Post by Dom on Sept 8, 2022 17:36:55 GMT 12
I've just been reading an AudioKarma thread about amplifier clones. Specifically, some Chi-fi darTZeel clones that, for the price, seem to be belly-laughing at the originals. (I so love that abbreviation, Chi-fi!)
Depending on which version you choose and from whom you buy (and there's a variety of sellers) SQ appears to be just great, according to some owners. There was even a comment that somebody's wife's-sister's-next-door-neighbour met someone down the pub that preferred the clone to their original darTZeel. Or something.
(*Disclaimer - I actually have some admiration for counterfeit when it enters the realm of a tribute or meticulously-rendered art; I do NOT admire the theft of somebody's intellectual property nor the undermining of somebody's business-model. But I've knowingly bought it ...)
When, why? In my teenage world, owning a US-made Fender or Gibson guitar was just never going to happen. Everyone I knew owned either a copy/replica or an "original-design" guitar that were very close copies. And usually just a bit wrong. And affordable.
So from the early/mid-70s, musicians my age were openly fine with the idea of stolen IP and designs because it was cheap and enabled us. They were even hanging next to the originals in all the retailers. Imagine that scenario!
When the Japanese companies did get too close for comfort, the Americans upped their game. Today, many replicas are highly collectible and desirable as playable instruments.
I find this all super-interesting as parallel importing of the real thing (or is it?) and so-called "night-shift" copies of musical instruments, hi-fi, perfume, cameras etc. is now a very widespread thing. But a retailer just wouldn't carry an original and a copy of a darTZeel amp, would they?
I bet some people own audio systems made up purely of pirated IP, copied designs and counterfeits. There are even threads discussing the likelihood that some of the desirable components in them (hi-end capacitors, etc.) are counterfeit too. Is that a real Nichicon in my darTZeel copy??? LOL.
The QUAD power-amp clones that I use were inherited from my Uncle and he hand-built them in the late 1960s, clearly using quite a few (freely-available?) QUAD spares. So I guess they're original knock-offs?
So, yeah, a bit of a rhetorical ramble but what a world!
Singer/songwriter at: www.dominicblaazer.net
180g album, "The Lights of Te Atatu" released 2018
180g album, "The Lights of Te Atatu" released 2018
