DIY Audio: Counterfeit Parts

[amirm]

Most excellent look at knock-off Chinese parts, in this case an amplifier IC. So hard at times finding authentic components when I search on Amazon and such:

 

[watchnerd]

Wow...I get the business model for faking Prada bags and Rolex watches, but cheap ICs? Is there really much profit in that?

 

[amirm]

I think there is in millions of cheap chinese audio products like bluetooth speakers and such. Some of this ship for $10 including shipping so every penny counts. Heck, they even pry off parts from other equipment use them! I was shopping for specialized fuses and was pleased that I found them from a seller for 1/4 of the price. The fuses come and they are all yellow and definitely aged! They had taken them out of old equipment and were selling them on Amazon no less with no mention of them being used!

 

[tomelex]

Large legacy sellers of ICs do a better vetting process, such as digi-key, mouser, etc. Stay with them. Newark (if they are still around) are questionable IMO.

 

[amirm]

Indeed. Newark is up there though with digikey and mouser. Have not heard of corruption on their part.

 

[tomelex]

Large legacy sellers of ICs do a better vetting process, such as digi-key, mouser, etc. Stay with them. Newark (if they are still around) are questionable IMO.

Years ago, some other outfit purchased Newark, and almost immediately, the data they provided in their catalogs became very non technical, you could be looking at a listing of resistors and they would no where show the wattage, and that went for all kinds of components, a large lack of total specifications, i quit using them because they wasted my time, and not telling specifications tells me there is something wrong there, whether the management was changed out, they got rid of key parts engineers or maybe they starting buying questionable components, who knows. They are a failure in my book.

 

[Cosmik]

Newark (if they are still around) are questionable IMO.

If Newark is the same as Farnell over here in the UK (I think they are the same company) I don't think there's ever been any question of their bona fides.

 

[tomelex]

yes, i think farnell purchased newark. I used Farnell when i lived in England, Farnell seemed a reputable company.

 

[tomelex]

OK, I looked at Newark (element 14?) website, much improved since they wasted my time years ago, point taken by you all, thanks. Things change.

 

[NorthSky]

Not only things change but also the climate.
° https://earther.com/the-trump-admin...ation-vs-the-climate-change-report-1820127045

Plus, cheap parts are not only inside cheap audio products but also in some expensive ones.

 

[amirm]

Newark traditionally has been focused on corporate accounts with direct salesforce and such. As a result, they are just not as tuned as direct to consumer sales as Mouser and Digikey have been for years. I have been on their site a few times over the last year and they clearly are behind times. It is like comparing Amazon to Walmart ecommerce site. One is at the forefront it, the other struggling way behind.

 

[RayDunzl]

"Walmart employs an astounding 2.1 million people. In the United States alone, the company employs 1.4 million people. This is a staggering 1% of the U.S.'s 140 million working population."

http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-employees-pay

 

[Sal1950]

"Walmart employs an astounding 2.1 million people. In the United States alone, the company employs 1.4 million people. This is a staggering 1% of the U.S.'s 140 million working population."

Damn, that's amazing!

 

[amirm]

Amazon has 450,000 employees.

 

[Fitzcaraldo215]

The fuses come and they are all yellow and definitely aged! They had taken them out of old equipment and were selling them on Amazon no less with no mention of them being used!

Aged like fine wine. Think of the great service they are providing by breaking in parts for us to radically improve sound quality!

 

[Sal1950]

I was shopping for specialized fuses and was pleased that I found them from a seller for 1/4 of the price. The fuses come and they are all yellow and definitely aged! They had taken them out of old equipment and were selling them on Amazon no less with no mention of them being used!

I'm shocked
Mean you didn't shop for audiophile fuses? Many have even been listened to and marked for directionality. I hear they can lift a thousand veils.
https://www.thecableco.com/Catalog/Fuses

 

[DonH56]

Counterfeit parts have been a problem for a while but the past few years problems have spiked, at least per the engineering articles I've read. Particularly troublesome for folk trying to repair older equipment and those with sole-source parts. Big problem for military products, too, given their typically very long life and often sole-sourced parts that get obsoleted by technology advances long before the end product (airplane, ship. etc.) is put out out service. Provides a good upgrade business for defense contractors, but retrofits can get challenging and very pricey.

My latest IEEE Spectrum magazine has a nice article about how "fixability" of products has declined and states are even having to put in place laws to ensure consumers can fix their own products. I did not realize that for some products you sign away your right to fix (an example provided was John Deere tractors; when you buy a tractor, you are only "leasing" the SW and electronic controls, no right to try to repair yourself or have a local shop fix it). The infamous Apple iPhone screen case (*) is but one of many... Manufacturers have a vested interest in forcing you to buy new rather than repair the old. Try getting a service manual for your AVR these days, or most anything else. Waste from electronic products is toxic and becoming a large percentage of the waste in landfills these days.

IME/IMO - Don

(*) Don't recall exactly but it's in the article and has been around a while. Overseas correspondent breaks screen whilst on assignment, gets local replacement because no Apple stores where ever he was (some small mideast place?), gets back and the next Apple update senses non-Apple replacement screen and shuts down his phone. Apple claims for security, chance the new screen won't recognize his ID or something, ultimately patches all phones' SW to not break if a replacement part is used after consumers yell and gov't threatens to review.

Wal-Mart joke heard a while back: Wal-Mart is closing 300 stores across the country due to loss of sales to online competition. All 30 cashiers were let go.

 

[Wombat]

I heard loud popping noises coming from my Behringer DEQ2496. It had succumbed to the poor quality capacitors used in the power supply. This problem was rife in the electronics industry for a while and eventually fixed. My DEQ must have been old-stock because my DCX2496 has been trouble-free.

A bigger bang? http://sound.whsites.net/fake/hitachi-caps.htm

 

[amirm]

Check out these stories. Guy on eevblog takes apart a PC power supply and sees a choke filter in there:

The choke is that yellow transformer looking thing out of the box with blue wires. He takes it apart and finds this:

There is no winding in there! It is a completely empty unit with fake wires coming out of it!!!

 

[amirm]

Looks like that is a common cheat. Check the choke in this power supply:

They just looped the wire in and out of the thing!

And empty inside like the other one:

Amazing that everything else is there but the copper winding wire.