On Fri, 12 Sep 2014, Noel Chiappa wrote: A lot of the knock-off China import contacts don't even have a nickle underplating. They just put gold flash right over the brass (or whatever Chinese Mystery Metal they happen to be using in their stamping machine that day). These might as well not even have gold on them, since the nickel is what helps prevent corrosion of the underlying base metal. This has been a huge problem with modular plugs used for cheap network cables too. The contacts in the plugs will corrode green right though the thin gold flash "plating". I try to avoid knock-off connectors for these and other reasons. OTOH, I will certainly buy old stock surplus parts when I can find genuine stuff and when RoHS isn't a concern (counterfeit AMP/Tyco parts is a huge problem in the surplus market, though). Connectors are the weak point in a signal path anyway, and using inferior parts is usually just asking for trouble. Try comparing a genuine FCI/Berg housing and a knock-off too. Even the feel of the plastic (genuine parts are often made with glass-filled nylon) is totally different. The reason I mentioned possibly not fitting a HT-95 though, is the dies in these tools are small and somewhat fragile. If a poorly made knock-off contact were to rotate or jam in the nest, it could easily cause damage to the die. A set of replacement dies often costs more than a used tool. So was DEC using both AMP AMPMODU and Berg connectors for the cables? It seems strange they would use both. AMP and Berg contacts/connector shells aren't interchangeable and they use completely different tooling to crimp the contacts. AMP was bought out by Tyco Electronics (now calling themselves "TE") quite a number of years ago but most of the AMPMODU line is still readily available. Like the Berg/FCI stuff, there are dozens of different types of AMP contacts that fit the same connector shells.