Chinese knock-offs

[llanger]

Is it worth exploring Chinese knock-offs/copies of headphone amplifiers on eBay, specifically A2's and Krell KSA5's, or would it be a matter of throwing money away?

 

[KWH]

IMO, tossing your money away. I bought some Sennheiser ear buds many years ago and they sounded ordinary or worse. Later discovered they were knock offs. As always, YMMV.

 

[Stereotyper]

It depends. The Chinese are perfectly capable of producing high-quality audio gear but I only consider items that have their own brand, like Hifiman or Topping for example. I suppose it's possible that an ok product be mis-branded on purpose to boost sales but that's not very likely. If you're good you want your chosen name on your product, not someone else's. It seems Chinese authorities have become less tolerant of "knock-offing" lately, as I see less and less such products on ebay. Made sense (even though illegal) when China was considered a country that only made cheap goods but that's not the case anymore. There is a huge middle-class in China now and those people want decent domestic goods. Considering China's productivity there's plenty left for export. Knock-offers can't compete with that. Comes down to this: if a Chinese product is of good quality it's very likely bearing a genuine Chinese brand-name.

 

[Chris Brown]

I got a fake pair of headphones once, and managed to do a pretty good comparison with a real pair. Unfortunately with counterfeits the goal is usually to make it just barely good enough to fool people, while cutting as many costs as possible.

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...y-mdr-v6-headphones-comparison-w-pics.319516/

 

[KingBubba]

I remember when products made in Japan were laughable. I remember when my Mom, at the dinner table, brought up about looking at cars that day. She said she saw some Japanese cars, We all laughed at that. She said the were called Toyota. She knew that the rest of us thought they were junk. Little did we know. My Father had a hunch and about a month later bought 1000 shares of Toyota. Smart move on his part. My Mom ended up with a Chevy Impala.

 

[Chris Brown]

I remember when products made in Japan were laughable. I remember when my Mom, at the dinner table, brought up about looking at cars that day. She said she saw some Japanese cars, We all laughed at that. She said the were called Toyota. She knew that the rest of us thought they were junk. Little did we know. My Father had a hunch and about a month later bought 1000 shares of Toyota. Smart move on his part. My Mom ended up with a Chevy Impala.

Some may have been skeptical about Japanese quality at first but eventually Japanese goods came to be known for their high quality overall. One big difference between Japan and China however is that Japan is not nor ever was known as a massive source of counterfeit / fake goods. China is certainly capable of producing quality electronics, but that doesn't mean that is what's going to arrive in your package. It's not a quality issue as much as it's an ethics issue. Intellectual property is only respected if the owner of that Intellectual property is located in China, otherwise it's fair-game to copy. This isn't being done as part of some underground black-market. It happens in the open and the Chinese government is happy to allow it. So long as this is the case, there will always be a certain level of warranted skepticism when it comes to Chinese products.

 

[homebrew]

I found these Chinese knock (or chop) offs on line. Really cheap.

 

[w1jim]

The it appears to me that the Chinese government enforces the rules regarding knockoffs as is convenient.
In my previous employed situation I would fly to China about once a year (I still hold a Chinese visa).

In Shanghai (and I’m sure other cities) there was a huge underground mall commonly referred to by the foreigners as the “Fake Mart” where one could get all kinds of branded and unbranded knock offs.

Bargaining is the rule here and I’ve seen people buy fake watches for $300-400 that I’d buy for $65.

One time I was asking about some watches when the seller let md know I’d have to wait a few minutes and to just look around.
There was a 30ish Chinese male wandering about. They knew he had to be an undercover cop because no one meeting that description would be out shopping there during work hours.
When he finally wandered off they rolled in a baby carriage, lifted up the baby and the watches were hidden underneath.

I will say that by and large once you established some kind of a relationship the Chinese people were very nice.
Otherwise it was the land of “brotherly shove”.

 

[Kaveman Karl]

It's not a quality issue as much as it's an ethics issue. Intellectual property is only respected if the owner of that Intellectual property is located in China, otherwise it's fair-game to copy.

You bring up a good dealmaker for the likes of HiFiMan here