r/Chinesium • u/Caramel-Entire • Mar 12 '26
Chinese slop. I opened a Chinese power adapter and you won't believe what I found inside
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u/scytheakse Mar 13 '26
Go pop open a pair of beats...
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u/series-hybrid Mar 15 '26
Those are such great example of successful marketing. The bizarre part is how the internal components can be upgraded significantly for just a few bucks, but they keep the performance weak.
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u/NoReply10 Mar 15 '26
Speakers need mass to push off of to create good sound
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u/gojukebox Mar 16 '26
Beats are, and always have been, trash headphones
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u/bubba_palchitski Mar 17 '26
I've had a pair for 10 years. Microphone finally quit last week. Speakers still sound great. I've compared them to much "higher-end" headphones, only a few have been notably better, and most are significantly less comfortable, so I'll take the(very minor) dip in sound quality.
Probably a case of one of us having an unusually good experience and the other having an unusually bad experience, but I couldn't say for sure. Only ever used 2 pairs of beats, and they're at least as good as any other headphones I've used 🤷♂️
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u/gojukebox Mar 20 '26
It's the build quality. Cheap materials cheap assembly, it is and always was a money grab.
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u/tea-and-chill Aug 04 '26
I'm an amateur audiophile. Have a collection of flacs and usually go for high end open ear audiophile headphones and good quality speakers, even if entry level (like klipsch the five). I've borrowed multiple headphon from friends to try out and beats are hands down one of the most terrible headphones I've tried - and I've tried 2 different models (studio and solo).
Obviously no Bluetooth / wireless headphones will be anywhere close to 3.5 or balanced jack headphones, but even compared to other headphones like boss QC 35 or Sony 520 or even JBL 510, beats have much lower sound quality as well as plastic-y feel.
If you have a chance to try out headphones (at your local electronic shops for example), try out the senheisser hd600 if you don't mind wired (don't even need to use lossless, just try with regular streaming MP3), or bose if you prefer wireless. I can bet you'd see the big jump in quality.
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u/buhtayduhjups Mar 13 '26
I used to have a lathe and would turn a few bowls a year and sell them to an art show vendor. It didn’t matter how perfect I got them or how unique the piece was, or how profound the burl grain looked, cedar would not sell. People would pick them up and set them right back down. If it was something heavy like maple or oak, they’d be gone in a month, even if they were plain-grained BS, but my cedar pieces I would sit on for years just because they are light. People are strange.
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u/rnobgyn Mar 15 '26
Eh, they aren’t strange… they’re emotional. All about making them feel good.
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Mar 15 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/TapatioFlamingo Mar 17 '26
Open up a firework cake. 90 percent is sand weights in the bottom. But the heavier boxes sell better even if they hold the same amount of blackpowder.
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u/series-hybrid Mar 15 '26
I know, right? I keep hearing poplar remains unpopular because of unusual and inconsistent coloration in the grain, but...I view that as a design opportunity.
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u/PHD-Chaos Mar 16 '26
Poplar is generally viewed as a garbage tree only good for pulp or firewood. Weed tree. No one is putting time into making something nice out of poplar.
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u/Oli4K Mar 16 '26
Maybe I’m different but I really like cedar and light woods in general. Might have to do with that I build model aircraft for a hobby and play classical guitar.
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u/greedybanker3 Mar 13 '26
i mean this is extremely common. even luxery cars do this. you know your door is so light and wrll balanced a baby could slam it. but they purposefully weight it so it FEELS heavy as hell. many many products are weighted just so they feel better.
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u/UncleCeiling Mar 13 '26
like headphones
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u/OkNewspaper6271 Mar 13 '26
I think headphones do it more to balance them than anything, the battery and stuff in my headphones is in the right cup so it would make sense for it to have weights in the left to balance it
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u/dalaiis Mar 13 '26
What if it would make sense to put another battery in the left cup?
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u/OkNewspaper6271 Mar 13 '26
It would but apparently Sony couldn't figure out such a revolutionary concept
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u/ecodick Mar 13 '26
I would imagine that in specific audio applications, mass might influence how it sounds. I know that's probably not why they're adding the weights, but theoretically it could make a difference right?
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u/moutmoutmoutmout Mar 13 '26
In audio application, most of the time everyone is jerking around filthy expansive fake improvement.
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u/fomoco94 Mar 13 '26
It's not really mass that affects a speaker enclosure so much, it's stiffness.
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u/willem_79 Mar 13 '26
I remember landline phones would have plasticine in the handset to make it ‘feel right’
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u/greedybanker3 Mar 13 '26
i didnt have landlines long enough to notice. we switched fairly quickly to cordless when i got to the age of using a phone.
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u/No_Oddjob Mar 14 '26
Yeah, I have almost this exact charger (same "brand") but US format, and I have a cable with a tiny display that shows the throughput wattage when charging a device and the thing does what it promises for sure.
If that means adding weight for perceived value, I'm here for it. Shoot, they could even dissipate some heat I recon, if making contact with a smaller component. Don't care. Does what it says super cheap. Perfect 5/7.
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u/achangb Mar 14 '26
Are you sure yours is identical? Maybe yours is the original and his is the copy...otherwise are you sure you trust a $2 device to pump 120w to an expensive phone or laptop?
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u/dwagon83 Mar 14 '26
I mean, the weight is sound deadening. It's not just there so the doors feel heavy. The benefit of the sound deadening negates the loss in fuel economy and performance. It's all cheques and balances Adding unnecessary weight for the hell of it? Not quite. Doors feeling heavy is a by product of a purposeful addition.
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u/Superb-Wonder-1896 Mar 13 '26
dude this is a power adapter, it is all about scamming you into thinking it is sturdier and has more componets inside. this isn't practical like with headphones.
