Gold-plated RCA's matter to sound?

[Jbucla2005]

I built this cable.

SoundStage! Synergizing - An Under $20 Home Brew KILLER Interconnect! (02/1998)

It sounds fine, but I was wondering if it makes any difference that I used regular (non gold-plated) RCA phono plugs, since that is all they carry at Radio Shack now. I figure the difference would not be audible, and the gold is just to prevent corrosion. Thanks!

 

[MoodySteve]

The gold is there to prevent corrosion and to look pretty. Shouldn't have any impact on SQ.

 

[tangent]

Nickel doesn't corrode very badly, and it's easy to scrape the little corrosion you do get off. It's not a "hard" corrosion like you get with, say, copper. Also, the RS gold connectors weren't very durable anyway. If you're going to get cheap connectors, might as well get cheap ones, if you know what I mean.

I am a fan of the big RCAs you find in audiophile parts stores, but that more because of the build quality and appearance than because it's gold per se.

 

[Jbucla2005]

I could have used better RCA's, but didn't when I ordered the wire from homegrownaudio.com - this wire is great stuff, but pretty expensive, although I only needed a 1.5" stereo cable. They sell gold-plated, silver, and rhodium RCA's, but what I'm wondering is, is their really is an audible difference in how these perform, since the signal travels such a short distance through the plug, and I would imagine there should be nothing wrong with nickel just to transfer the signal over this distance, but I am sometimes surprised by the things I can hear when I try different things out on my systems. Anyway, my cables sound nice, I'm using it on a Luxman EL-34 integrated amp that is using a new Mac mini as a source. I made the cable as mini to RCA for this purpose, with the packing tape. You can see the pretty silver wires through the tape, it looks and sounds great and only cost me about $40 to make. Compared to a typical stranded copper mini - rca, I am getting a lot more detail, high end, very little harshness that you sometimes get with silver, and great low bass extension. I used 22 awg wire.

For my purposes I am more interested in getting something that sounds good more than anything else, because I'm not going to be disconnecting it or moving it around a lot. I searched all over for gold-plated RCA's locally, Radio Shack apparently no longer carries them, but I finally gave up and just used the regular ones. What kind of RCA's (or mini / 1/4") could possibly offer a sonic advantage (at a reasonable cost) that I might want to get for next time?

 

[cerbie]

The good materials for conductors tend to corrode badly, and/or be very soft (copper, FI). So, you want to plate them with a material to take minor impacts and abrasions better, and to protect the material from the air, so it does not corrode.

The mechanical connection is the most important aspect. Most connectors self-clean enough for that connection when you disconnect and reconnect them. This is one reason many connectors will have specific textures, even if it's just a lack of shiny polishing, springy materials (so it rubs against the jack), and maybe a few hard angles. The specific plating is more marketing than anything else, in that its quality will vary as much as any other property of the connector--a good one with tin is probably better than a crappy one with rhodium. Even with a good connector, the plating is such a minimal part of the signal path that it's really inconsequential, as long as it is doing its job to protect the primary conductor materials.

You'll likely be happy with any decent connector, as long as it has good screw terminals, solder lugs (lug, not cup) or crimp points (many RCAs with solder cup center pins can have the center crimped before soldering with plain old pliers). We can talk in superlatives all day about which material is best, but if more of the signal is going through solder and oxides than proper conductors, or there just isn't enough contact at the jack, it's not working like it should.