Fake product SUCKS!

Sennheiser CX serials of earphones are some very nice and premium audio products, they provide excellent sound quality, especially deep bass and superior noise isolation. But there are millions of FAKEs online, especially on eBay, as the sellers there can be disappeared after they sold a bunch of fake products, and it usually take over a week for negative feedback to appear. Furthermore, fake products now days are so well made that they are harder and harder to spot. So I took some time to take some photos of both real and “well made” fakes and wish could help other people when buying online.

eBay does not allow use large photos here, so please check my listings to see clear and large versions of the photos below.

Spot from packaing, so that 1. You can return the product without opening it! 2. That could save some hassle when seller willing to refund. And 3. You’ll not need to actually put on craps! 

Two of them are fake, can you tell? Honestly I did not expect a fake could be made so "real", it's pretty hard to tell if you don't compare with reall side by side. But fake are always fake, there are spots:
Let's start from the easy part:

For Titanium version, the color of FAKEs are darker. There are no much different for black version.
(Sorry I don't have a white version fake yet.)

Now for the back side. It's clear to see that the printing of FAKE are more greenish/bluish and the color of genuine products are warmer and accurate.

Well well, see? The manufacture of fakes does not have good machine to cut the hole smoothly. Both of the 2 fakes I have all look similar.

Now let's look at the details that are not so obvious:

Now for the edge of the sealling, I don't know how to discribe it clearly but as you can see, the edge of fake are more open as they use cheap and thinner materials. While the real is also smooth and straight.

Another one, the bottom of back side (sorry I took the photo upside down)
Please also check other edges, this could happen in any edges.

Take a look at the handsome model, see? I focus perfectly well for both of them.
Why the printing is blur on fake? Because they have to SCAN the original photo then Re-print, that will cause lose of quality. Yes it's hard to spot when you don't have a real one to compare.
TIP: look at the light reflection in the eyes, the lightspot is missing or almost missing in fake.

This one is easy to tell if you just look from the right angle.

The >PET< should beprinted below the words "CX 500".
The paper is not flat for fakes. Not to mention again the sealing edge.

I'll get a white fake and take more photos.
More photos for earphones and inner package will be updated soon.

Guidelines to purchase a Genuine CX500 (or other product) on eBay:

1. Read the listing carefully: bid the listings with large photos and detailed descriptions, as the sellers are generally confident with the product and you can see more details.
2. Check seller's reputation. Sellers with more positive feedbacks are more trustworthy. But this could be fooled as previous buyers may not know it's fake, sometime even the seller could also be fooled by supplier, especially for new products.
3. Consider purchase from PowerSellers: as they are long time high volume sellers with a minium 98% positive feedback. Which also means they generally offer a good after sale support.
4. Confirm the return policy before purchasing: make sure it could be returned in case anything wrong.
5. When item arrives, CHECK BEFORE OPEN the seal: if anything is wrong contact the seller immediatly and ask a refund, and ship the item back without opening could save more hassle.
6. Don't buy it too cheap. If a seller is selling at a price much lower than others, then there must be a reason.

Please also check my eBay listings here, I do offer Genuine CX500s:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZshaka_dai

Thank you for visiting!

Shaka Dai

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