I'll look forward to your thoughts when they arrive.
How many of the well known cable companies actually make their own cable? Only one I can think of off hand for definite is Kimber,I’m pretty sure the little boutique companies charging 4 figures and more aren’t actually producing cables,more like marketing geniuses in all honesty.
Cardas also refine their own copper. Meaning it is refined to their specification elsewhere.
That’s no excuse, there’s plenty of alternatives. It’s your choice to buy this stuff. And thereby you contribute to keeping in place very unwanted practices. Why do you think that’s okay?
I was mainly referring to the XLO replica and your comments about Rolex and others.
It's not so much poor quality plug...they actually are high quality rhodium plated...but they are shipped in a paper envelope inside a plastic bag with no protection from shipping damage. No doubt encasing it a $300 burled walnut custom case would minimize damage but also double the cost.One of the seven reviews revealed poor quality broken plug.
"The cables sounded very good. But the pins in the plugs were easily bent, and have to be replaced after a week or so of testing. In fact the pins were so thin and weak they were broken off at both the speaker connection and the amp outlet. Never seen anything like it. It's a pity because the sound was excellent. It's obviously a design- and manufacturing-mistake that can easily be corrected. But why not test this simple detail before selling the cable? Don't buy this cable before it is improved on this detail."
Ok, give me five cables I can buy that are made entirely in the west. There can only be so many ways a cable can be made, so someone somewhere must be copying another cable unintentionally. Have you looked at the prices of 'Nordost' cables on Ali Express, they are so cheap compared to the real thing no one is going to be fooled. The problem arises when buyers of such cables try and sell them on as genuine, and where is this happening, yes, in the west. I was using Van Damme speaker cables (often recommended on this forum) in my second system, I purchased a 'Furutech' and pure copper spades for roughly the same cost, you can guess which cable was by far the best and the one that I kept in the system.
Wireworld and Shunyata are made in the US.
Do you mean pre terminated cables or just the necessary wire ?
Ofcourse there's no way of avoiding Chinese stuff in your house. And I don't say it's all bad. But that fact doesn't make Ali ok. A better world starts with you. And we all have to start somewhere. For me it's amongst others not going Ali and alike (there's many many bad examples in fashion that my kids are not allowed to buy from). And that means I have to choose to pay more or not to buy something I'd like. It's easy as that. You could make the same decision.
Even if what you buy is truly OEM, it's unethical that the Chinese companies are trading using the trademarks or recognisable visual design of established brands. Money was invested in developing your recognition of that brand/design and if its perceived quality. Also, even if the company is just sending over the manufacturing parameters, it is unethical for the Chinese manufacturer to turn around and use those exact parameters to produce identical products without the inventor's consent. I argue that, by extension, it is unethical to support this business model.
Both are not ethical. That doesn't make it right to choose the former. Go and look for something else! If it is very hard to find a good alternative, then it is what is. I myself use Apple products. It's too much of a hassle for me to find a good alternative. But in the case of hifi I think it's not that hard to find good stuff that is not controversial.
Do you use Amazon?
