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Counterfeit Audioquest Cables

I just wanted to put out a general query in regards to how people feel Audioquest is handling the issue of counterfeit cables. Personally, I am a huge fan of Audioquest and their products but I feel there could be a little more room for transparency on their behalf... No pun intended...

I don't mean to sound like a total heretic or a paranoid conspiracy theorist but I don't feel like my suspicions would be totally misplaced if I were to speculate that Audioquest is not only benefiting from the existence of bogus copycat look alikes but that they are deliberately allowing it to happen if not entirely responsible for it in the first place.

It is undeniably an effective way to dissuade consumers from private sales and coercing them into paying full retail prices for any of their products. It's also hard to ignore the steady decline in classified ads for Audioquest products on the various audiomarts.

Also, to the best of my knowledge, the AudioQuest Authentication Process also does not require them to explain their findings thus granting them authority to summarily judge a cable's authenticity.

In my humble opinion, a company as innovative as Audioquest could certainly divine a method to apply serial numbers to their products. That way, everything could be traceable and consumers could register their products. Not to mention that Audioquest could rebuild some of the lost confidence in their brand name.

Am I totally out of line here or perhaps missing something obvious? I would love to hear more points of view...
pontifex

Showing 3 responses by jmcgrogan2

jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
I've also thought AQ's authentication program to not have much value to the consumer. Whether it stimulates the fraud market or not, I can't say. I do agree that it does tend to scare buyers into paying more money to buy from authorized dealers. You would think a company of that size would have serialized cables, especially at the higher end, but then that might help the second hand market, which is not in AQ's interest.
Fortunately, I am not a fan of AQ cables. While they are good, there are better, IMHO. AQ is not alone in the battle of counterfeit cables though.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
03-13-15: Zd542
Having a good used market has a huge effect on the new market.

I agree with that statement. My curiosity is why then Audioquest does not help their second hand market by putting serial numbers on their cables like Tara Labs, XLO, Stealth Audio. Purist Audio, and other cable companies do to help alleviate fraud?

AQ just says to ship the cables to us, and we will tell you if they are real or not. If we say they are not real, you do not get them back, they are "destroyed" and so is the money you spent on them. That's BS!!

They should be helping their consumers by identifying their legitimate product. It's not that hard to do. Hell, I even have cables from Snake River Audio that have serial numbers for authentication purposes. If a small company like SRA can do that, a big company like AQ can do it. They just choose not to, to help bully their consumers to buy from authorized dealers and pay more money.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
Serial numbers may have little affect, but at least it shows that the company is making an effort. It can make one more hurdle that may make a counterfeiter hassle an easier target, like Audioquest. Audioquest has more problems with counterfeit than other companies, because they are such an easy target.

Also, companies like Tara Labs and XLO that have serial numbers and registration programs do help even more. If you are buying used cables, ask the seller for the serial number. Tara Labs and XLO could tell you if that seller is the registered owner of the cables. If you then buy the cables, you can have the registered title transferred to you.

This may sound ridiculous to some, but when you are talking about buying used cables costing many thousands of dollars, it can be comforting to know that they are authentic. It can be done, wouldn't you like to know that some of your $10K speaker cables paid to help authenticate them? LOL!
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