Anyone bought XRCDs at KLIAV show

I bought some xrcd CDs at KLIAV show last friday, I tod it cheap, RM35 each, the normal price i saw at Hifi shop cost Rm150, when i get home and get a closer look at it, i suspect it fake XRCD, see the picture above, the certify mark are the same as fake XRCD i bought sometime ago for RM10. I cant confirm it real or fake, but i remember the one i saw at the hifi shop doesnt have the chinese character..

Aaron Neville bought at KLIAV..

hey bro. clearly its china made... i dont understand why the organizer allows such cd to be sold there. they can be considered as pirated cd...

Well,
To be honest. Its China chinese pressed. Bought the same sticker cd a few months ago and the quality is way far away from the originals. Bought mine for RM20 bucks.

Alamak, tod i get a good deal, pirated CD for Rm35, @#$%

but how is the sound quality? some of the chinese made one actually sounds ok.

Oh well, we all know there's so many China fakes around and selling for much much lower prices than the original. Well known established shops around Klang Valley sure lists their prices at well over RM100 for nearly all legit XRCD. So its natural if an XRCD or K2 or whatver retails for less than RM50, surely something not right. There's lots of tell tail signs on closer look at the quality of printing. Its usually less than perfect.
I think I know which vendor had all these. You get what you pay for. Not fair for me to say here sound good or not, if we're all here feel guilty having bought fakes. Nevermind lah.. perhaps they may serve a purpose in the car ICE or my toilet hifi system.

Lamkochai wrote:but how is the sound quality? some of the chinese made one actually sounds ok.

sound quality is ok, i dont have the original CD, so cannot AB test it. hope they dup from original xrcd, at least it retain 90% quality, hehe..

During the show a lot of seller selling china cd together and the best
is they selling above the market price Rm30-45..in ipoh china pressing
cd selling around Rm15-20 only..

I got Jonathan butler cd live,i buy the china pressing and the
original pressing..after compare AB test the sound quite close
around 20% different from ori..Not to say bad bout the china cd but if
u like the cd very much u can turn to buying the ori cd for self
satisfied..

p/s- during the avshow almost all cd seller mark up the price for audiophile cd even they give 20% discount

during that show, the rent for hifi displays rooms are high & expensive
so one of the easiest way to make sales & maintain profit margin are
to sell such materials way above market price

be aware next time..

azri wrote:during that show, the rent for hifi displays rooms are high & expensive
so one of the easiest way to make sales & maintain profit margin are
to sell such materials way above market price
be aware next time..

However you look at it, its a win-win situation for both vendor and organizer. Price bargains is NOT the issue, but merely an issue with any consumer or visitor. The vendor gains in numerous ways other than direct sales. Majority of the exhibitors are there at every show since long ago. They're NOT worried about their room rental. Thats the least of their worries. Even a CD vendor makes a nice bundle those 3 days.

The moral of the story is never buy China made CDs unless it is of those artistes from China. Please note that companies from China ne ver had any licence to produce XRCDs and anyone should be wary of any XRCDs that are sold below rm90.00. If you had bought such made in China CDs at the hifi show or any other shops in town, my advise would be to never patronise these shops again. They are out to make a fast buck and they know that they are selling pirated stuff. My bet is that they also selling more such illegal software but duping the unsuspecting bargain hunters into believing they are getting a good deal!

Hifikaki, I don't know how you could possibly say that the China XRCD pirates could sound 90% of the originals?!! Surely as a "respected" writer here, you should have more morals and dignity than to be quick to flatter the pirates? Anyway, if your system can only reveal a 10% difference in the sound quality between the pirated and the original XRCDs, that surely speaks a lot about your hifi.

Pirates are rampant in Malaysia. I don't know about XRCD pirates, but for most good quality DVD pirates copied from blu-ray, not only the picture and sound quality are comparable to originals but surpass them as well. The only disc I haven't tried is pirated blu-ray discs(yes those pirate kings have these now). Luckily I don't have blu-ray players yet.

