Help Do I have fake van den Hul Mainsstreams?


I just checked the van den Hul site. They have posted a warning there about fakes on the market. It seems to mostly describe the ones I have. (One's that were purchased through Audiogon, I believe.)
But then it gets weird. The site says the US fakes don't have ground pins. Mine do. Alright, so, maybe, they were reterminated. But it gets more confusing. The site says the fakes' writing doesn't capitalize the "V" in van den Hul. Mine have the "V"s in lower case, so, case closed, right? They're fakes. Not necessarily. THE PICTURES OF THE CORD ON THE VAN DEN HUL WEBSITE SHOW THE LOWER CASE "V" THAT THE SITE SAYS ONLY THE FAKES HAVE. What does that mean?
Also, van den Hul's own site says the Mainsstreams have a "catalog number" (or, whatever it is) after the phrase "Halogen free". But, again, the ones they show don't seem to have that. In fact, I haven't found a picture, yet, of the "real ones" they describe.
I was once a van den Hul dealer, by the way, and am familiar with their "house sound". And these cords sound like van den Huls. In fact, they have even beaten out some high quality competitors during comparisons.
But, I can't just adopt a, "Well, heck, they sound good. What's it matter?" attitude because van den Hul goes on to say that use of the fake will "likely" destroy my equipment and, possibly, ELECTROCUTE me. This is due in part, they say, to their very shoddy construction. Mine seem to be built like tanks, though, have been used successfully for years, and still sound and work great.
So, what do I do, now? Throw mine away? But, still, what confuses me the most is that van den Hul seems to have the fakes they describe pictured on their own site! What gives? Help!
128x128nietzschelover
I bet the fakes sound exactly the same as the original. People are playing with your audiophile mind...
To address the website confusion issue rather than whether the cable is the real one or the fake, it looks like the image on the left is not a photograph of the actual cable. It is a graphic illustration. The graphic artist doing the illustration may have been careless with the details or maybe just had a description of the cable to draw from. While this may be costly to correct, it would certainly help the effectiveness of the warning. Good luck with your cable.
Neitzchelover- Re-selling known counterfeits (or at best questionable provenance) is worse than naughty. It is dishonest at best, and likely fraudulent. You now have reasonable doubt if you will. Sorry, bud, but full disclosure is one of the backbones of this site.
I never said I was going to sell my fakes to anybody, nor did I imply it. I'd NEVER do that. What makes you guys think that? Where'd that come from? Those things are dangerous! Nobody should ever use them. I take great offense at that accusation.
What I AM going to do is start a "fake thread" (a real fake thread). I'm going to start it off by telling people about the fake Mainsstream Hybrid and what to look for. Then, I want to encourage everyone to report any fakes on the market they know about. But, I'm not sure which forum to put it in, if it's going to be about ALL kinds of fakes.
What do you guys think?
My bad- I saw the ad and incorrectly assumed it was for the pc, not the ic. Excuse me while I get a crowbar to remove my foot from my mount.