cables working for you? 

Regards

digsmithd
913 posts
 

I have bought several pairs of Ghents canare 4s12 cables...i was even surprised that the ends really were not objectionable sounding.Hes a great guy to deal with as well.

No complaints here for the $...cant get 4s12 in states either.Fwiw prefered it over 4s11 slightly because of xtra awg/bass weight.

roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,651 posts
 

oldhvymec,

The fake Nordost interconnects have turned out to be really excellent. Transparent and natural sounding is how I would describe them. The digital cable was impressive at first because of its very good treble performance, (hence, very good perceived detail) but in the end I realized that the midbass was missing in action and it made the music sound unnaturally thin. So, I left the interconnects in, and my Cerious Technologies digital cable back in, and that combination is sounding really good.

I am looking forward to receiving a new Papri digital cable this week from aliexpress. It’s a heavily shielded type using high purity OCC copper with copper gold plated RCA’s. It was pretty expensive for being Chinese but I’m taking the chance. I’ll let you know what I think after I receive it.

ghdprentice
6,362 posts
 

I don’t buy knock off cables no matter what country they come from. Why? First high end cables performance is based on more than what is visibly obvious… for instance cloth sheath and copper colored wire… the exact composition of the conductors, they can be shielded or cryogenically treated, etc… so performance is extremely unlikely to match the real thing. Even if it does, how do you know? Buy a real one and compare performance? 

High technology everywhere is about success through constant innovation. No company can create a good product and sell it for ever. Someone will quickly figure out how to match the performance by some other way or the same way. You can have a huge legal department or a huge Research and Development department. The only protection is the R&D. Although Apple is really good at both.

 

As I mentioned, I have spent my career around the world in the design, manufacturing and logistics facilities of the phones, tablets, PCs, DACs and cars you guys use. Innovation is the key and it is in your own best interest to buy from the original companies creating great products.

 

digsmithd
913 posts
 

Yeah valid point ...i guess resale is were its going hurt as well not having oem product.

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