Counterfeit Amps?

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Well I just hooked up the Alpine PDX V9 and I have to say it does not sound good at all. My old school 3566 that broke on me sounded a lot better in every aspect. In the pdx the highs sound so sharp but in a bad way, they dont sound natural and warm. Im very diappointed about this amp, it seems like technology has gotten worse for amps, at least for alpine amps. What do you guys think of modern class D amps compared to class AB.
 
I think the amp should be real honestly, there are a lot of good reviews on amazon and I spoke with an alpine rep and he said those amps arent really fake, its just that those people get a hold of them some how and they sell them when they aren't supposed to, and a lot of the prices on amazons from different sellers were similar, anyway ill post back once I receive the amp and show you guys whats comes in the box, if it comes in a brand new box with a birth sheet it should be fine. I dont think amazon sells a lot of fake stuff anyway.

Probably not "fake", but i know many brands have problems with Equipment that didn't get trough quality control and where supposed to be destroyed somehow walks off by it self and ends up being sold trough non supported vendors.

Well I just hooked up the Alpine PDX V9 and I have to say it does not sound good at all. My old school 3566 that broke on me sounded a lot better in every aspect. In the pdx the highs sound so sharp but in a bad way, they dont sound natural and warm. Im very diappointed about this amp, it seems like technology has gotten worse for amps, at least for alpine amps. What do you guys think of modern class D amps compared to class AB.

To me this sounds like there is something wrong with the amp. maybe it didn't pass QC
 
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I was thinking that but the amp came with a birth sheet and it passed all of its tests

If someone have the access to stuff that's supposed to be junked at the factory, it would greatly surprise me if they didn't also have access to a birth sheet they could send with the amp too.

Brands like Focal, DLS and JBL also have trouble with gear that shows up for sale at dealers that the brands don't ship too.

Some chose too call it fakes, other admits its the real stuff, but not imported trough official channels. in most cases its parallel import from the low cost countries where they have the stuff made.

Basically it means that when a brand outsource production due to cost, they also loose control over how much that's made, and face competition from their own chosen manufacturers facilities when unauthorized over production gets parallel imported and sold trough unofficial channels.

Some of the gear are ok, some are supposed to be scrapped.

I suspect that Alpine no longer makes much within Japan anymore, so they might be another victim of this kind of double dealing.
 
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Amazon and ebay aren't the same thing. Just anyone can't sell things on amazon, the extra headache and hoops to jump through keeps out a lot of riff raff. I have no doubt it's the real thing, amazon, unlike specialized retailers, can afford to have competitive prices.

I sell various stuffs on ebay and Amazon and pretty much anyone can sell things on Amazon.
I have some friends who are bigger sellers importing and selling on both ebay and Amazon said they have better sales at Amazon (but much higher fee) because many people thought buying from Amazon is better, some buyers didn't even realize they bought from 3rd parties.
 
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I sell various stuffs on ebay and Amazon and pretty much anyone can sell things on Amazon.
I have some friends who are bigger sellers importing and selling on both ebay and Amazon said they have better sales at Amazon (but much higher fee) because many people thought buying from Amazon is better, some buyers didn't even realize they bought from 3rd parties.

I understood they had much stricter policies placed on sellers so that scammers are less likely to use the platform. Not that it really matters, with the recent lawsuit, I am suspecting 3rd party sells might be phased out anyway.
 
It is very rare a complete amp is faked. Cheap copys (which copy the circuit but are distinguishable), yes, faked chips, yes. A close to 1:1 fake? Unlikely since the manufacturer would very quickly notice it and intervene. Impossible? No, of course not.

Reality is a bit different tho.
Benz built a 'factory' en Chine because there was one building credible 'Copy' Mercedes in operation.
BMW built a Motorcycle factory for the exact same reason.
Currently there are allegedly 3 separate factories building fake BMW's .
Ditto for Yamaha .
Likely dozens more examples but those few should provide a reasonable vignette?

Some arcane easy to build consumer audio toy is a walk in the park to copy.
 
If someone have the access to stuff that's supposed to be junked at the factory, it would greatly surprise me if they didn't also have access to a birth sheet they could send with the amp too.

Brands like Focal, DLS and JBL also have trouble with gear that shows up for sale at dealers that the brands don't ship too.

Some chose too call it fakes, other admits its the real stuff, but not imported trough official channels. in most cases its parallel import from the low cost countries where they have the stuff made.

Basically it means that when a brand outsource production due to cost, they also loose control over how much that's made, and face competition from their own chosen manufacturers facilities when unauthorized over production gets parallel imported and sold trough unofficial channels.

Some of the gear are ok, some are supposed to be scrapped.
[...]
I guess I just bought one of those amplifiers, a JBL Stage A6002 car audio amplifier (class D). The four mosfets are not clamped to the aluminum case for heat sinking, they are away from it by one millimetre. Curiously, the manufacturer did use thermal grease and kapton tape. :confused: One of the mosfets is marked IRF3205 by the way.
 
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Basically it means that when a brand outsource production due to cost, they also loose control over how much that's made, and face competition from their own chosen manufacturers facilities when unauthorized over production gets parallel imported and sold trough unofficial channels.
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Ask IBM about what happened to the IBM PC and why Taiwan probably still is the largest producer of PC compatibles.
 
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