[viraptor]

> they are the worldwide foremost experts on competitive swimming

On swimming, sure. But not fluid dynamics. It's a bit like music listeners shouldn't be treated as experts on music quality, or you'll get the audiophile nuts who need gold connectors. Some combination of personal experience for comfort and objective measurements for performance would be much better.

[dsr_]

It's strange that you would pick on gold connectors. Gold is an excellent conductor and does not corrode in air, so it makes a great plating material. In the quantities needed for plating, it's not too expensive, either.

Silver corrodes relatively quickly and is expensive; that's a bad tradeoff against copper, which is much cheaper and nearly as conductive. So: gold-plated connectors on copper wires are extremely common.

None of that makes an audible difference, as it turns out: humans can't tell the difference between silver, copper, gold, aluminum, or even iron wires at audio frequencies and realistic (sub-kilometer) lengths with comparable resistance. All the advantages are material costs vs longevity without maintenance.

Also, most music listeners are not experts on music quality or sound reproduction quality (two very different things). Many music listeners are experts on their own preferences. Everyone is entitled to their own preferences.

[viraptor]

Picking on it exactly because there's no difference in sound, but the extreme audiophiles will claim they hear it anyway. https://ventiontech.com/products/toslink-to-mini-toslink-opt... - "gold-plated connectors resist corrosion for optimal signal transfer over time." - it's an optical cable!

[mensetmanusman]

There is an audible difference after being in a high temp high humidity environment for 5 years :)

[viraptor]

Audible difference from an OPTICAL cable not corroding at ends? One where the gold plated parts are only the frame that holds it in the socket?

[mschuster91]

Well, there is always an ADC and amplifier stage involved, at some point you have to cross to the analog domain - and there's an absolutely wild difference between a central, decent and expensive ADC/amplifier and whatever crap ships in "active" loudspeakers that bring their own ADC/amplifier.

[viraptor]

Ok. That's not what we're talking about here.

[warkdarrior]

Have you tried not listening to music underwater??

[lelanthran]

Under boiling water. He did mention high temperatures as well as humidity, after all.

[kergonath]

> It's strange that you would pick on gold connectors. Gold is an excellent conductor and does not corrode in air, so it makes a great plating material. In the quantities needed for plating, it's not too expensive, either.

It’s not strange at all. Gold plating improving quality sounds truthy but is absolutely false. I have yet to read a serious study, at least single blind, showing any meaningful difference. And I have yet to read a serious engineering study showing any meaningful difference in characteristics. Steel plated jacks are just fine, and optical connectors make the whole thing irrelevant. As you write yourself:

> None of that makes an audible difference, as it turns out

> Also, most music listeners are not experts on music quality or sound reproduction quality (two very different things). Many music listeners are experts on their own preferences. Everyone is entitled to their own preferences.

Indeed. But their preference have no effect on Physics. If they are happy to get gold-plated ruthenium cables with diamond coatings, more power to them. It does not make these cables any better.

Theo are entitled to their own preferences, not their own reality.

[SoftTalker]

"I reject your reality and substitute my own!"

[teddyh]

> Gold is an excellent conductor

Actually, gold is a worse conductor than both copper and silver, and only a little better than aluminum.

> and does not corrode in air

This is the real reason for plating contacts in gold. But gold wires would be a bad idea, since they would be worse than both copper and silver wires.

[Gud]

Parent didn’t say gold was a better conductor than silver or copper though. How does gold compare to copper- or silver oxide? Which was the point parent was making.

[teddyh]

The text was unclear; perhaps they did not believe that gold is a superior conductor to copper and silver. But in my experience, many people do think that, and I thought it would be useful to point out that this is not true.

[bluGill]

Parent did say gold was a good conductor which is arguable false.

[ssl-3]

Aluminum is also an excellent conductor.

[SoftTalker]

But also corrodes more than copper, making it unsuitable for household wiring unless special precautions are taken.

[ssl-3]

Indeed. It has some practical issues that need properly mitigated, but it is still a very good conductor.

[BoringTimesGang]

You're comparing the science of electronics and sound (well understood, rigorous) with sports science (cesspit of low-N, hard to study well). In sports, anecdata are valuable - putting guff in a journal doesn't make it any less guff.