[hakuzen]

Ok, well here we go:

• Core #1, green conductor, L+
• Core #2, red conductor, R+
• Core #3, gold conductor, shared gnd
• Core #4, gold conductor, shared gnd
• Core #5, red conductor, FAKE ie not connected
• Core #6 & #7 (ie has 2 totally separate conductors inside the same insulator), blue AND green conductors, FAKE ie neither are connected

And there you have it folks. The TRN “6-core” cable.

Surprise #1 is the wire actually contains 7 conductors.

Surprise #2 is only 4 conductors are connected to anything. The rest are fake, and just there for looks.

So how many more of these “upgrade wires” (we’ve all been spending our hard earned money on) contain fake conductors? After seeing this, I’m willing to bet quite a few of them.

Update: And just so no one can try and blame it on an isolated case of a QA error, I just got done cutting apart my OTHER brand new 6-core cable (the mmcx version of the same cable). Same result. Fake cores.

thanks for confirming it. resistance measurements suggested it

 

[Slater]

thanks for confirming it. resistance measurements suggested it

No problem. I’m glad to take one for the team. Especially given as much as you’ve helped us all, I’m glad to do my part to make a contribution to the cable community.

I know I for one am going to stop buying upgrade cables, at least for the near future until I have reason to trust that I’m actually getting what I think I’m getting.

 

[courierdriver]

Ok, well here we go:

• Core #1, green conductor, L+
• Core #2, red conductor, R+
• Core #3, gold conductor, shared gnd
• Core #4, gold conductor, shared gnd
• Core #5, red conductor, FAKE ie not connected
• Core #6 & #7 (ie has 2 totally separate conductors inside the same insulator), blue AND green conductors, FAKE ie neither are connected

And there you have it folks. The TRN “6-core” cable.

Surprise #1 is the wire actually contains 7 conductors.

Surprise #2 is only 4 conductors are connected to anything. The rest are fake, and just there for looks.

So how many more of these “upgrade wires” (we’ve all been spending our hard earned money on) contain fake conductors? After seeing this, I’m willing to bet quite a few of them.

Update: And just so no one can try and blame it on an isolated case of a QA error, I just got done cutting apart my OTHER brand new 6-core cable (the mmcx version of the same cable). Same result. Fake cores.

Wow! How sad and disappointing. It's not so much the price point...it's the principle of it all. If a company does this with a 5 dollar cable, it makes you wonder how many others are doing it with $100+ cables. Thanks, @Slater. You did the community a huge favour I think, by exposing this. Not all of us take the time (or have the measurement gear or expertise) to uncover this kind of stuff. You

Ok, well here we go:

• Core #1, green conductor, L+
• Core #2, red conductor, R+
• Core #3, gold conductor, shared gnd
• Core #4, gold conductor, shared gnd
• Core #5, red conductor, FAKE ie not connected
• Core #6 & #7 (ie has 2 totally separate conductors inside the same insulator), blue AND green conductors, FAKE ie neither are connected

And there you have it folks. The TRN “6-core” cable.

Surprise #1 is the wire actually contains 7 conductors.

Surprise #2 is only 4 conductors are connected to anything. The rest are fake, and just there for looks.

So how many more of these “upgrade wires” (we’ve all been spending our hard earned money on) contain fake conductors? After seeing this, I’m willing to bet quite a few of them. And not just from TRN. It’s possible it’s from many manufacturers.

My advice is to be suspicious of the higher resistance cables before anything. Because if you have 2 cables (both with “8-cores” of roughly the same thickness), and 1 has a way higher resistance...well maybe now you know why.

Update: And just so no one can try and blame it on an isolated case of a QA error, I just got done cutting apart my OTHER brand new 6-core cable (the mmcx version of the same cable). Same result. Fake cores.

Wow! Thanks on behalf of all of us for doing this. Gotta say, I'm pretty sad at this news. Not all of us (especially me), has the measurement gear or know how, to figure out whether the cables we thought were upgrades, are actually fakes. I totally appreciate you and @hakuzen for what you guys do, to help the community. With this news though, it makes me wonder how many other companies are out there selling and claiming things, that aren't true...and that cost 10 or more times the price. Do we all need to buy measurement gear (and learn how to use it) so that we can avoid being ripped off by disingenuous companies? Do we all need to rip our cables and other gear apart, just to make sure that the claims made by companies are really true? I have always held TRN in rather high regard...they make pretty good sounding iems and good cables...or so I thought. I'm sad to say that I'm very disillusioned now. I wonder if there is a rep from TRN on these forums, who has the balls to provide an answer to why this company would risk their reputation by cheating their customers?

