Cheap Gold colored connectors are really gold?

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indianajo

indianajo

Member
Joined 2010
Advertised in the United States, Gold plate has to be a certain thickness, a couple of thousandths I think I remember but the number has been carefully removed from wikipedia.
Gold filled is thinner, gold flash is in the millionths of an inch.
I'd like to see somebody take one of these E-bay bandits to the FTC. Then sue them for fraud, take their PC and their copy machine in damages. Probably why nobody does; the best money to be made is sueing US manufacturers of talcum powder and other "dangerous" items.
 
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VictoriaGuy

Member
Joined 2008
indianajo said:
Advertised in the United States, Gold plate has to be a certain thickness, a couple of thousandths I think I remember but the number has been carefully removed from wikipedia.
Click to expand...

'Gold plate' , like 'silver plate' is a specific term. The most common reference would be to tableware and cutlery...Rogers silver plate cutlery or candlesticks, for example.

'Gold plated' means just that - an unspecified thickness of gold plated (electroplated, usually) on a different metal, so there's nothing deceptive about that ad.

BTW, those $200/pair USA 'audiophile' speaker connectors probably have the same (unspecified) thickness of gold as the 5 cent ones from eBay...:D
 
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davidsrsb

Member
Joined 2005
From that advert
" Gold can not be plated on copper by conventional electroplating method. So it must plate nickel onto copper surface then do gold platinng. While nickel is a poor conductor, so these shinny beautiful gold plated sockets all are good looking juck, not suitable for audio! "
That nickel layer is usually around 50um, so the resistance will be tiny.
They are sandblasting the copper and direct plating gold - not very stable in the long term
 
indianajo

indianajo

Member
Joined 2010
The main advantage of gold plate for audio line level interconnects is not the minimal resistance. I certainly wouldn't worry about a nickel sub-layer. The benefit of gold is that the connectors don't go open circuit due to oxide the way tin plate and brass connectors do. I've had RCA plugs & jacks interrupt the signal from preamp to amp when left alone for several years. Then the connector had to be removed & replaced to scrape the oxide off. Gold won't get the oxide in the first place. Gold plate (.003 " or so) will stand several removal & replacement cycles without disappearing, gold flash (millionths of gold) can wear off quickly.
I've been happy with the gold plated RCA jacks I've been getting from tubesandmore.com who probably is aware of the FTC requirement on the description "plated" and since the gold doesn't wear off, complies. They are not cheap.
I don't see the point in gold plated speaker jacks, since the the current can go to 7 amps even on 50 W amplifiers. Those currents are not dry circuit and would burn off oxide if it occurred. 50 ma and below and 20 v and below, those are dry circuits.
BTW palladium & rhodium plate work as well as gold to avoid oxide signal blockage, as used in telephone relay contacts & hammond organ key contacts. But those alloys don't sell well to consumers, and aren't visible to the purchaser like gold, either.
 
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