Counterfeit Audio?


Many of you may have seen the recent auctions for Cello line state preamps on Ebay?

I have always been intrigued by the design and rarity of Cello equipment, but otherwise would not put it on my short list of realistic purchases.

In this case, however, it seemed like a simple, useful piece of gear, which I could perhaps use as a line stage, and I came very close to bidding.

My instincts told me to pause, however, perhaps because the seller claimed "still brand new...never touched by human hands etc etc" which seemed a bit odd about the sale.

Subsequently, the item was relisted with comments about fraudulent and/or counterfeit Cello for sale.

Before reading this, that never would have occurred to me, but I thought I should ask the community here before bidding.

Any ideas or advice? This seems like a nifty collector's type component, but I dont want to pay big bucks for the high end audio equivalent of a fake Rolex?
cwlondon
I wouldn't be surprised if many of these "overruns" are units that didn't meet spec's or in some other way didn't meet the orders' qualifications.
Hello I am the original auction holder for the cello unit in question.. I listed & sold two cello etudes NIB without any problems. Then a copy cat auction was posted a month or two later. I reported it and it was removed. Funny enough, a new one was just relisted- another fake. They are actually using my pics and text from my past cello auctions. (by the way it is rare to find a 10 year old peice of equipment NiB but I happen to be old friends with a former employee.
Suppose you know that a certain cable has fake amazing electrical properties and you buy this fake cable from a source that you know only sells fake products.

My question is whether the cable you receive is a actually fake or not?

....apologies to Mr Tennis for any unintended plagiarism ;-)