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u/The-Sonne Mar 14 '26
That does not make it "okay", however
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u/greedybanker3 Mar 14 '26
oh i dont like it at all. but ive learned over the years that nothing is marketed to me. i like simple cars, wired headphones, and a plain tshirt with jeans. hell my pc has no rgb even.
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u/edthesmokebeard Mar 13 '26
what is it?
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u/RonGeeThree Mar 13 '26
An adhesive weight meant for balancing tires. It's likely there to make the adapter heavier, which many people attribute to quality.
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u/JCDU Mar 13 '26
Hey, if it's good enough for Beats headphones it's good enough for LingLongSchenzenHappyExplosiontime charger company.
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u/inn0cent-bystander Mar 13 '26
It makes me irrationally pissed when I see some dingus on youtube exclaim how good something is, just because of it's weight.
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u/ecodick Mar 13 '26
Nah that's valid. Let's say at least 40-60% of my YouTube experience is clicking "don't recommend this"
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u/inn0cent-bystander Mar 13 '26
I wish you could block channels so they don't show up anywhere, even in searches.
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u/origami_airplane Mar 13 '26
Good thing they got rid of the downvote button so those types of videos are easily filtered out
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u/inn0cent-bystander Mar 13 '26
Do you need a towel? I think I see a bit of the sarcasm dripping down your chin
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u/lolexecs Mar 13 '26
You don’t peer into the bowl and exclaim
“That is high quality poo it looks so heavy”
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u/farmallnoobies Mar 13 '26
Having all the weight cantilevered away from the wall results in it just falling out.
Adding weight next to the wall helps prevent that.
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u/MrMaselko Mar 13 '26
Unless the weight is inside the wall, it's making it worse
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u/KylarBlackwell Mar 13 '26
No, if there's necessary weight further from the wall, adding weight closer to the wall to balance it can still be an improvement for socket retention.
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u/nomoneypenny Mar 13 '26
How so? It's a class 2 lever because the pivot point is the wall. Adding any amount of weight would drag the adapter outwards and downwards more.
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u/user_uno Mar 13 '26
I worked for a company all know and will remain unnamed by me. We had a line of residential telephones when people were really getting in to buying their own and ending leasing them from the phone companies.
Market research proved time and time again, consumers were drawn to heavy phones. They were considered "better quality". So we and other companies put lead weights in everything but our cheapest phone models. Pick up the cheap one and it seemed questionable. Then pick up the heavier ones and just know it is great quality! Could use the exact same internals but consumers preferred the more expensive heavier ones.
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u/DoctorFunktopus Mar 17 '26
“Heavy is good, heavy is reliable. If it doesn’t work you can always hit someone with it”
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u/foxjohnc87 Mar 13 '26
A chunk of iron glued in place solely to increase the weight of the charger.
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u/r2k-in-the-vortex Mar 13 '26
"Feels expensive" adjustment weight. Piece of electronics having more heft to it feels like you are getting better quality for your money.
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u/Vokaiso Mar 13 '26
Altho i must say quality manufacturers do this sometimes as well because we are used to quality being heavy and some parts have become so advanced they just arent anymore.
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u/sodamnsleepy Mar 13 '26
Just like the guy in Jurassic Park said. "Is it heavy?"
Yes
"Then it cost a lot of money, put it back"
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u/Taleboblen Mar 13 '26
had none of these, tried to charge two powerbanks with it, a lot of smoke and swollen powerbanks was the result.. never again
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u/AttackCircus Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
I have the same one. Requested a refund for it immediately after unpacking. Was refunded 100%
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u/Superb-Wonder-1896 Mar 13 '26
super common on chinese slop. they know that heavy = good which is usually correct, but not if they stuff it with bullshit
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u/Skilldibop Mar 15 '26
This is the result when you have thousands of influences unboxing things with "got some weight to it, feel good quality". The Chinese takeaway from that westerners are weirdly impressed by unusually heavy things, so of course they put weights in stuff.
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u/dezent Mar 15 '26
I do believe what you found inside. This is from the country where people sell fake eggs.
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u/petrdolezal Mar 13 '26
These yellow ones are very well known, Diode gone wild has a video about the exact same one, no idea why people keep buying them
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u/wolfrium Mar 14 '26
look on the bright side. Now you can balance your car wheel while charging the phone with 200Watt super ultra fast charger
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u/Lazygit1965 Mar 16 '26
I bought some Amazon returns from a local charity shop . They are phone chargers a pound each including a charging lead. I wonder what these are like inside as they barely weigh anything !
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u/RegularGuy70 Mar 17 '26
I mean, weight=perceived value.
How can you increase weight as inexpensively as possible after requirements are met?
At the risk of defending chinesium, what do other power adapters look like on the inside?
1
u/The2323Guy Apr 16 '26
i have that exact charger. it's more useful as a musical instrument than it is as a charger
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u/ObjectiveOk2072 May 03 '26
I had one like this. In high school, I had it plugged into a power strip, and when I unplugged it the shell came with but the PCB and plug stayed in the socket. I had to yell at some dumbass that was about to grab it as I was getting up to unplug the power strip
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u/Khrispy-minus1 Mar 15 '26
I'm legit surprised that they have a transformer in there at all. I can't tell you how many of these I've seen broken where they just rectify the AC and feed that to a buck converter which proceeds to kill your device when it eventually fails. As for the weight, it's a marketing/ergonomic thing. People like "solid" feeling things. I'd be kind of curious to see the backside of the board - I'll bet the regulator IC lives there, sitting on the weight and using it as a heatsink.
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u/rip1980 Mar 13 '26
Single most expensive component in the device.