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New Counterfeit Technics Headshells

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Decibel_116

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I appears so. For quite some time plenty of imitation generic headshells have been available from various sources. For the most part, they resemble the original Technics headshell with fairly minor differences and are of reasonable quality.

Up until now, I have not seen any of these headshells with the Technics logo printed on them. Some of mine have "Recordbox" printed on them. This latest offering appears to be a blatant counterfeit of a legitimate Technics product down to the box with the Technics brand printed on it. "made in Japan" is cast into the metal.

I purchased a couple of these to inspect from a Chinese Ebay vendor. These are not only fake and have "Technics" printed on the top, but also have mistakes in the pin wiring label underneath - which if followed will end up with the left and right channels reversed and also the polarity reversed. Nice huh?

At first I thought this was a "new" fake headshell. Upon inspection of the last "imitation" headshell I purchased to mount one of the $11 AT-3600 on, I discovered the same wiring label issue. Those of you who have purchased these cheap imitation headshells take note. Check the wiring label carefully! So far I have four headshells to rewire.

Upon further inspection, the Technics logo is printed in silver on the fake model and white on the real Technics product. I have included some photos to show the differences. Note the differences in packaging as well.
 

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TomInTacoma said:
Wait, you bought a Japanese branded product from a Chinese eBay vendor and you're surprised that it's not legit? ;)
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I don't think I said I was surprised. My main reason for posting this is to warn members of the wiring label issue. I have seen members posting in the AT-3600L thread buying these and other no name headshells to mount their cartridges in. Every single one of these headshells I have seen have the issue.
 
Decibel_116 said:
I don't think I said I was surprised. My main reason for posting this is to warn members of the wiring label issue. I have seen members posting in the AT-3600L thread buying these and other no name headshells to mount their cartridges in. Every single one of these headshells I have seen have the issue.
Click to expand...

Much thanks for taking the time and efforts in posting the warning!!! :thumbsup:
 
Balifly said:
Much thanks for taking the time and efforts in posting the warning!!! :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Happy to help the forum. It's always better to know what you are buying. I have to re-wire my AT-3600L and a couple others after this discovery. I like to experiment with cartridge swapping from time to time and have used other similar generic headshells. I assume most of them are actually made by the same maker because they have the label issue. The "made in Japan" stamped into the metal gets me every time. ;)
 
The tag with the channel markings is correct. It's just installed upside down.

By the way, how much do they weigh? Genuine Technics are about 7.5g with wires. Most of the copies are about 10g.
 
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N8Nagel said:
BTW did anyone else notice that the price of genuine Technics shells went through the roof after the new SL-1200 was released? I wouldn't mind having a few more but sheesh!
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The new - previously unsold or used ones have a different list price.

The old second hand ones probably followed suit as well.

I still have several style old ones from the old $5.00 days.

They don't all have the same screw slot length - can not used Baerwald protractor with some of the old short slot headshells. :)
 
boreas said:
The tag with the channel markings is correct. It's just upside down.

By the way, how much do they weigh? Genuine Technics are about 7.5g with wires. Most of the copies are about 10g.
Click to expand...

I tried to weigh one last night, but it was too heavy for my VTF digital scale (not surprising). Just holding both in each hand, the copy does "feel" slightly heavier - even without the wires attached. Now to locate the wife's cooking scales.....

Yes, the label is installed upside down. If you are careful, you can gently pry off the wiring label and flip it upside down. This will correct the error. A simple error, but a significant one if undetected. Just so folks understand, the label error will not cause any actual harm to your system whatsoever. The sound will be backward and out of phase if not corrected. (The sound intended for the right speaker will come out of the left speaker and vice versa).
 
Decibel_116 said:
I tried to weigh one last night, but it was too heavy for my VTF digital scale (not surprising). Just holding both in each hand, the copy does "feel" slightly heavier - even without the wires attached. Now to locate the wife's cooking scales.....

Yes, the label is installed upside down. If you are careful, you can gently pry off the wiring label and flip it upside down. This will correct the error. A simple error, but a significant one if undetected. Just so folks understand, the label error will not cause any actual harm to your system whatsoever. The sound will be backward and out of phase if not corrected. (The sound intended for the right speaker will come out of the left speaker and vice versa).
Click to expand...

Your scale probably maxes out at 5g, A lot of them do, so even the genuine article would be too heavy for it.

If these fakes are close to the originals in weight and the azimuth is correct, then they're worth considering, counterfeit or not. the real ones have become very expensive lately.
 
N8Nagel said:
BTW did anyone else notice that the price of genuine Technics shells went through the roof after the new SL-1200 was released? I wouldn't mind having a few more but sheesh!
Click to expand...

Yes, and probably one of the reasons for these new counterfeit headshells coming out of China. I have also noticed the myriad of counterfeit RCA connectors such as the WBT-0144 clones and Nakamichi branded knock-offs.
 
boreas said:
Your scale probably maxes out at 5g, A lot of them do, so even the genuine article would be too heavy for it.

If these fakes are close to the originals in weight and the azimuth is correct, then they're worth considering, counterfeit or not. the real ones have become very expensive lately.
Click to expand...

They appear to be of decent quality and seem to work fine (other than the wiring label). Folks just need to be aware of what they are buying and understand they are not actual Technics products.
 
TomInTacoma said:
Wait, you bought a Japanese branded product from a Chinese eBay vendor and you're surprised that it's not legit? ;)
Click to expand...

The real problem is when these items make their way to "reliable" sellers in the U.S. and elsewhere, and then charge what a real one costs to rip off the consumer.
 
That is enough folks. I have cleaned this up, and ask that we stay on topic please.
Regards,
Jim
 
Hopefully, we can all agree that much of everything from china is either a knock-off of a legitimately-produced product or sometimes even worse, as in hazardous. I fix electronics and have purchased capacitors, transistors, even resistors, that were sold as Japanese, but failed miserably as only a poorly-made fake can do.

I resent this tremendously.
 
NoTransistors said:
Hopefully, we can all agree that much of everything from china is either a knock-off of a legitimately-produced product or sometimes even worse, as in hazardous. I fix electronics and have purchased capacitors, transistors, even resistors, that were sold as Japanese, but failed miserably as only a poorly-made fake can do.

I resent this tremendously.
Click to expand...

As do I. That's why I made the comment about "Made in Japan" stamped into the headshell when clearly it is not. Also, the packaging is branded as Technics with an original part number. The real Technics headshells are labeled Panasonic on the box. This leads me to the conclusion that this product is aimed at deceiving customers into believing these are real Technics products. Did I know better when I ordered these. Sure I did. But, not everyone has enough experience to make that determination before ordering.
 
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