Audio interface specialist Prism Sound is warning customers to be careful after counterfeit versions of the company’s award-winning Lyra audio interface were found to be on sale in the Far East.
The UK manufacturer is now investigating who is behind the fake units, which according to CEO James Woodburn are badly constructed and potentially dangerous.
“We discovered these units on sale in China and immediately bought two so that we could examine them more thoroughly,” James Woodburn says. “While they may look convincing at first glance, under the surface they are poorly made and not worth the money people are trying to sell them for. As Prism Sound’s entire philosophy is to give customers the highest possible audio quality, we want to make it very clear to all audio professionals that these counterfeits fall a long way short of the audio performance and build quality of legitimate products.”
At present, only counterfeit Prism Sound Lyra interfaces have been identified but the Atlas and Titan interfaces may also be impacted, and this is now being verified. The company’s advice to anyone offered a cut price Prism Sound unit is to check very carefully that they are not being sold an illegal copy.
“If something looks too good to be true, it usually is,” Woodburn adds. “This is patent theft and for a small manufacturer this type of illegal activity is very damaging to our core business. We don’t want customers to be fooled into buying them because we know that they won’t get the audio quality they are looking for from a poorly made copy.”
Prism Sound has always strongly advised customers to only buy its products locally from authorised and fully certified retailers. This advice is even more important now. A full list of all authorised retailers in all territories is available from the company’s website. In addition, Prism Sound is happy to check any unit to make sure it is legitimate.
“We know there is a second hand market for audio equipment and inevitably some of our legitimate units are sold on that way,” Woodburn says. “However, we have ways of identifying real Prism Sound units and we are more than happy to check any unit someone might be thinking of buying because we don’t want our valued customers to be sold a fake.”
James Woodburn adds that illegal copies won’t be covered by Prism Sound’s usual warranty and buyers should be aware of that before they part with any cash.