I have tried those "pasar malam" CD's long time ago and they do sound inferior to original CD's, not to mention these pirated discs may damage the player in the long-run. DVD players are expendable so it doesn't matter too much unless the local authorities go all out to curb the pirate menace.

misterslumber wrote:
Hifikaki, I don't know how you could possibly say that the China XRCD pirates could sound 90% of the originals?!! Surely as a "respected" writer here, you should have more morals and dignity than to be quick to flatter the pirates? Anyway, if your system can only reveal a 10% difference in the sound quality between the pirated and the original XRCDs, that surely speaks a lot about your hifi.

aiyah, pls read the line carefully lah, i just joke bout the fake XRCD, i said i hope it was duplicate from original xrcd, so it at can retain 90% quality of original XRCD cd..

and i'm not the Hifikaki the wirter who wrote blog..

hifikaki wrote:

misterslumber wrote:
Hifikaki, I don't know how you could possibly say that the China XRCD pirates could sound 90% of the originals?!! Surely as a "respected" writer here, you should have more morals and dignity than to be quick to flatter the pirates? Anyway, if your system can only reveal a 10% difference in the sound quality between the pirated and the original XRCDs, that surely speaks a lot about your hifi.

aiyah, pls read the line carefully lah, i just joke bout the fake XRCD, i said i hope it was duplicate from original xrcd, so it at can retain 90% quality of original XRCD cd..

and i'm not the Hifikaki the wirter who wrote blog..

I really love reading the comment in the blogs sometime will release my tension

Everyone,

In the future, anyone who makes a statement which is not meant to be taken seriously is advised to append a 'smiley' to indicate it as so (i.e. - joke). This clearly identifies that the statement is meant to be a lighthearted annecdote or even a joke. Conversely, when a person makes a joke, others are reminded that a sense of humour is always a good thing to have and so to treat it as a joke.

The only cavert is that we must also exercise some common sense in our jokes. I.e. understand that there are boundaries and certain things which we should not make a joke out of. And respect those boundaries. E.g. racial slurs cannot be hidden as a joke and will never be tolerated no matter what. Disrespect to the deceased (e.g. making a crude joke of Micheal Jackson's death) is considered bad taste, even if it's meant as a joke. Of course, one has every right to say so if one does not fancy MJ's songs or dances lar. But don't make crude jokes about his unfortunate death.

You are all adults. I am confident you guys get the picture.

hifikaki wrote:

Lamkochai wrote:but how is the sound quality? some of the chinese made one actually sounds ok.

sound quality is ok, i dont have the original CD, so cannot AB test it. hope they dup from original xrcd, at least it retain 90% quality, hehe..

Hi WongKN
is there any problem with these statement? is my statement mean that the fake cd is 90% of original cd? maybe is my bad english. i even put a "hehe" is not enough to tell someone i just joking..

But if i have to tell someone, hey this is a joke lah before i tell him a joke, then i rather keep my mouth shut le..

No, my point is that the 'hehe' can be misinterpreted. So I suggest you put the smiley emoticon. This is quite universally accepted on the internet; to indicate the emotion or actual meaning of the statement. i.e. if you are actually talking, you would say "at least it retain 90% quality" and then you would actually laugh out loud "hehehe". This immediately tells people you meant it as a joke. But as I often like to point out, the internet is a faceless, emotionless medium. We just see words and sentences. We don't see the facial expression, the body language, or hear the naunces that defines a statement as assertion, suggestion, joke, etc.

So sometimes unfortunately, if you simply put in 'hehe', people might interpret it differently. I.e. to you 'hehe' is good enough to mean you joking. But someone might see it as supporting the fact that pirated CD can acheive 90% of original quality (which can be true in some cases) and that the 'hehe' is in support of that statement, meaning "so people who buy original are silly because we can spend a lot less and get almost same quality, heheheh").

You see my point ?

So, the use of emoticons like makes it VERY CLEAR you are saying a joke. The bright yellow moving image really grabs people's attention.

So, I would encourage everyone to relax and continue to make jokes if you feel like it. To make sure we avoid this sort of misunderstanding in the future, than I am proposing we adopt the standard practise of using emoticons to add feelings (facial expression if you may) to more clearly explain what we are trying to say. It's OK if you don't agree and don't want to use it.

