Gold on jack and phono plug/socket

[Alex Coleman]

Does the gold plating on various plugs and sockets (jacks, phono, SCART,
etc) make any real difference?

I notice that on my PC the PCI sockets have a gold color (is this gold
or phosphor bronze or something else?)

On the other hand the jack sockets, USB, D sockets, etc all have tinner
contacts.

So is gold significant?

Are othe rmetals more significant?

 

[Dave Platt]

Does the gold plating on various plugs and sockets (jacks, phono, SCART,
etc) make any real difference?

My understanding: in some applications, using a good gold-to-gold
contact can reduce (or almost eliminate) contact oxidation over time,
and thus increase the reliability of these contacts. This is
especially beneficial when the contacts are not expected to be
unplugged and replugged at all frequently (an action which will tend
to break up oxide films via the wiping action, but which can also wear
away thin gold plating).

Thin, cheap gold plating may not be of much if any benefit over time.
A thin gold "flashing" on a base metal such as copper may wear away,
and I believe it's actually possible for the copper to migrate through
a thin surface layer of gold. I had some gold-plated phono cables
years ago - Discwasher "Gold-ens" - and after a decade or so they
showed extensive tarnishing on the surface.

On the other hand the jack sockets, USB, D sockets, etc all have tinner
contacts.

The general rule is "gold to gold, tin to tin". Using tin and gold
contacts together is not a good idea - the tin contact will degrade
faster when in contact with gold.

Are othe rmetals more significant?

Silver is often used for high-quality RF connections. Other precious
metals (palladium and rhodium in particular, if I recall correctly)
are also used in some applications.

Nickel is very common in consumer-type applications.

 

[[email protected]]

The gold color is many times it is just for show... and to increase
sale price....
BUT if it is real gold plating it will not oxidise and will provide
much better contact over time..... but compared with new cheap
connectors that are not tarnished or oxidised.... NO DIFFERENCE....
can't measure it, can't see it, can't hear it..... kinda like the
expensive Monster (type) cables.... big money, big and fancy claims and
wording , and a complete waste of money.
electricitym

 

[Ross Herbert]

The gold color is many times it is just for show... and to increase
sale price....
BUT if it is real gold plating it will not oxidise and will provide
much better contact over time..... but compared with new cheap
connectors that are not tarnished or oxidised.... NO DIFFERENCE....
can't measure it, can't see it, can't hear it..... kinda like the
expensive Monster (type) cables.... big money, big and fancy claims and
wording , and a complete waste of money.
electricitym

real gold is much too soft for direct use on connectors. the gold
flashing used on connectors is usually a harder alloy containing
cobalt and does in fact provide a better connection due to its
resistance to oxidation, as compared to nickel plating.

 

[Long Ranger]

real gold is much too soft for direct use on connectors. the gold
flashing used on connectors is usually a harder alloy containing
cobalt and does in fact provide a better connection due to its
resistance to oxidation, as compared to nickel plating.

I would say it does provide a contact that doesn't degrade much over time
due to the fact that it doesn't oxidize. However, it starts out as a higher
resistance joint than many other metals would be, so calling it "better" is
somewhat dubious.

 

[Anthony Fremont]

Does the gold plating on various plugs and sockets (jacks, phono, SCART,
etc) make any real difference?

I notice that on my PC the PCI sockets have a gold color (is this gold
or phosphor bronze or something else?)

On the other hand the jack sockets, USB, D sockets, etc all have tinner
contacts.

So is gold significant?

Are othe rmetals more significant?

Gold is a relatively poor conductor when compared with copper. It's
major benefit would be lack of oxidation over time. Of course the
audiophool thinks that gold is better at everything because it shines.
Silver is a far better conductor, even better than copper. Of course it
oxidizes fairly rapidly, but only the portion exposed to the air. The
connection itself will not really degrade as long as it is tight.

 

[Lostgallifreyan]

Does the gold plating on various plugs and sockets (jacks, phono, SCART,
etc) make any real difference?

I notice that on my PC the PCI sockets have a gold color (is this gold
or phosphor bronze or something else?)

On the other hand the jack sockets, USB, D sockets, etc all have tinner
contacts.

So is gold significant?

Are othe rmetals more significant?

Gold is significant. While it's not the best conductor, it will maintain a
good connection for a long time if undisturbed. It's not the resistance
that matters, it's the electrical noise of corrosion. That's especially a
problem with low voltage signals from tiny coils where energy output is so
small that you might want the current as well as the voltage to get an
efficient signal from them. When using a 200 ohm input, the resistance of
gold contacts is still insignificant, but the noise of any corrosion won't
be.

On a standard input, greater than 10K or even 100K, a bit of tarnishing
isn't going to matter unless it's so bad that it changes resistance
dramatically in a short time. It's still worth having a very low ground
contact resistance though, to prevent hum loops. It's not only audiophools
who might want to consider this. Ground loops are a royal pain, and a
bit of gold plating is usually a cheaper way to avoid it if you want to use
the system instead of tweaking it all the time. Just avoid butch-looking
cabkes with go-faster stripes and predatory names.

