I don't think these 'fake tests' are quite consistent. For instance, I bought a legitimate version from an internet shop for like 60 euro's. They were great, still are.
On the other hand, I just imported a pair from China, and did a sound test: they sound exactly the same, they both sound really really good. Even my audiophile dad could not really point any differences.
Here's the funny thing.. According to your 'fake spotting tests', the following is the case:
Both my original als my 'fake china' versions have the flat grill and therefore should be fake. Both my original as my 'fake china' versions have a leather pouch that is not really leather because the logo has been moulded in.
The funny thing is, the China version has a legit clip and a legit holder. So it's only half fake? xD
Couldn't it just be that somewhere in time Sennheiser decided to make some more profit by making the accessories a bit diffrent? Obviously pleather is cheaper than leather, so couldn't it just be that they switched production processes for the sake of less costs and more profit?
And on top of that I don't see how a bent or a flat grill will tell you if it's fake or not. It's such a tiny component, it wouldn't make any difference for the sound quality if the bent batch ran out at Sennheiser and they had to use a flat batch of grills.
So it might just well be that nowadays a lot of those fake/real comparisons are fake themselves, as you can't really tell if it's fake or not. According to it, my genuine Sennheisers should be fake (the buds itself that is), and the fake Sennheisers should be at least half original.. ????
As a conclusion I'd like to ask the following: suppose you have got yourself a fake one. But the fake one sounds exactly as good as the original one. Would you really mind you got a fake one, or are you glad you paid a lot less for the same sound?
Look, i've made my own theory about this. We all know that a lot of electronics are produced in China. I personally think this is the case: Sennheiser's got a factory in China that makes the high quality earbuds for them (explaining the reason why there are different grills or pouches maybe? because there are different factories with different suppliers of those things that don't really matter for the sound quality?). Sennheiser then imports them to Germany, where they sell them for 60 euro's because it says "sennheiser".
In the meantime, I think that factory in China is not crazy and just keeps a few of their own, selling it themselves to make some more profit out of them. The factory will then probably sell them themselves for more than Sennheiser pays them, so they will make some profit too.
I think i've got one of those, they're both original, but one is sold by sennheiser for the price of the logo, and the other is sold by the factory for a price a little higher than the production costs are (or a little higher than the price Sennheiser pays them).
And ofcourse there may be real fakes (ha-ha) that sound like crap, but I don't know that.
What do you think of this? (if you've had the courage to read everything).
My apologies if my english is dogdy every now and then, I'm from Holland and I don't really feel like screening my whole post atm.
