I was in Guangzhou, China a few years ago and there was a long street full of vendors selling electronic parts, basically hundreds of shops at least. It was the "super market" for electronic parts in the city. There were no other places that sold electronic parts unless you contacted the manufacturers directly . I talked to the vendors. They told me that all the parts of reputable brand names sold in the street were fake ones coming from Taiwan or from the Taiwanese machants.
Lite Audio, from which I had purchased some kits, was there as well. This is the company that supplies many kits to a lot of DIY sites on the web. Their products / kits did not sound good at all in their showrooms.
I wouldn't want to give a hard time to Lite Audio, or anybody selling DIY kits, or the eBay sellers, and they have a living to make. But I believe it is really unethical to sell fake products. I would not want to see consumers get trapped.
On the other hand, I visited some Chinese Hi-End shops there found some of their equipment sounded really stunning. Amplifiers from "Melody" sounded really good. "Musical Angel" is quite good as well. Those amplifiers would not be using fake or low quality parts, or it is impossible for them to sound such good.
Lite Audio, from which I had purchased some kits, was there as well. This is the company that supplies many kits to a lot of DIY sites on the web. Their products / kits did not sound good at all in their showrooms.
I wouldn't want to give a hard time to Lite Audio, or anybody selling DIY kits, or the eBay sellers, and they have a living to make. But I believe it is really unethical to sell fake products. I would not want to see consumers get trapped.
On the other hand, I visited some Chinese Hi-End shops there found some of their equipment sounded really stunning. Amplifiers from "Melody" sounded really good. "Musical Angel" is quite good as well. Those amplifiers would not be using fake or low quality parts, or it is impossible for them to sound such good.
Just to reiterate what Wrenchone said (since only he seemed to have remarked on this):
Any capacitor getting "hot" by even a few degrees with dc on it, should be discarded (that is after forming where necessary). A typical 1000uF/100V electrolytic will draw <1 mA at 100V, giving a loss of <100mW. When used over time it could draw significantly less.
Any capacitor getting "hot" by even a few degrees with dc on it, should be discarded (that is after forming where necessary). A typical 1000uF/100V electrolytic will draw <1 mA at 100V, giving a loss of <100mW. When used over time it could draw significantly less.
Re: Forgot the picture
OMG, that is almost too funny, but of course it's not..
Assuming this is real that has to be the most brazen example I've been shown to date..
Labor costs being what they are in china, I assume someone could make money doing it this way.
I once picked up (more than 15 yrs ago) a couple of counterfeit Motorola power transistors in a TO-3 package with 3 die, the proper device had one much larger die, this one exploded allowing me to see the inside. I think the Rod Elliot website has a lot more on this particular scam.
jpalmeida said:
OMG, that is almost too funny, but of course it's not..
Assuming this is real that has to be the most brazen example I've been shown to date.. Labor costs being what they are in china, I assume someone could make money doing it this way.
I once picked up (more than 15 yrs ago) a couple of counterfeit Motorola power transistors in a TO-3 package with 3 die, the proper device had one much larger die, this one exploded allowing me to see the inside. I think the Rod Elliot website has a lot more on this particular scam.
Recently at some dive of a company I was working at, we had some boards made in China. The filter caps on these boards tended to blow up in our product in the field. Brand name was "SEC", 220uF at 50V. Of course not a tube circuit. I tested a bunch, excessive leakage current, and some blew up after about a half hour. Not good...
wa2ise said:
Hi folks,
I used to work for the worlds 2nd largest contract electronics manufacturer, so I too have seen some interesting things happen with dodgy component buys.
About 5 years ago there was a short notice build happening, and the only way to get some of the long lead-time components was to use distribution agencies to get them, ex-stock. This was something that they tried to avoid, as it was usually very costly, compared to going direct to the component manufacturers.
Anyway, about 6k of these surface mount tant caps were placed, and the products shipped to the customer for soak testing. About 3 weeks later, they're all being returned as they were running unreliably, with suspected PSU faults.
We got one of the tant caps under the xray, which showed that they contained only the plastic body, and the 2 mounting/soldering legs at either end, and no capacitor inside it at all.
So, the purchasing dept paid a huge premium to circumvent the long lead time from the manufacturer, but ended up buying rubbish. There was a huge commerical claim due to the amount of repairs and late shipment that was required to rectify it.
I've no idea if they originated in China, but buying dodgy components happens to the worlds largest volume manufacturers too!
On another note, I've recently bought a couple of valve amps from Hong Kong/China, and they've been really good, but I did do some homework first....
Cheers,
Chris.
Having done some digging around in my mailbox, I got this recently from a colleague who often goes out to the far east to deal with our suppliers (this isn't him or my employers by the way!)... This'll make entertaining viewing for anyone who's never seen commercial component buying for the electronics manufacturing industry 
Caveat Emptor (Let the buyer beware!) Chinese horror movies anyone?
C+Paste any of these and prepare to have the sheckles raised!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1-zIFHTH9E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXI1D6gLayg
Cheers,
Chris.
Caveat Emptor (Let the buyer beware!) Chinese horror movies anyone?
C+Paste any of these and prepare to have the sheckles raised!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1-zIFHTH9E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXI1D6gLayg
Cheers,
Chris.
Fake I.C.
Joke!!! Post #27
It would be wonderfull if that was a joke, but unfortunly it isn't.
I have a lot of problems with fake components.
Even some are so stupid, like that an IC I bought, it had 4 pin less than the original. If I find the pic that I did, I'll post it here.
Well that's the picture I took from a fake I.C.
Joke!!! Post #27
It would be wonderfull if that was a joke, but unfortunly it isn't.
I have a lot of problems with fake components.
Even some are so stupid, like that an IC I bought, it had 4 pin less than the original. If I find the pic that I did, I'll post it here.
Well that's the picture I took from a fake I.C.
Attachments
Re: Forgot the picture
Come on, this is not a just another tragic example of fake. Its art! Actually its the Oriental take on the Russian Matryoshka nesting doll. And in true art, cost is no object. I would be shattered though if the noble artistic vendor, had been conned into fake Rubycon for his nested cute cap.
jpalmeida said:
Jeb-D. said:
Come on, this is not a just another tragic example of fake. Its art! Actually its the Oriental take on the Russian Matryoshka nesting doll. And in true art, cost is no object. I would be shattered though if the noble artistic vendor, had been conned into fake Rubycon for his nested cute cap.
Here in my country we are plagued with a lot of these fake stuffs, it all started with power transistors and now even passive parts are fakes. There were 2N3055s in TO-3 that were sold as MJ15015 transistors during the late 90s.
Early this year I saw a 12AX7 with a Mullard print that looks real fresh even if it's no less than 20 years old (maybe the original owner took real good care of it). This is really getting bad.
Early this year I saw a 12AX7 with a Mullard print that looks real fresh even if it's no less than 20 years old (maybe the original owner took real good care of it). This is really getting bad.
JojoD818 said:
New Sensor Corp. has acquired the rights to the Mullard name and is currently producing and selling a 12AX7A under this label. I noted that it is not available for shipment to EU countries which either means they don't have the rights to use the name in the EU or they have entered into a distribution agreement with someone there.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.