On Tue, 23 May 2006 05:02:33 GMT, "Long Ranger"
wrote:


"Anthony Fremont" wrote in message
...

"Alex Coleman" wrote in message
...
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.

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.