Salam
It has been a long time since I posted on this forum. Warm greetings to all felow pakwheelers, admins and moderators. I hope you all are in good health and may Allah bless you all.
This post is related to create awareness in people regarding Fake/B-Grade/Repaired Car Audio equipment which is circulating in the market in bulk quantity, mostly American, German and Swedish brands. I will try to cover all aspects as much I can, and this thread will be updated from as much time I get to post and as I get updated with more.
Here is a breif explanation to what I mean by Fake/B-Grade/Repaired:
Fake: Fake is nearly an exact looking copy of original item but with totally rubbish build quality and quality that it produces.
B-Grade: A B-Grade equipment is exactly the same same original item that comes out of same manufacturing facility, but due to mishandling/mechanical/technical error, the item has some shortfall and is rejected from main batch and sold as leftover/rejected/defected stock.
Repaired: Genuine product which stopped working due to wear'n tear, misuse, or any other reason, being repaired locally and sold as Brand New.
Fake/B-Grade/Repaired Car Audio Equipment includes almost any category of equipment i.e Coaxial Speakers, Component Speakers, 2-Way, 3-Way, Headunits, Stereo Amplifiers, Mono Amplifiers, Subwoofers, Wiring kits, Rca's, Distribution Blocks, etc. All these items are being replicated in different countries, mostly china, and being sold in Pakistan at extremely high prices. Most of the people are only aware of Pioneer, Kenwood, Sony and JVC being replicated but dear people following brands have also been circulated with either Fake or B-Grade/Repaired stock: JL Audio, DLS, Audison, Hertz, Orion, Rockford Fosgate, MB-Quart, Brax, Stinger, Alpine, and the list goes on..
Some importers are giving lame excuses that the cost of importing items in Pakistan has increased and they try to justify it by adding that first we used to import in containers, but now we use palette which costs more, although they never give proof to such claims. What happens is that they have a word with their so called authorized retailers to sell the item at a higher price than what was sold in previous imported stock, and the retailer does exactly just cashing out its reputation and marketing strategy.
Some Retailers are also providing public with a shop warranty card of items that does not bear any warranty in Pakistan when imported. Importers have also confirmed that their stock bears no warranty. What is happening here is our public gets scammed by just seeing some sort of shop warranty card, but in return they are actually buying Fake/B-Grade or Repaired equipment. There is a reason to this actually, the retailer is just playing with minds of people by giving them fake satisfaction, and in return it is selling equipment at extremely high profit margins. Anyone can figure out what is going on if he comes to know what the actual price of the equipment is after import, as the fake warranty is being backed up by such profits, and if 10/100 of the branded equipment goes dead, they will still happily replace the item to the customer as they have already made 100% - 200% profit over the item sold. A genuine warranty card is only the one that comes from the manufacturer or authorized distributor, not from a retailer shop.
Its a request to all car audio fans and users out there to properly do your homework before falling prey to such looters and fraudsters.
As per my updated knowledge till date, following is a short list of FAKE/REPAIRED Car Audio Equipment circulating in the market being sold as Branded and Brand New:
1. JL AUDIO
SUBWOOFER W3V2
SUBWOOFER W3V3
2. DLS
ULTIMATE SERIES COMPONENTS
UR6s COMPONENTS
UR36s COMPONENTS
PS6 COMPONENTS
IRIDIUM 6.2 COMPONENTS
RA40 4 CHANNEL AMPLIFIER
A8 ULTIMATE 4 CHANNEL AMPLIFIER
3. ROCKFORD FOSGATE
P162S COMPONENT SPEAKERS
FNX SERIES COMPONENT SPEAKERS
PUNCH SERIES AMPLIFIERS
PUNCH SERIES SUBWOOFERS
POWER SERIES SUBWOOFER REPAIRED
4. KICKER
K40 Coaxial Speakers
K5252 Coaxial Speakers
K60 Coaixal Speakers
K65 Coaxial Speakers
K693 Triaxial Speakers
K65.2 Component Speakers
K6,2 Component Speakers
Various Models of Subwoofers
4. FOCAL
PS-165V Performance Expert Series Components
FPD-600.4 4CH AMPLIFIER
ISC-165 Integration 2-way Speakers
R-690c Auditor Series 3-Way Speakers
165K2p 2-Way Components
R-4280 4 Channel Amplifier
P-30 SUBWOOFER
Check for every pair through serial number if verifiable from Focal Website and pictures through email, there are many models being replicated
5. HERTZ
MLK-165
HSK-165
HCX-165
ESK-165
ECX-690
And many more models
6. BRAX
According to a tip, Brax was initially imported B-Quality and sold
7. HELIX
B62c Components
E12 W Subwoofer
Some models I came across were bad build quality and prices almost 30% the retail in international market
8. AUDISON
AVK6
9. MTX
X704 THUNDER SERIES 4CH AMPLIFIER
And so on.....
Some brands are being imported from Malaysia and Thailand according to some vendors, but to be honest there is no option to verify their origin. Some third class quality China Amplifiers are being imported in bulk and sold in the market by branding them as Mac-Audio, although there is no verifiable option to them and does not come with manual or proper packing that a Mac Class amplifier should carry. These amplifiers run just like how a china amplifier would but with no guarantee on their lifespan or balance in sound quality, and vendors are making huge profits on them (Cost PKR-5000, being sold at PKR-15000-20000)
Attached are some images to distinguish between certain fake and original items, which I will update as new things come up, and its a request to all members and senior pakwheelers to kindly share your thoughts and experiences, and also if you can take out time to post images of any fake car audio equipment you have come across it will be highly beneficial for all of us.
JL AUDIO SUBWOOFER W3V3
DLS UP6i - Unverifiable/Fake Crossover
HELIX E12W
HERTZ MLK-165
HERTZ HSK-165
HERTZ ESK-165
FOCAL POLYGLASS 165 V1
AUDISON AVK6
Well the list will go on, but to start with this will give Car Audio lovers a general view of what to look and how to differentiate between genuine and fake items. I hope that my knowledge can be beneficial for fellow pakwheelers and I am expecting more input in this regard from people around.
It is my humble request to moderator and admin to make this sticky.
