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Anyone seen these "Aimpire" Topping Copies/Fakes?

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L5730

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I was just poking around Amazon, seeing if there were any bargains to jump on, and this jumped out as looking a bit off somehow. Then I noticed the branding...not Topping, not a D10, but Aimpire and an AD10. Hmmm, puzzling.

1578609466962.png


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Decoder-Am...VQYW855TXM&psc=1&qid=1578608203&s=electronics

Searching the 'net shows a reddit thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/eim2tt
The reddit thread suggests that it's a counterfeit/fake/knockoff and not a sibling company version.
I don't know if that is a non-name XMOS USB chip or what, but there seems to be no markings on it :s
 
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NTomokawa

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If anything, that board appears to be well-made.

Why imitate an already low-priced item to begin with, though?
 
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L5730

L5730

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Maybe the success of the little D10 is too good for the Audiophile brands and one of them is just making a fake to try and damage the reputation and sway the review scores. Is that just a little too much of a conspiracy story stretch? :facepalm::rolleyes:
 

PPP

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In various situations, only a selection of dealers can sell a product. When a product becomes popular, other dealer (sometimes even the manufacturer itself) want to sell it as well. In this case they have to ask the manufacturer to create the same product under a different name, for legal reasons. Most chi fi manufacturers here act this way.
 

PPP

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Maybe the success of the little D10 is too good for the Audiophile brands and one of them is just making a fake to try and damage the reputation and sway the review scores. Is that just a little too much of a conspiracy story stretch? :facepalm::rolleyes:
That entirely is not the case. The product in this thread very likely is produced by topping themselves. In a lot of cases, manufacturers, say Topping, signs an exclusive contract with certain dealer (say Shenzhen audio), who may have a dozen of online shops (virtually most of the hifi audio shops on aliexpress are owned by Shenzhen audio) . In this case, sometimes even the manufacturer cannot sell it by themselves. When it becomes successful, they want to rebrand it and have a bigger share of the cake. In this case if you ask topping whether this is counterfeit, they will most likely reply yes, because they officially cannot do that. But that’s how things work in the China market.
 

Purity86

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I already got one of these fake AD10! :(
I'm not living in the USA, so the refund will take a long time than usual.
 

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Purity86

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And now I thinking about D30 instead of D10, and a lot of users say it's identical, it's about functionality.
 
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L5730

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I already got one of these fake AD10! :(
I'm not living in the USA, so the refund will take a long time than usual.
Amazon are making a mess out of things by pooling products from different sellers into the one warehouse.
Clearly the label shows "Topping D10" but that is not the product (whether or not it actually is really, I'm not debating).

It's annoying, but at least stuff that is 'fulfilled by Amazon' is very easy to return. Amazon handle all of that. But it's frustrating if you don't receive the item you expect to.

For what it's worth, I'm in England and bought my two D10s from Shenzhen Audio fulfilled by Amazon. But this was a while ago now, and before these Aimpire branded items appeared.

• Direct Streaam Digital = looks unprofessional.
• AD10 = model number suggests it's an ADC not a DAC.
• my D10s were not cellephane wrapped.
• I'd rather have a Topping branded product that Topping will say is their own. They do respond to emails, and seem friendly and honest enough.
 

graz_lag

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Topping is confirming the Aimpire AD10 is a fake, read here thru the post #95:
https://slickdeals.net/f/13757501-t...ier-black-70-free-shipping?page=7#commentsBox

Amazon.fr is making a lot of mess around the D10:
This is offered as Fiesand SMSL M6
https://www.amazon.fr/M6-Integrated...WNZ28GEV9J1&psc=1&refRID=1EAW6VHPQWNZ28GEV9J1

Whilst the original (hoping it is so ...) is offered as Topping OPA2134
https://www.amazon.fr/Topping-OPA21...ur-ES9018K2M/dp/B07Y33R3CJ/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

Plus of course the Aimpire AD10 ...
 

ta240

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If anything, that board appears to be well-made.

Why imitate an already low-priced item to begin with, though?

Little to no R&D costs (if they also copy the circuit). An established reputation behind the image of the product. And it comes up at a massive .01 cheaper than the D10 when I searched: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=topping+d10&i=electronics&ref=nb_sb_noss
And it is flagged as "Amazon's Choice" under a Topping D10 search.

The Topping D10 shows:
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 70,459 in Electronics & Photo #151 in Hi-Fi Amplifiers

The look-a-like shows:
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 31,128 in Electronics & Photo #60 in in Hi-Fi Amplifiers

That .01 lower price results in better search results and more sales with Amazon showing it for specific Topping D10 searches.

But you know that Chinese Hi-Fi has made it when other Chinese companies start making knock-offs.
 
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RayDunzl

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If anything, that board appears to be well-made.


Looks identical to me... Overlaid images:

1578691569223.png


Maybe Topping makes them for markets that don't like the name "Topping".

Maybe the IP theft bottom feeders strike again.

There's a Topping Rep here (forget the name), if you want to ask them.
 

restorer-john

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Let's face it, Topping is no more a 'brand' than Aimpire. They'll stick any brand on a product you want if you buy enough of them. And who came up with those names, they are horrible. Might as well call them PingPong or FlyingPigeon.
 

RayDunzl

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They'll stick any brand on a product you want if you buy enough of them. And who came up with those names, they are horrible. Might as well call them PingPong or FlyingPigeon.


"BEIJING — After a hard day’s labor, your average upscale Beijinger likes nothing more than to shuck his dress shoes for a pair of Enduring and Persevering, rev up his Precious Horse and head to the pub for a tall, frosty glass of Happiness Power.

Or, if he’s a teetotaler, a bottle of Tasty Fun.

To Westerners, that’s Nike, BMW, Heineken and Coca-Cola, respectively."

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/world/asia/picking-brand-names-in-china-is-a-business-itself.html


1578709566237.png
 
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Ron Texas

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Looks like the same thing with a different label on the box.
 

bigx5murf

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I wonder if this is what the $36 topping d10 I purchased on eBay actually is. I've got a tracking number for it already. Guess I'll know in two weeks.
 

Billy Budapest

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There are so many horrible Chinese brand names. Nobsound? xDuoo? HIDIZS? Who is making up these names . . . and why?
 

digicidal

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"BEIJING — After a hard day’s labor, your average upscale Beijinger likes nothing more than to shuck his dress shoes for a pair of Enduring and Persevering, rev up his Precious Horse and head to the pub for a tall, frosty glass of Happiness Power.

Or, if he’s a teetotaler, a bottle of Tasty Fun.

To Westerners, that’s Nike, BMW, Heineken and Coca-Cola, respectively."

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/world/asia/picking-brand-names-in-china-is-a-business-itself.html

nytimes article said:
Microsoft had to think twice about bringing its Bing search engine here because in Chinese, the most common definitions of the character pronounced “bing” are “disease,” “defect” and “virus” — rather inauspicious for a computer product.

To be fair, at least two out of three times I've used Bing... I would translate it similarly to the Chinese. ;)
 

JohnYang1997

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They were the seller for topping previously. They and topping had some issues, so topping stopped providing source to them. As you know d10 is a very popular product, thousands each year, they wanted the cut and profit. So they asked someone to copy the board and now are selling them. They even reused the link that was for genuine d10, as you see the reviews are for d10.
The brand is a fake brand it doesn't exist there is no registration. Anyone buying this will not have support from topping. So stay away.
 
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