Connector Materials

I wanted some help sorting through everything I have picked up from reading and searching the forums and the internet about connector materials. I am at a point where I want to move beyond my normal Neutrik's, but I am still on a strict budget so need to weigh my purchases very carefully against, price, aesthetics, and since this is an audiophile forum, SQ.

Conductors:

Brass - copper alloy, the most common, corrodes so needs to be plated.
Copper - more conductive, can be found in more expensive plugs, corrodes so needs to be plated.
Silver - even more conductive, quite expensive, corrodes, but the oxide formed is still very conductive so plating is unnecessary.

Plating:
Nickel - cheap, common, unsure of it's corrosion resistance, but I assume it is good since it is used to cover the brass.
Gold - super common, highly resistant to corrosion. lower conductivity than copper or silver.
Silver - kind of already discussed. seen covering brass in mid level connectors from Cardas and HGA's Lok series. I think I have seen it covering copper as well.
Rhodium - blingy and beautiful, does not form an oxide, very durable, not sure of its conductance. have read that it doesn't plate uniformly, so despite all of its other positives, it may not be ideal from a max connection standpoint

Two main questions I have are as follows:

1 - In small connector, which is usually a relatively small part of the path compared to the wire runs, does the conductor material make a measureable or audible difference to the sound quality?

2 - Does the plating, outside of its protective properties, make a measureable or audible difference to the soudn quality?

As with most things in life that require faith or belief, I am torn between wanting to believe there is a difference, and not really believing there is a difference. Certainly plating, outside of durability and aesthetics seems like it would be too thin and insignificant a part of the chain to make an SQ impact. Mixed on the connector, as it is more material.

Trickle down questions would be what combinations are the best blend of value and sound quality. If both make a difference, which would make more of a difference? Better to have silver plated brass or gold plated copper? Is rhodium a good plating material or not? Rhodium over copper or pure silver?

Thanks for any clarity you might add.

All too true, and I understand it is very much subjective. But surely, there must be some people who might find the middle ground between the two extremes that through experience can add just a tad bit of clarity to the situation. So maybe I shouldn't ask about better, since it is purely relative and simply ask if there is an audible difference. I am not entirely sure if I could tell a difference between a cable I made with high quality copper and some cable I made with silver plated copper. I couldn't properly do an A/B, but even though I was hoping to hear a difference, I don't think I did. I don't know if this proves there is no difference or if my equipment is too cheap to show me.

I guess a better way to ask what I am looking for, is for those who can tell the difference between silver wires and copper wires, can you tell if copper connectors are on your silver wires as opposed to silver ones. Or silver connectors on a silver wire. Or brass coated in silver or rhodium.

It would take some of the magic and fun out of this pursuit if in the end, connectors didn't matter, but it would certainly make it easier so I could get simply what looks the best and is in my budget.

So by using a less conductive inner pin plated with silver, the signal would actually travel to the silver plate as the conductor, so to speak? That is a take on it that I hadn't thought of. The problem is that all of it, both sides, kind of makes sense to me. But none of it enough to make me even mostly on board either way. That is what is driving me up a wall. I like to KNOW things and in this arena, I have to BELIEVE something.

Are the negative effects of skin effect greater than the positive effects of greater conductivity? Can it be minimized while keeping the benefits of a highly conductive material by using multiple smaller strands of a conductor?

And for a connector how does skin effect come into play? We are talking like an inch of material that the signal has to go through. I also can't adjust the size of my center pin. Also what would be the point of putting a rhodium plate on top of a silver plate on top of a brass pin? Aren't you kind of negating the contact benefits of the silver?

LOL. I guess for now since I am making cables for fun and whatever artistic merit I can imbue them with, I will simply use connectors that look the way I would like and are at a price I can stomach. Since I keep all my cables I could try to do a blind test once I move into more materials. I have no idea what kind of placebo effect would take place, as I really have no idea whether or not my cables should sound different.

Thanks to all who have contributed!