Fake DLS A8 Amplifier Inquiry from Gunnar Spetz of DLS Sweden

Swedish car audio manufacturer DLS has issued a statement 2 years ago concerning their products being copied by an unscrupulous Chinese or Korean manufacturer.

Today I saw an inquiry email asked in a forum thread about an A8 DLS amplifier. Gunnar Spetz from DLS Sweden answered the question in detail, also attaching pictures taken from a counterfeit/fake/replica DLS Ultimate A8 amp. Here is the email contents and the attached photos:

Hi James and thanks for your mail.

The A8 amplifier seen on the link is probably a fake A8. This amp was a slow seller for DLS so we took it out of production for about 2 years ago. After that we found that some chinese or Korean company produced fake copies that are very similar on the outside, it is really hard to see the difference between them as long as you just see the outside.

You have to remove the bottom plate to see the difference. I have some photos of the fake A8 PCB inside. If the products are similar to these photos, they are fake copies. I could not find any inside photo of our original A8 but they are not similar at all. I also include a photo of the original A8 outside for your reference (A8_F).

There are also some DLS speakers sold on Ebay that we know are chinese copies, it is UR6S and UR36S, also PS6 models can be found. All of them are discontinued models since 1-2 years, so if they are sold on Ebay they are probably fakes. On the speakers it is almost impossible to see the diffence between fakes and originals, but if you listen to them you can hear the difference.

It is OK if you want to add this info on the audio forum.

Best regards

Gunnar Spetz
DLS Sweden