Gold on jack and phono plug/socket

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?

Reply to
Alex Coleman
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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.

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.

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.

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Reply to
Dave Platt

Many "gold" plated connectors use an electrolytic alloy containing cobalt to improve abrasion. Generally, nickel plated rca connectors works well when new, but over time they tend to oxidise and can become unreliable unless cleaned and treated with a suitable anti-oxidant. The "gold" plated ones usually have less problems in this regard and IMO they are preferable. Most problems I have come across in rca connectors in general use (whether nickel or gold) are due to the construction technique used for the centre pin, which tends to go high resistance or intermittently open circuit. The higher quality ones are good by comparison to the low cost run of the mill items because they use a better centre pin connector.

Here is a website on plating compounds for connectors from one manufacturer.

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Reply to
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

Reply to
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.

Reply to
Ross Herbert

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.

Reply to
Long Ranger

SCART,

tinner

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.

Reply to
Anthony Fremont

Alex Coleman wrote in news:Xns97CB306DB341B71F3M4@127.0.0.1:

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.

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Reply to
Lostgallifreyan

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)

Reply to
hob

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.........

Reply to
rb

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

Reply to
Sjouke Burry

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

Reply to
Long Ranger

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

Reply to
Long Ranger

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.

Reply to
Ross Herbert

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

Tim

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Reply to
Tim Williams

- - - - - - -

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 . .

Reply to
electricitym

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

Reply to
ian field

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.

Reply to
gfretwell

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.

Reply to
Long Ranger

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?

Reply to
Alex Coleman

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