imola, first things first, welcome to Head-fi.
imola wrote:
here are some additional shots..
thoughts?
From my perspective, the logo is "sloppy," and the bass indentations are too pronounced. Not to mention the very, very necessary red chip is missing.
I'm looking at a set of knockoffs as I write and next to them I have a legitimate set of IE8's in which to make comparison notes. The notes are starting at the tail plug end and working up to the earpieces.
Plug sheathing of the real IE8 has a more clear and refined appearance in it's opaqueness and easily passes light. In the knockoff, there's very little opaqueness in the plug end as it's very cloudy, almost solid in appearance and does not like to let a whole lot of light pass through the plug's jacket material.
In the plug end of the real IE8, the red wire is pronounced. If the plug is pointing towards the floor and you're looking at the square back of the plug, look on the left side of the plug housing. When I flashlight the left side of the housing, two points, the real IE8 is more clear than opaque, allowing you to see the wiring and second, there's two pronounced wires to be seen and one of the wires is a pronounced red. On the knockoff, you can barely see, if at all, either red or white wire.
When I run my fingers along the main cable, the real cable is smooth and soft where the knockoff cable is "slightly" stiff and grainy to my finger's senses.
At the "Y" junction, flashlight the back of the "Y" junction. In doing so, you highlight the splice board. In the case of the real IE8, the "green" splice board is "clearly" visible, is square shaped and you can easily see the four solder points. This is not the case of the splice board in the knockoff. The splice board in the knockoff is barely visible, is rectangular in shape and you can barely, if at all, see the solder points.
When you turn the "Y" junction box on edge and shine light through it from the back, if looking at the real IE8, you can "easily" see the edge of the solder board and the opaqueness of the rubber, has a certain clarity to it where as in the case of the knockoff, you can only see some green coloration coming through and the opaqueness has a smokey or cloudy quality to it which obscures the solder board.
The outside surface of the "Y" connector, in the case of the real IE8, has a smooth, refined finished appearance where as the knockoff has a smooth but pitted, grainy or slightly reflective appearance to it.
The "Y" junction box has many, very minor differences, too tedious for this guy to list. To me, the most telling points of the "Y" junction is the clarity of the material and whether you can "easily" and "clearly" see the connection solder board or not. You can easily see the "four" solder points on the real IE8, you can't easily see the solder points or the rectangular solder board of the knockoff.
Next up the line is the slide between the "Y" junction box and the earpiece connectors.
In the case of the slide, flash-lighting from the back to the logo front of the slide, the coloration of the real IE8's matches that of the wires and is a clear/gray opaque but the slide of the knockoff has a clear greenish coloration. Again, the finish of the real IE8 is refined or smooth, whereas the knockoff is slightly rough and pitted or grainy.
I won't go into the earpieces themselves as a lot has been written on this end of things. I commented on the lower end as I don't remember much being written on the plug end or the "Y" splitter, or the slide.
I hope the above helps better define the question regarding being able to tell real from knockoff.