Please note. I am a moderator. But I will not dictate what forumers can say or cannot say, or how you guys can say it. Except for outright flaming, or hate-inciting, racial slurs, that sort of undesirable things lar. Those I will intefere. Otherwise, if I feel I can add some suggestion or insight, I will do so but again, these kind of things you guys can opt to adopt or to not follow.

It is good that moderator point us some guideline at least when we talk we are aware and are responsible for what we have said. But since this is a forum pls give us more freedom to express and exchanging ideas or information. Especially when it is related to trade or money let this forum benefit all its members. TQ

Oh, my apologies hifi kaki. I didn't mean to be rude but I hate it when people support pirates. Even worse will be those dealers that sell pirates but try to disguise them as originals, fooling innocent victims into parting with their hard earn $$$. If they want to sell pirated stuff, then by all means tell the buyers what they are selling and charge them at the pirated price, i.e. nothing more than rm5.00. At least everone involved know what they are into.

misterslumber wrote:Oh, my apologies hifi kaki. I didn't mean to be rude but I hate it when people support pirates. Even worse will be those dealers that sell pirates but try to disguise them as originals, fooling innocent victims into parting with their hard earn $$$. If they want to sell pirated stuff, then by all means tell the buyers what they are selling and charge them at the pirated price, i.e. nothing more than rm5.00. At least everone involved know what they are into.

The purpose i start this thread is to warn everyone here that there are fake xrcd being sold at KLIAV, not to promote the pirated CD..

So......

Is there any expert that can show us how to different the china press cd compared to original cd?

I do buy some CD at the first counter when enter level 4. From the CD show printing at Hong Kong but with Malaysia orignal sticker on it. I test it out, the sound consider good. But how to differential it original or not?

Just be careful next time. Good things don't always come cheap. There is always a catch when the price is too good to be true. If the report above is true, it is quite perplexing that hifi shows of this calibre can allow pirated stuff to be sold by some of these unscrupulous peddlers looking to earn a quick buck. It is comprehensible if these fakes are sold on the roadside but it is astonishing they are sold openly in this prestigious show where all high-end systems are being paraded on the same floor. I wonder if the organisers are aware of this(they should) and if yes why these fakes are allowed to be sold in the show.

Well, not all CD's are overpriced. At least some good quality Japanese-pressed Yamaha production CD's can be found at the last store for RM5 per piece. Not too sure if they are pirates though but sound quality is sure good. Grabbed 9 pieces out a whim.

There's always been a sizeable amount of "throw-outs" like those Yamaha pressings and a limited number of Japanese reissues that cost an arm n leg at retail stores. Its mainly the question of whether the album or artist appeal to the mass. Most are looking for newer genre, established artists or by word of mouth for audiophile quality. Its mostly these that command sky high prices at 10-20% less...still high. Audiophile Muddy Waters Folk Singer at RM85 before 20% discount is still high price. Eagles Hell Freezes Over (US Press) is RM60 before discount...still crazy!. Its mostly been marked up and discounted down...filthy trick every year lah!

during any international event, nothing is cheap. even pirated xrcds!!

azri wrote:during any international event, nothing is cheap. even pirated xrcds!!

Got lah!.. I bought many items relatively cheap. RM10 each CD (usual RM56 at CD shops). Just that its random items that either people don't usually buy or took notice. Its very desirable things that don't come cheap.

sounds typical !! cheap for the less wanted item

azri wrote:sounds typical !! cheap for the less wanted item

Errrr.... you're quite right...unless any item become a collectible.
I got a mint Mobile Fidelity Santana Abraxas Original Master Recording 24k gold disc. It cost me RM80 many years back. Its now somewhat over US$200.00 on Ebay. Mobile Fidelity re-issued the album limited, RM150 at KLAV show. Its an album perhaps many people don't remember but contains 2 classic tracks, Black Magic Woman (long edit) and Samba Pa Ti, which surfaced in some later compilations. I don't think Santana albums are sought after right now and many younger generation don't even know who is Santana, or perhaps just barely heard off. NOBODY plays like Carlos Santana!..a 70's legend!