 

[Slater]

Wow! Thanks on behalf of all of us for doing this. Gotta say, I'm pretty sad at this news. Not all of us (especially me), has the measurement gear or know how, to figure out whether the cables we thought were upgrades, are actually fakes. I totally appreciate you and @hakuzen for what you guys do, to help the community. With this news though, it makes me wonder how many other companies are out there selling and claiming things, that aren't true...and that cost 10 or more times the price. Do we all need to buy measurement gear (and learn how to use it) so that we can avoid being ripped off by disingenuous companies? Do we all need to rip our cables and other gear apart, just to make sure that the claims made by companies are really true? I have always held TRN in rather high regard...they make pretty good sounding iems and good cables...or so I thought. I'm sad to say that I'm very disillusioned now. I wonder if there is a rep from TRN on these forums, who has the balls to provide an answer to why this company would risk their reputation by cheating their customers?

I am saddened by the findings myself. I've spent a lot of money on upgrade cables over the years, and the thought that some of them may be fake is very sickening. It's like putting lipstick on a pig.

I'm sure I'll be discredited in some way, or it will be explained away as an isolated QC case. The difference is that I have nothing to gain by posting my truthful findings.

TRN (and any other company participating in these types of shenanigans) on the other hand, have everything to lose...

 

[courierdriver]

I am saddened by the findings myself. I've spent a lot of money on upgrade cables over the years, and the thought that some of them may be fake is very sickening. It's like putting lipstick on a pig.

I'm sure I'll be discredited in some way, or it will be explained away as an isolated QC case. The difference is that I have nothing to gain by posting my truthful findings.

TRN (and any other company participating in these types of shenanigans) on the other hand, have everything to lose...

Yup, you're right. I feel the same pain. If I buy a car that's advertised to have 4 wheel disk brakes with ceramic brake pads, I shouldn't have to remove the wheels to confirm that it's true. When I buy something, though, I expect that certain things that are claimed (especially something like the wire guage and number of cores in a cable) are legit. Trying to pass something off as something else is just plain dishonest imo. Companies or individuals who do this are crooks, plain and simple.

 

[Slater]

Ok, so you guys aren’t gonna like this.

I just got done dissecting a TRN 8-core bi-color upgrade cable:



Core #1, silver wire, L+
Core #2, silver wire, R+
Core #3, silver wire, FAKE
Core #4, silver wire, FAKE
Core #5, gold wire, shared gnd
Core #6, gold wire, shared gnd
Core #7, gold wire, shared gnd
Core #8, gold wire, FAKE

This totally explains why the gnd terminal always had a way lower resistance than the R/L terminals on the TRN 8-core cables. @hakuzen can back me up on that.

So now we have yet MORE TRN ‘upgrade’ cables that have wires connected to absolutely nothing.

Folks, this is not an accident. This is not a QC fluke. Obviously this is intentional!

I am not happy at all.

I am going to expand my testing to include some KZ upgrade cables.

Unfortunately, I don’t own any of the KZ 8-core copper/silver bi-color cables, only the flat braided ones. So I’ll have to order some of the KZ bi-color cables to dissect and test. I will be testing a KZ flat-braided cable though.

We need to figure out what upgrade cables we can trust, and which ones we can’t trust. This is total BS.

 

[eclein]

Thanks Slater!

 

[Slater]

As promised, I dissected another 8-core upgrade cable (this time a KZ one).

This is the only one from KZ I have that’s over 4-cores. It’s the KZ flat-braided SPC. It’s one that’s I dyed to cover up the green oxidation common with these cables. However, the dye only colors the insulation layer and does not affect the cable in any other way. I only mention it in case anyone wonders why it looks the way it does.



The results:

Core #1, R+
Core #2, R+
Core #3, L+
Core #4, L+
Core #5, shared gnd
Core #6, shared gnd
Core #7, shared gnd
Core #8, shared gnd

I also found out this cable does not have individually-enameled conductors, so technically it didn’t even require destructive testing after all. I simply could have tested it using the sewing needle probe method. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

I was planning on reterminating this cable for use on my 1More H1707 headphones anyways, so I didn’t mind cutting it apart.

The point is that this particular ‘upgrade’ cable is legit.

 

[Palash]

Ok, so you guys aren’t gonna like this.

