After buying a pair of Neumann NDH30s, I started to become suspicious of the build quality of the 7s.

The plastic felt a little flimsy, there were creaks and squeaks when I adjusted them, they just felt off.

So I looked up counterfeit ATs online and found a page which had photographs of the counterfeit drivers. So I opened up my set and sure enough, they had the same cheap knockoff Chinese drivers that I saw in the photos.

So I emailed Audio Technica just to make them aware of the issue and to their credit, they offered me a nice discount on a new pair even though this situation was not their fault at all and I had purchased them three years prior.

The funny thing is that I was so new to the hobby when I got them that I was completely blown away by how the sounded when I used them. I suppose that’s what happens when you’re conditioned to the quality of a super-compressed stream being played through garbage bluetooth and laptop speakers.

Since then I’ve become very aware of audio fidelity and made an effort to acquire quality speakers, sources, headphones, etc.

Once I had the right gear, it was like listening to all of my favorite songs for the first time all over again.

Be extremely vigilant about counterfeits and knock offs. I was had by a pair of Audio Technica MSR-7s purchased on Amazon.

Took me three years to realize that my first “real” headphones weren’t real at all.

Lesson? Always verify the seller before hitting that “add to cart” button.