Hi guys, I just want to say that we were the people manning the store that were selling the cheap Yamaha CDs at rm5.00 each. We are a record company and we would like to advise buyers to be wary of China made CDs, just as misterslumber had pointed out. All China made cds can be identified with a round hologram sticker (as pointed out in the photos of the two "xrcds" in the first post above) and the back cover will have chinese wordings and ISRC xxxxxx. Furthermore, the XRCD technology has never been licensed to any company in China. Even if you find artistes from China made available on China made XRCDs, these are not XRCDs but just a marketing ploy to dupe audiophilers into buying. Please also note that there are a lot of pirated Chinese cds floating around (yes, even the original China cds have been pirated!) and one have to be very careful in purchasing China cds. So, please approach cheap China cds with caution.

I don't want to comment about whether the organizer of the show is aware of the presence of pirated software available in abundance but I want to stress that we were merely clearing off our older stocks which we saw would be of interest to the people attending hifi shows. These are legitimate products and as ryder pointed out, are of good quality stuff. The other stall by our side was also another record company clearing off their overstocked titles. Vinyl collectors were also having a field day as they cleared truckloads of vinyls on the first day of the show!

My advice to all looking forward to buy cds at hifi shows, is that everyone should check out the name of the stall first before patronising and record companies will be a very very safe option.

good info, tqs

hifikaki,

I got the original aaron neville XRCD...it's different in sound surely. China pressed cds sound a little stressed in high freq (some may call detail). Seems that they've altered in order to "enhance" the sound

can anyone comment on differences between LPCD and XRCD? LPCD is slightly cheaper but according the some of the cd shop owners it sounds better than xrcd. i bought a few (cai qin, paganini violin track) but i prefer xrcd more.

sting wrote:hifikaki,

I got the original aaron neville XRCD...it's different in sound surely. China pressed cds sound a little stressed in high freq (some may call detail). Seems that they've altered in order to "enhance" the sound

oh, if got chance, would like to A/B the original XRCD..

cmboy wrote:

azri wrote:sounds typical !! cheap for the less wanted item

Errrr.... you're quite right...unless any item become a collectible.
I got a mint Mobile Fidelity Santana Abraxas Original Master Recording 24k gold disc. It cost me RM80 many years back. Its now somewhat over US$200.00 on Ebay. Mobile Fidelity re-issued the album limited, RM150 at KLAV show. Its an album perhaps many people don't remember but contains 2 classic tracks, Black Magic Woman (long edit) and Samba Pa Ti, which surfaced in some later compilations. I don't think Santana albums are sought after right now and many younger generation don't even know who is Santana, or perhaps just barely heard off. NOBODY plays like Carlos Santana!..a 70's legend!

yea cmboy! was going through the treats & come across yours. thx for reminding me about this album which is also in my lifetime collection. they're dumb in a box & put aside for many years


the rest are all my santana studio album collection.


thx for the comments @ tsai chin anyway!!

Nice collection!

Hat's off to you leonard ong

SACD and XRCD...which is more superior? Read an article which said SACD cannot be pirately duplicate. Is there any thruth, knowing the pirate industry is many times larger, I am very sure they have jalan to break the codes.

ongaaron wrote:SACD and XRCD...which is more superior?

I suppose if you can test both format of the same album, only you decide which suits you best. Otherwise, if money no object, buy both. There's a couple of albums I like so much, when can afford, I'll buy all the formats available. (yes, some may call me mad or crazy).

ongaaron wrote:SACD and XRCD...which is more superior? Read an article which said SACD cannot be pirately duplicate. Is there any thruth, knowing the pirate industry is many times larger, I am very sure they have jalan to break the codes.

I am not sure if copying using my CD writer is considered as "pirately duplicate".

I manage to copy a SACD by the title of Round Mid Night by Jaime Valle last week. The difference between the original and the copy is very substantial though.

Hybrid SACD can be copied but not in its entirety. You're making a copy of the Red Book layer only. No harm though...can play in the car..