The construction is identical, but there's ever so slightly more give. The construction is a little too loose. It's insanely good--probably one of the best quality made in china mics I've ever seen in some ways--but the loosened tolerances have some unintended consequences. I've got one here where the body rings when tipped backwards but not forwards, because of the ever so slight widening of tolerances throwing off the precision damping of the body. The head assembly can also partially come out when the latches are in the locked position, which I remember maybe not being true on a real U87Ai but don't quote me. The side rails are rock solid. Standout feature. They do NOT slowly unseat themselves with the torsion of screwing the bottom cap on like the SYT-5 (a fatal flaw of that design in my eyes). The connector housing is steel, but it seems well made. This is definitely something that can vary with tolerance, so I'd need to test more. It is an astounding replica. The differences are not dissimilar to a real rolex vs a "superclone" rolex, which I've also had hands-on time with in the past. It has several serious issues that compromise the way it sounds, but almost all of them are less than an hour fix total to someone knowledgeable.
There are also some laugh moments, like how it has a "tab" out of the back of the tube to keep it straight, but no corresponding tooth on the headbasket assembly, so the tube can spin freely if the bottom isn't holding it in place via friction. It's solid when screwed together, though.
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