SM7db Fake Chinese

[CoolCat]

Rob I just saw your video. Enjoyed it and learned some good tips on being aware. Thanks.

Very surprised the Fake SM7db is available already. (I think its ok to post your video here? if not let me know.)


First thing is kind of the last thing and that's the sound. (once you got the fake working).
It seems the sound is "ok" on the Fake. The body build and foam, even the capsule are close copy's...impressive copy's I might think. Like those Fake Rolex Watches that today can almost be unnoticeable to 90% of the people. It keeps time, it has the famous name IMAGE and even the second hand smooth sweep is accomplished, the trademark of Rolex.
Sound was good enough for vocal in this test. I will assume a kick drum test would show even less difference.

Interesting the non-working Fake forced a disassembly that showed the pcb/electronics and wiring to be different in a obvious way. That was maybe the most impressive difference found of all the differences. So glad it didn't work and you opened it up and added that.
But is that an issue to most HR consumers ? Probably not. As long as it works the pcb will never be seen.
Many wont be repairing their own mics and if they had got a Fake SM7db from Alibaba that didn't work, they would probably be done with Alibaba for life.
But a tinkerer type might fix it and accept it as part of the "world of Fakes". Does Alibaba take Returns? I don't know.

So the other stuff that maybe HR don't care about is where it was made and by whom etc..
The ability of these Fakes are mind boggling to me as they are so good now. The reality Shure moved to China makes buying a Chinese Copy seem humorous to me.
In a sense Shure deserves or had to have been aware they were "teaching" a hot bed of counterfeiting on how to make their microphones. And going back in time, decades,
the cheap labor the corporate execs do for profits comes with it the government who doesn't care (if not encourage) counterfeiting and cloning and copying black market products and
is a economy positive boom. So hmmm? a Shure made in China or a Shure made in China, one is 450 the other 65 ish...and they both sound ok. I'm sure hoards of them will be sold in the US, around Illionois, where Shure Bros started ...how ironic is that? I wonder when will we start comparing Fakes? A 7db made in China vs Fake 7db made in Mexico or < Fake 7db name country>?

Then video makes me wonder why do I like the SM7b vs 57? Answer : its the body, the design w Grill, the ease of using it. To me all that is worth the extra $$ over a 57.
And here the Fake 7db nails all that it. The Fake seems really really really well done from the body to the grill. even the capsule was a very similar copy per your video, but for the price of a used 57.

Shure Corp Executives going to China is like Mr. Shurebro who went to a Chinese Brothel and came home with Chinese STD and now has to live with it forever.
Its ok , surely they knew this would happen and budgeted for it. Anyone with half a brain would know doing business in China opens the door and "here comes with bootlegs. "
Do young bands starving and broke care if its made in China , Mexico or Bulgeria or <<enter country> ? I wonder. Probably not.

Do I care if the Fake doesn't have as good a contrast in the papers , that I never read anyway, or if they use styrofoam instead of cardboard or it comes with a sticker?? no and no.

How do we know the Fake was Made in China and not bootlegged in from Mexico? I've heard Mexican Fakes are a little cheaper made than Chinese Fakes.
China makes the best Fakes is what Im thinking? lol

 

[R D Smith]

How do we know the Fake was Made in China and not bootlegged in from Mexico? I've heard Mexican Fakes are a little cheaper made than Chinese Fakes.
China makes the best Fakes is what Im thinking? lol

There is no such thing as intellectual property in CN. If one company has the technology, pretty soon they all do. And the best fakes come from the country where the authentic product is manufactured. In the case of CN, I'd not be surprised 90% or more of the bootleg products come from the OE manufacturer, or one of their suppliers.

 

[rob aylestone]

I think that if I was keen and wanted my own youtube channel where you interview people, or have a group, then 3 of these fakes and a mixer with a teeny bit of EQ would work great. It's a difference in sound, but not a major one, and with the shure being so popular, the cheap SM7dB does make sense. I've put the Shure on ebay - with a sizeable discount from what I paid in December, so hopefully somebody with nearly enough to get an original might be able to get one.

 

[CoolCat]

Its a extra interesting video because of the "mic didn't work". You opened it up further and for tech-gearheads it did show some differences. Seems pretty well done.

But then its about sound too and sound doesn't care if the wire is blue or black or thousandths of an inch thicker.imo. Seems the sound was really close too.
It gets tough spending $450 instead of $60, when the ears cant hear it, and for HR the mics not going to be beaten up.

