I was careful too…until I decided to buy an AC12 from a guy on Audiogon with great feedback. It turned out to be a fake. Live and learn.
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With so many fakes out there, it’s such false economy. I don’t get it.
Before putting money down, it pays to ask ptivate sellers to document that it came from a dealer or, failing that, to weigh it and check with PS Audio. They now have a good sense of real vs. fake weights.
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I was considering doing this – asking for original receipt, etc – in the case of the current audiogon seller but just opted to go with a different cable. AC12 just out of my reach I guess, and the used market seems to be too corrupted.
I had multiple bad experiences with used purchases. I didn’t know any better at the time. One was from a bricks and mortar dealer, non PS Audio and the other was a private reseller in Pennsylvania. Both were reputable but ignorant of the product. There is a lot of information here to identify the real ones. They do exist.
I keep hearing that weigh it comment but if I was not reputable wouldn’t I just lie about the origin and weight? The guy I bought the fake from lied to me about the origin with a plausible enough story that I believed him. If you look at his Audition feedback he has lots and lots of positive feedback for selling this cable.
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Yes, and I think this and other information which allows PS Audio to distinguish real from fake should not be made publicly available.
I suggest if you want to buy a PS Audio power cord from anyone other than them to give them a call for assistance.
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The fakes seller who would go to the trouble of contacting PS Audio to get the correct weight would have to be quite tuned in or knowledgeable (and brazen), which is extraordinarily rare or still nonexistent at this time. If PSA knows of the seller, and they do of some, they’ll be able to help, along with providing info like weights or that some fakes have shorter connectors. When I bought five fakes last Sept, that and sympathy and an offer to inspect is all they provided, so I had to get my money back directly, using on-scale photos of real ones vs. the fakes. I also enlisted the help of Audiogon’s friendly staff with that guy in Holland MI and politely threatened an eBay seller about going to the police and eBay about it (2 of the 3 sellers genuinely didn’t know theirs were fakes, and one of them actually sued the guy he got it from in small claims, using my photos).
Since then, while still looking for more AC-12s, I’ve asked sellers for proof or weights. Some have had the documentation or been in touch with PSA themselves to make sure, and I could tell from their previous sales of other hardware and their feedback that they were almost certainly legit. A couple of times, the delay has lost me a purchase to someone else, but so be it. In other cases, where the weight was off, I let them know, and if the ad stayed up I reported it to eBay, and then the ad has come down (all my purchases have been domestic - never buy these from China). In addition, I’ve searched and found very good pricing on new and occasionally used and demos from dealers.
I’ve heard that the counterfeits are all 2m AC-12’s, not other lengths. Others or PS Audio would have to confirm.
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Would it be possible to use a simple resistance test of + and/or - conductors to confirm real or fake?
I think you’re over thinking fakes. As someone who was the embarrassed owner of three, the fakes have some obvious differences. They have a rigid conduit in it them. They have a narrower gauge in width. They lack compliance. The other issue is weight. The fakes are lighter. If you’ve seen the real one bent you can easily spot the fake. They are too rigid and look like a hard tube that remains rigid and circular. The cable diameter is the other giveaway.
Original receipt means nothing…very easy to swap a fake cable with a receipt for one purchased via authorised channel.
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That was why I discussed the physical attributes of the cable. Receipts have no true chain of ownership. The cables aren’t serialized.
Surprised nobody has picked up on rudankort’s post (Feb 17) that both ‘AC-12’ shown in the picture in the reddit “Real vs. Fake (PS Audio AC12)”. Does someone actually know what a real AC-12 looks like inside or is the cable on the right indeed a real AC-12?
https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/741tur/real_vs_fake_ps_audio_ac12/
That picture has ben posted before. It’s actually in this thread in an earlier post.
Correct (as stated).
Do you expect the insides of a real AC-12 look like supposed ‘real’ AC-12 in that Reddit picture? PS Audio’s description of the AC-12 (from the AC-12 product page): “Construction of the AC12 employs the use of multiple conductor types including hollow core, flat and solid core conductors, plus multiple outer shields properly terminated at only the male end of the cable.”
I’m not seeing “multiple conductor types including hollow core, flat and solid core conductors” in the fake nor the ‘real’ AC-12 in that Reddit picture. Hence the question if anyone knows what the inside of an AC-12 looks like.
While a rendering, this may be of interest:
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Thanks Elk! While a rendering, that does look quite a bit different than the ‘real’ AC-12 innards in the Reddit picture.
With only one AC12 in a system with all others AC5, would BHK Pre or DSD SR benefit more from the 12 and why?
Because of its better shielding and geometry. It isn’t like a good power cable in the midst of lesser cables has lower impact on sound. Instead it will rise above the crowd and shine. It’s just a much heavier gauge, better built cable that is instantly recognizable as better.
Thanks Paul. But my question is what will benefit most from the best possible cable, the Preamp or Dac?