I just got done dissecting a TRN 8-core bi-color upgrade cable:



Core #1, silver wire, L+
Core #2, silver wire, R+
Core #3, silver wire, FAKE
Core #4, silver wire, FAKE
Core #5, gold wire, shared gnd
Core #6, gold wire, shared gnd
Core #7, gold wire, shared gnd
Core #8, gold wire, FAKE

This totally explains why the gnd terminal always had a way lower resistance than the R/L terminals on the TRN 8-core cables. @hakuzen can back me up on that.

So now we have yet MORE TRN ‘upgrade’ cables that have wires connected to absolutely nothing.

Folks, this is not an accident. This is not a QC fluke. Obviously this is intentional!

I am not happy at all.

I am going to expand my testing to include some KZ upgrade cables.

Unfortunately, I don’t own any of the KZ 8-core copper/silver bi-color cables, only the flat braided ones. So I’ll have to order some of the KZ bi-color cables to dissect and test. I will be testing a KZ flat-braided cable though.

We need to figure out what upgrade cables we can trust, and which ones we can’t trust. This is total BS.

Fake, are u sure, some time this cables are coated with resin so you can't see any continuity. Use a lighter flame to burn out the cable resin and see if its still fake.

 

[maxxevv]

Fake, are u sure, some time this cables are coated with resin so you can't see any continuity. Use a lighter flame to burn out the cable resin and see if its still fake.

"Fake" as in the cable strand is not connected to any of the connectors at the ends at all.

If you have measured the resistance values of the TRN cables, which I did, Hakuzen did too. The odd thing about the 8-strand (mine was the black and silver one), was that the ground pin always had the better / lower resistance reading. It didn't make sense, unless of course they used more strands for the ground.

But nobody suspected that there were actually strands which were not even soldered !!

 

[Slater]

Fake, are u sure, some time this cables are coated with resin so you can't see any continuity. Use a lighter flame to burn out the cable resin and see if its still fake.

Yes, I am 100% sure. I removed the enamel and tinned the ends of each conductor with solder before testing for continuity with a multimeter.

Also, you should never remove wire enamel with a lighter flame, as it completely contaminates the wire with black soot. There's more professional ways to remove the wire enamel that doesn't introduce contaminates to the copper.

"Fake" as in the cable strand is not connected to any of the connectors at the ends at all.

If you have measured the resistance values of the TRN cables, which I did, Hakuzen did too. The odd thing about the 8-strand (mine was the black and silver one), was that the ground pin always had the better / lower resistance reading. It didn't make sense, unless of course they used more strands for the ground.

But nobody suspected that there were actually strands which were not even soldered !!

I wonder how many wires are actually connected in the 16-core version of their cable?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/TRN...ade-Cable-3-5-2-5-4-4mm-Plug/33030087241.html

bahahahahahaha

 

[RikudouGoku]

This is disgusting, this is why China gets such a bad reputation and I am chinese myself... .

 

[KopiOkaya]

Yes, I am 100% sure. I removed the enamel and tinned the ends of each conductor with solder before testing for continuity with a multimeter.



I wonder how many wires are actually connected in the 16-core version of their cable?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/TRN...ade-Cable-3-5-2-5-4-4mm-Plug/33030087241.html

After all, they "spared no expense using only the finest and highest quality materials" bahahahahahaha

Big boss will like to speak to you.

 

[maxxevv]

Yes, I am 100% sure. I removed the enamel and tinned the ends of each conductor with solder before testing for continuity with a multimeter.



I wonder how many wires are actually connected in the 16-core version of their cable?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/TRN...ade-Cable-3-5-2-5-4-4mm-Plug/33030087241.html

After all, they "spared no expense using only the finest and highest quality materials" bahahahahahaha

I haven't bought any of the TRN cables after the 1st batch I bought. I was frankly puzzled too as to why the difference in resistance between the R+ / L+ pins and ground were so great.
I found the NiceHCK 8-core ones were really good measuring after Hakuzen's measurements. I measured and verified those myself too and I have stuck to them since.

 

[KopiOkaya]

I found the NiceHCK 8-core ones were really good measuring after Hakuzen's measurements. I measured and verified those myself too and I have stuck to them since.

A few of NiceHCK cables are OEM'ed by TRN.

I wonder how many wires are actually connected in the 16-core version of their cable?

Was on WeChat with TRN just now. They have traced the problem to their 6 and 8-core cables contract manufacturer. They are, like you said, doing "damage control" right now.

The 16-core cable is made by another manufacturer, so there should NOT be any problem (at least this is what they claimed).