The word fake is problematic here. I would expect a fake to be something like: - it mimics a particular product but doesn't perform as well (e.g. SD cards tha

The word fake is problematic here. I would expect a fake to be something like: - it mimics a particular product but doesn't perform as well (e.g. SD cards that claim to be Kingston 128GB but are actually discard-quality 16GB) - or it looks much like a real brand and product but isn't on close inspection (e.g. COBY vs SONY for quite a while) - or it claims to be a particular thing and isn't (e.g. a tube amplifier that never needs replacement tubes because the tubes aren't connected at all to the LM379 IC actually delivering 6 watts. All of those things are fakes. This is a solid state amplifier with a tube preamp stage, which is... well, if you know what you're buying, I guess you could buy that, but I personally wouldn't. I suppose it looks like a tube power amp, superficially, but the nature of a tube pre-amp and a tube power-amp is to look pretty similar anyway. The bigger general problems, I think, are in Amazon's total lack of care in co-mingling shipments sold on behalf of third-parties, and the general OEM problem where the same equipment has eight different faceplates or cases put on the same board and sold for a range of prices up to two magnitudes different.