Friday, July 23, 2010

Fake Sennheiser CX300 (White) Headphones/Earphones

The Sennheiser CX300 headphones are a very good quality piece of equipment, characteristically described as having warm bass and excellent external noise reduction qualities. And they do. They retail at around 30. There will be genuine Sennheisers on eBay, however unfortunately most are fakes. *In order to keep high quality images I cannot link them, please copy and paste the imagevenue links into a new browser window*I recently bought a pair from eBay from a seller who also sellson the Amazon marketplace (which alsoapparently has the same problem with fakes) for 8andcosmeticallytheywereveryverysimilartotherealSennheiserCX300s.Comparingtoexistingguidesthepackagingseemedlegitimate,so much so theypassed90%oftheteststodeterminewhetherornottheywere genuine.Comparing them to a genuine pair bought from HMV, however, there are several clues to spot fakes.Ihaveincludedhighresphotostoillustrate. Starting from the jacks:1. Some fakes have straight jacks. This is an obvious clue as the real ones have "L" shaped jacks (see the photo for #2)2. Some fakes have gold plated jacks. Genuine Sennheisers are silver.Therubberwireprotectorsareveryslightlydifferent,asseeninthephotobelow;therealontherighthavegapswhere it is possible to see the wire inbetween, the fakes it is barely possible to see the wire, although this may not be the best test.http://img109.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=61308_Jacks_122_658lo.jpg3. Lead lengths.MyrealSennheisersmeasure~85cmfromendofthejacktothesplitter,then~20cmfromsplitter to top of left headphone, and ~52cm from splitter to top of the right headphone.OtherguidessaythatrealSennheisershavea50cmlengthfromsplittertorightheadphone,Imeasuredtotheendoftherightheadphone,whichagreeswiththis. The fakes measured ~65cm, 25cm, 55cm respectively.Looking at the logo on the back of the headphones could tell, however decent fakes have copied the logo brilliantly.http://img140.imagevenue.com/view.php?image=61291_Fake2_122_673lo.jpghttp://img45.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=61296_Real2_122_373lo.jpg4.Thebuds:thesilverringsaroundthebudsareagoodpointtostart.Fakebudswillhavequitecrudelymanufacturedrings;theseringsareturneddownonalatheandthefakeshavetelltalecuttingrings,whereasgenuinephonesseemverypolishedandsmart.Real Sennheisers are HIGH quality, and the edge of the ring will be rounded and quite smooth rather than quite sharply chamfered. http://img14.imagevenue.com/view.php?image=61274_Fake1_122_878lo.jpghttp://img206.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=61281_Real1_122_336lo.jpg5. Remove the rubber noise excluder. Since fakes are manufactured cheaply, it could be possible to see a joining line in the plastic or extra "bobbles" of plastic due to quick production.(See pictures above) 6.Withtherubberexcluderstillremoved,lookatthegauzethatcoversthespeaker.Iwassurprisedtoseehowwellmanufacturedtherealoneswere compared to the fakes. The photos below show the comparison, with the fakes having cheap gauze stuck on top of the plastic, and the real oneshaving much better gauze stuck to the inner sides of the walls. Again note the cheap manufacture on the silver rings.http://img171.imagevenue.com/view.php?image=61301_Fake3_122_680lo.jpghttp://img7.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=61302_Real3_122_617lo.jpg7. It was possible to look beyond the gauze at the speaker shield in the headphones without taking them apart if you know what to look for: fake headphones generally have 4 holes in the metal plater infront of the cone (top, bottom, left, right) whereas the real headphones have 8. This is probably the most telltale sign.Hopefully this will help anyone else tell whether they have bought a fake. A lot of these sellers offer "7 day money back guarantees" - probably in an attempt to mimic authenticity, if you find yours is a fake, call them on itandgetyourmoneyback.

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