So the loyalty thing of not buying knockoffs to a company that closed their doors and moved jobs to China, only the Execs benefit, the workers got the boot.
Shure and AKG and many more so that loyalty vibe is kind of callous.

So why would someone pay $400 extra ? for the better resolution paper ink, or cardboard over styrofoam?
Like RD said maybe the parts come from the OEM and get some tax-free sales, wink wink say no more.... say no more!

 

[rob aylestone]

What always gets me about the Chinese production is that some of the things in the products are not easy to make. Not just this one - but other mics too. The housings, the hardware, even the grill material - is it cost effective to start making these things from scratch for mics that are quite cheap and will never sell huge quantities? Or do they knock on the back door of the plant making the individual parts for the real manufacturer and buy 1000 grills, and another factories back door who make the perforated tubes?

I sell radios - marine ones, and I have been selling one Chinese brand for years now, and recently I discovered they sell one product (one I have had success with) to a Japanese manufacturer, with the exception of the rear case. The Japanese firm add the rear case in Japan, and sell it as their own for three times the cost! The firm claim the product as Japanese, but all the electronics is Chinese. In this case, is it the Japanese one that is the fake?

In the SM7dB - the tube of the mic capsule is very unusual and very long. It seems far too close to the Shure one. The actual end part though is different. I wonder if they just get the parts made by people who make them for Shure? Chinese manufacture is frequently not done in one big factory. The cardboard Shure packaging for example. Is it feasible that once every so often, the packaging machine gets run overnight with slightly different material = as in whiter cardboard? Bleached pulp rather than the virgin brown? I just find it difficult to imagine setting up to turn a few thousand identical knurled knobs, or the odd bracket with attached XLR socket?

 

[CoolCat]

your post made me laugh for some reason. chaos.
shell game of business, global business. A guy at work was given a Trump hat, Make America Great Again...we passed it around and someone saw the
tag in the hat and it was Made In China. lol

I watch too many videos these days and counterfeits bootlegs etc.. and the grill on the Shure 7 was round holes and the Bootleg had square holes in one video....but this can all change all the time I suppose. If someone selling bootlegs watches the videos too they might say HEY MAKE THE HOLES ROUND!!! and maybe use! brass screw not chrome!

Buying the parts out the "backdoor" from the same supplier makes more and more sense. The capsule in your video was so similar on the 7db.

I was in Tawiwan and saw the "tourist black market Rolex's" and back then they weren't very good copies. The key to Rolex was the second hand is smooth, doesn't jerk each second, and now they mastered that too.

Have you ever done a Mic comparison and the Bootleg sounded better? lol

 

[CoolCat]

Have you ran across any Fake Vintage SM7's?

I've recently found some sketchy questionable pictures of the same "SM7" Assembled by Shure in Mexico on different Ebay seller sites but the exact same picture.
Have you ever seen this?

Also Im noticing minor differences from what other pictures , more abused- normal, old SM7 of the same era look like.

Then as I went to Reverb, there was again the same picture with same background selling at different prices by different seller (supposedly) and its
also a SM7 Mexico, but they look too clean, too new.

One I picked up from a store near me for a test got me looking at it closely and its almost "too good of shape" for a 30 to 40 yr old mic which isn't a expensive mic, but a mic most people would use (and not really handle with care. imo.)

So if this makes sense, the same pictures used on various sites, selling at different prices, by supposedly different sellers....all looking near mint, and some discrepency in the Shure Logo with and without the R in the circle /copyright and the grill is mint, and inside the body is full painted 100% black/gray.

could it be Vintage SM7 are fake too?

 

[rob aylestone]

Were the original SM7 mics ever made in mexico? I thought they were all the vintage before the Mexico operation was set up?

I sold the mic on ebay, for less than I paid for it - so somebody got a good deal, but I was plagued with half a dozen or so emails from people who wanted to by the mic for a friend, but needed to convince them it was genuine - asking for me to send the invoice from BAX who I bought it from. Then it dawned on me that have I unwittingly given owners of the fake a document saying they are genuine? Have I accidentally ripped off some potential genuine buyer, who will have been given a fake mic, but genuine documents. I was stupid.

 

[ecc83]

Rob, 'twas ever thus! I recall over 30 years ago delivering a "Murphy" 20" TV to an old boy. "I went for a good old British brand" he said. "I had enough of those ( be illegal here to type it!*******) in the last war." I did not have the heart to tell him that the internals were 100% Toshiba!

Dave.