 

[hob]

Does the gold plating on various plugs and sockets (jacks, phono, SCART,
etc) make any real difference?

Basically - All contacts, except gold, oxidize over time.
Contacts are designed to mechanically "wipe" when inserted, i.e., remove
oxide by scraping, or to remove oxides and refuse by using current density
in the connection.

Low level signals like in phono plugs don't have the power to burn
through oxides except on very small connections, but 1) since low level
signals usually see hi impedance and 2) since they don't need as much area
to conduct as does the human hand needs in order to hold the pin, even if
there is some corrosion,
there is usually still a decent path for conduction of low level signals
for most connections (indoor, a year or so in place, not damp, etc.), and
the resistance is small relative to the input impedance.

In my experience -
Use gold plated contacts if you are going to leave them in place for some
time (video/audio connections in the back of the equipment left for years,
in warm moving air that can build up a charge, outdoors)

Use the chrome/silver plated contacts where it will be inserted and
removed often.

( I have only seen a few corroded silver/chrome connectors indoors, and
they were left in place for 20 years)

 

[rb]

But what use is a connector that will last 20 plus years,
when the electronics of today might only last 8 months to a year ?? Just a
thought.........

 

[Sjouke Burry]

Gold is a relatively poor conductor when compared with copper. It's
major benefit would be lack of oxidation over time. Of course the
audiophool thinks that gold is better at everything because it shines.
Silver is a far better conductor, even better than copper. Of course it
oxidizes fairly rapidly, but only the portion exposed to the air. The
connection itself will not really degrade as long as it is tight.

Silver oxyde has the nice property,that it is
somewhat conductive,and in a thin layer that
is acceptable.

 

[Long Ranger]

Gold is a relatively poor conductor when compared with copper. It's
major benefit would be lack of oxidation over time. Of course the
audiophool thinks that gold is better at everything because it shines.
Silver is a far better conductor, even better than copper. Of course it
oxidizes fairly rapidly, but only the portion exposed to the air. The
connection itself will not really degrade as long as it is tight.

Plus, silver oxides, unlike most other oxides, are good conductors
themselves.

 

[Long Ranger]

But what use is a connector that will last 20 plus years,
when the electronics of today might only last 8 months to a year ?? Just a
thought.........

My Pioneer SX-1250 says NOT! And my 40 year old JBL speakers.

 

[Ross Herbert]

Plus, silver oxides, unlike most other oxides, are good conductors
themselves.

Strange you say that...

When I worked in telecom maintenance the bane of relays using pure
silver contacts was that the oxidation played merry hell with signal
transmission. Unless the circuit was arranged to have a tiny DC
"wetting" current which minimised contact resistance caused by
oxidation, we were forever burnishing them. Nickel silver or platinum
contacts were much better in this regard.

 

[Tim Williams]

Strange you say that...

<snip>

Not to mention the more common silver sulfide which is not conductive.

Tim

 

[[email protected]]

My Pioneer SX-1250 says NOT! And my 40 year old JBL speakers.

- - - - - - -



Long Ranger:
I think that is the point.... exactly.
Today's electronics are not built as robustly as that grand old
mid-seventies Pioneer SX-1250 and it's contemporary competitors.
electricitym
..
..

 

[ian field]

<snip>

Not to mention the more common silver sulfide which is not conductive.

Tim

Apparently, the key to avoiding silver sulphide on connectors & contacts -
is to stop farting!

 

[[email protected]]

Long Ranger:
I think that is the point.... exactly.
Today's electronics are not built as robustly as that grand old
mid-seventies Pioneer SX-1250 and it's contemporary competitors.
electricitym

I have an assortment of 80s and later amps around here, some bought by
me, some just given to me because they were "broke".
Every damned one of them has a bad input/output selector switch. Why
is it so hard for these companies to come up with a switch that works,
even when the equipment costs several hunderd 198x dollars? These
switches are of some proprietary design that you can't easily
replace with a decent off the shelf switch.
I ended up jumpering the switch out on a few of them, just to use one
input reliably for my MP3 players. The amp chip/module itself is
fairly bulletproof.

 

[Long Ranger]

- - - - - - -



Long Ranger:
I think that is the point.... exactly.
Today's electronics are not built as robustly as that grand old
mid-seventies Pioneer SX-1250 and it's contemporary competitors.
electricitym

Yeah, I guess it is, and to think, there was no gold on those contacts! I
wonder why they lasted so long? I never even gave them a thought in all
these years.

 

[Alex Coleman]

I would say it does provide a contact that doesn't degrade much
over time due to the fact that it doesn't oxidize. However, it
starts out as a higher resistance joint than many other metals
would be, so calling it "better" is somewhat dubious.

Very roughly what sort of additional resistance would a nickel
plating have or how does the nickel's resistance compare to a plating
of regular metal on the connector?

 

[Alex Coleman]

Gold is a relatively poor conductor when compared with copper.

Gold a poor conductor?

I though silver was better than copper and better still was gold.

Oh well.