Gold connectors a waste of money?

[mike4scuba]

Why do manufactures of connectors produce banana plugs, hdmi connectors and a variety of other interconnects with gold plating? is it to help sell their products at a higher price and be more desirable, or is it for that perfect sound.................

The reason i ask is that nearly all manufactures of av equipment wether it be amps, speakers or blu ray players all have produced the connections in nickel and not gold

if gold was the prefered choice would these manufactures not produce their connections in gold plate

who is kidding who

[mugupo]

Originally Posted by mike4scuba

Why do manufactures of connectors produce banana plugs, hdmi connectors and a variety of other interconnects with gold plating? is it to help sell their products at a higher price and be more desirable, or is it for that perfect sound.................

The reason i ask is that nearly all manufactures of av equipment wether it be amps, speakers or blu ray players all have produced the connections in nickel and not gold

if gold was the prefered choice would these manufactures not produce their connections in gold plate

who is kidding who

Banana Plug is a bit useful, is not that pricey, it make easier to move the speaker connector, also if you wire to the receiver without plug it might look ungly.

[Steve]

It's my understanding that gold and silver are better electrical conductors than copper and that their use is beneficial when transferring analog signals. With digital it doesn't make a difference. I'm not sure about the use of nickel.

[Beta Man]

G = I/R = I (amps) / E (volts)


AKA..... CONDUCTIVITY

[mike4scuba]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

G = I/R = I (amps) / E (volts)


AKA..... CONDUCTIVITY

so surely for better CONDUCTIVITY both items would need to be the same material ie gold

why then are amp and speakers not supplied with gold binding posts

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by mike4scuba

so surely for better CONDUCTIVITY both items would need to be the same material ie gold

why then are amp and speakers not supplied with gold binding posts

The Cost perhaps...... And my speakers do have gold binding posts.....

[peterng]

why ? because you're buying those cheap amps and receivers .... step up bro ....gold all the way ... amp, receiver and speakers ... and quality speaker cable...life is short ... so don't waiste ...spend a little more (money ? what the hell ...they printed a lot of them this year ... doesn't mean sh*t) ... you only live once ...

[mike4scuba]

thanks for all the replies

[[1080-p]]

Originally Posted by mike4scuba

Why do manufactures of connectors produce banana plugs, hdmi connectors and a variety of other interconnects with gold plating? is it to help sell their products at a higher price and be more desirable, or is it for that perfect sound.................

The reason i ask is that nearly all manufactures of av equipment wether it be amps, speakers or blu ray players all have produced the connections in nickel and not gold

if gold was the prefered choice would these manufactures not produce their connections in gold plate

who is kidding who

of what you said
please stop my sides can't take it anymore

[mdabb]

The gold that is used on connectors and such is only a "gold plating". The only reason it is used is that it oxidizes at a much slower rate than silver & copper. Gold is actually a worse conductor than silver and copper.

So "all" connectors are either copper or silver and are just gold plated......... There are no solid gold connectors !!!

[Yeha-Noha]

Originally Posted by mdabb

The gold that is used on connectors and such is only a "gold plating". The only reason it is used is that it oxidizes at a much slower rate than silver & copper. Gold is actually a worse conductor than silver and copper.

+1

Gold = 45.2 × 10^6 S·m-1
Copper = 59.6 × 10^6 S·m-1

However, an oxidized copper connector will have lower conductivity than a gold plated copper connector.

Therefore, gold plated connectors are better than bare copper in the long run.