 

[Papanate]

In the SM7dB - the tube of the mic capsule is very unusual and very long. It seems far too close to the Shure one. The actual end part though is different. I wonder if they just get the parts made by people who make them for Shure? Chinese manufacture is frequently not done in one big factory

Do you mean the Physical Tube of the Mic Capsule? Not a Audio Tube right?

 

[rob aylestone]

The aluminium extended tube the mic capsule is inserted into. No electronics.

 

[CoolCat]

Yes I saw the SM7B foam in one box was South Korea. Parts made all over.

My off topic but SM7 fake question on the Mexico was the
SM7 USA (no humbuckercoil) 1973-1984
SM7 US parts Assembled in Mexico (no humbucker coil) 1984-1999
SM7A - humbucking coil- manufactured in Mexico 1999-2001
SM7b- Humbucking coil add the large foam piece..mfg Mexico / China... 2001- Present

but my fake question was that I was looking at pictures of the SM7...MIM..and the plates had a tiny r in a circle, on some and others no r symbol and some have a large R symbol?

then on Ebay I saw one that the pictures were all identical, but for 3 different prices by 3 different seller names...h,mmm?
I'm thinking SCAM FAKE....of the SM7 Vintage Mexico...could it be?
Then I saw the one I had bought from Guitar Center and thought could it be a FAKE Vintage SM7....with a fake capsule as no one would really know as you cant see the humbucker coil.

And this seller was in Japan, and US...three different names but all having Identical pictures., identical backdrops? hmmm?

They all looked "mint condition" too, another FAKE vibe I got....and all the mics seemed "too perfect" and though were an impressive copy maybe, a Japanese Fake?
of the MIM?

The inner body was solid black, well painted and most are not painted inside. (however one video of a dude cleaning a USA the inside is fully painted, so I don't know?)
The wires are right colors and gauge.

And why not have VINTAGE FAKE SM7...? They sucker someone in for $900 to $2500 for a fake one!

I think Im taking mine back for a RETURN. It seems fake and too clean, for a 1985-1999 SM7 version (nonhumbucking SM7 Assembled in Mexico years)
And after seeing them on Ebay all looking Brand New? Its adding up to FAKE VINTAGE....

any comments, anyone heard of Fake Vintage SM7?

 

[ecc83]

I find the fact that the 'knock offs' are so similar internally and electronically the most worrying aspect?

If someone was just wanting to make a fast buck then yes, they would get the cosmetics right enough to fool people online but then just fit a dirt cheap mic capsule with no buck coil and non-operational switches. Like putting $1.00 movements in a Rolex lookey-likely case.

But no, these are almost exact, fully functioning copies and thus must cost about the same to make as the real thing. My only conclusion therefore is that it is aimed at destabilizing a country's economy?

Dave.

 

[CoolCat]

destabilizing microphone consumers economy.

I see $53 SM7b fakes on AliexSite. If a person had the "artistic" clone goal and painted the mic a Vintage gray paint, added a Phillips screw here, and a new cheap label sticker slapped on the mic there...no box needed as its "Vintage"...why not relic it a bit? more realistic. Scratch it up, bump it. ...Fender Relic it! to look vintage.

and why not change the pictures and background when selling through fake eBay stores and reverb ? is it just a lazy Fake Store?

there's not a huge difference at all between a 2025 SM7x and a SM7vintage body and most will never take out the capsule. The sticker slapped on the body isn't hard to print out and slap on the body.

but! the pay off for the "artistic" clone work!! now instead of selling for $163 on Aliexpress, an "artist" fake, a vintage-fake SM7, might bring in $1200 to $2500!!!!

this isn't like cloning a U47 Neumann, that would be difficult. This instead is a dynamic mic still made in China/Mexico by Shure with obviously the BlackMarket has body's and capsules and label makers. All the parts available.

Is there enough a market for vintage SM7's to create "artist" Fakes? I'm thinking yes. Shall we call them "Fartists"?
Is it different than making Clone U87 and clone U47 clone 414? I don't know.
From the humbucking vs non humbucking thread in DIY, I didn't hear a difference.

it is destabilizing

 

[rob aylestone]

I'd stake the load on none of those being second hand at all - and they using the same photos, which indicate they are the same seller, or are using the suppliers photos. I see no sign they are anything other than new!

 

[CoolCat]

yes and the one I grabbed looks just like those, "too new looking". impressive fakes though.

 

[rob aylestone]

Amazon and Ebay are now just too dangerous for flavour of the month microphones. Sennheiser and Shure hand held mics are there in huge quantities. SM57, SM58, Beta 57 and 58, 800 and 900 series Senns. We also have audix and Neumann. Clearly it is now entirely up to the buyers to check as the platforms don’t seem to bother any more.

 

[TalismanRich]

I'm surprised that Shure hasn't given Ebay a take down notice. The majority of the SM7bs on there are around $120. Clearly these are fakes, infringing on Shure's trademarks. It would be a simple matter for Shure to buy them and use them as proof in court.

Ebay has a policy on counterfeit items. From their own website:

What is the policy?

Counterfeit products are illegal and not allowed on eBay. These items may infringe on someone’s copyright or trademark.
Examples of counterfeit products include:
A replica handbag, watch or pair of sneakers
Knockoff electronics, such as headphones or accessories like a charging cable
An unauthorized reprint of a trading card
A T-shirt or mug printed with copyrighted images
Bootleg recordings of a concert or other live shows
Unauthorized copies of movies, music or software
Pirated recordings of television shows

 

[CoolCat]

Obvious things as pointed out $102 for a Brand New SM7b is pretty obvious. or maybe a mint condition Vintage with zero wear for $1100, and no Shure documentation to confirm anything...really a cheap dynamic SM7 from 1985 is mint? hmmm? not even one scratch?

a real Shure PN for the Capsule of the SM7x is $229 us.
where is it made today? who knows? does it matter? its all destabilizing if a person trys to use quality-of-parts or origin, as some ruler of quality.

I don't mind the clones and fakes if its honest copying a U87...or 414....or U47...I actually like WARMS concept in getting HR and low budget studios a chance to own a 47ish mic, as a real one is now out of reach for many.
My gripe is when its sold as "original Mona Lisa" and you pay $800 for a fake $65 mic the seller said was Original is my problem. A $499 SM7cb is a actually a $53 fake with cheap stuff inside.

I've looked at so many pictures now, how to tell if somethings a fake gets harder and harder.
the body shapes haven't changed much. the XLR can easily be flipped from front (current) to back(old)
the sticker labels have but Shure factorys appear to change stuff too, like websites now do for some "new appearance of the year!" for no real reason.
the grill thing has square (old) or round (current) holes.
I've been looking at pictures and without a documented Shure "mfg dead sea scrolls", small changes in labels and plate fonts is impossible to know an I doubt Shure even cared or documented it as a SM7 was never to be some "collector" piece.

When did they switch from a flat head screw to a Phillips screw on mic stand? When and why and who switched from square holes to round holes in the grill?
The earliest USA had some really weird paint job, probably not worth copying, and the labels stamped probably not worth faking. So soon the freckled paint, was smooth gray paint, then smooth black paint...etc..etc... I suppose even for a Bootleg Market they have to Fake the right products to make cash.
Of SM7's 90% probably want new and only 10% maybe are gear-demented to pay for some old piece from 1973, or 2nd mortgage the house for a 1959 Strat.
Bootleggers for Masses and "Artists- Counterfeiters" of the Vintage and High price stuff. Neumann being bombarded too for higher end, Shure 57/58 cheap market, Sm7x too.

Bootleggers and Blackmarket fakes slip into the US, no taxes, Tariff proof, the OEM stuff SHure makes will possible go up? Then end of the <100$ SM57? Soon $120 SM57?

 

[rob aylestone]

This is what worries me. Is the lack of enforcement initiated by Shure (or Fender, or the other hot items) perhaps because if taken to court, they would have to reveal where exactly their own products are really made. I know for certain that a Chinese firm I buy from make product for a very well known company - that has a 'made in Japan' claim that justifies the high price. I spoke to one supplier today because an order I had paid for cannot be supplied as my contact doesn't have any actual stock, just lists of where they can get things from. Very different from the UK and US system where people like me have loads on the shelves. The hassle of a refund and the costs of reversing bank payments made me ask what other stock did they have available from this manufacturer. A big list appeared in half an hour with good pricing. If these were fakes then they'd be on aliexpress, but they are not. Three of the items were current, and the rest discontinued last year, or in 2023. I'm left convinced they were made for the well known company, and were just surplus stock, out of the rear door of the factory. None of these items are fast sellers, or even cheap, so only a fool would tool up to make fakes. I wonder if the SM7Bs we see so many of are sort of made from parts being made for Shure, but the different capsules could be the part Shure put in elsewhere? I don't know - but the fact the fakes can be awful or really good makes me wonder what is really going on.