Just re-realized Shunyata's outlets are brass, can't sound that bad if Caelin produces and sells them, so yeah, maybe sometimes we overthink things.
Gold coated brass speaker spades
Question for the forum.
Whats the low down on brass speaker spades and bananas?
I recently demoed some very nice sounding speaker cables from a reputable manufacturer and found they used gold plated brass connectors. From what I have read in these forums, copper is the preferred base metal. Does it really matter?
What to do?
Showing 6 responses by mclinnguy
This is what matters. It all comes down to budget- whether the manufacturer feels it is worth it to spend another $100 to construct those cables with better sounding copper connectors, or to leave the cables $100 cheaper and pass the savings on to the consumer, make the price more attractive, in the hopes that more of them will sell. Honda doesn’t automatically supply $3000 of real leather seats and $2000 18" alloy wheels on a base model $25,000 Honda Civic and make the price $30,000 because it may make the car 1% "more preferred". Half of the people don’t notice, don’t care, and would rather save the $5000. Some manufacturers, maybe the same one who made the cable you are listening to, design and build cost no object cables, with no expense spared, and of course these cost many thousands more, and would address the last several percent of increased performance, including rhodium/gold coated solid high purity copper connectors. Question though: have you addressed this in regards to all other aspects of your system? All your other cables connectors are gold/rhodium coated solid copper, including your outlet? Then no, it may not matter. |
Well, of course we know copper does sound better as it has less resistance, only bettered by silver, and Shunyata’s top cables are all a blend of silver and Ohno copper. In regards to the outlets a little research shows that pure copper does not enough ductility, or the ability to bend repeatedly without cracking. Due to the movement inherent in the outlet prongs when inserting and removing cables there isn’t a choice, so the added zinc to the copper to make it brass is a necessity. At least in the design of the Hubbel outlet shown. Sound considerations aside, it would not be good if people’s outlets began to break, and then one gets electricity arcing. However, Furutech have made their own outlet which does have solid copper contacts and their own stainless spring clamping system, so there is no bending on any solid copper prongs. I have this GTX-R- NCF outlet and like that it doesn’t mar the coating from your expensive power cords. But since it is solid copper it needs to be coated with something to prevent oxidation- Furutech offers a choice of gold or rhodium. GTX breakdown Unknown to me if Caelin ever experimented with these outlets or approached Furutech instead of Hubbel to make his outlets? But again he and his team have of course listened to his outlets and if they determine they are fine, that gives me enough confidence to use them. I have heard him state he didn’t like rhodium. Actually I have just ordered my first Shunyata power cord, and I will see if the nickel coating on his plug gets along with the rhodium in my GTX outlet. (Again, the coating is just microns thick, 99% of the electrical energy simply travels though the base metal, and I am sure I won’t notice the difference
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It states this under their FPX outlets, but it is not underneath the GTX outlets, so not sure.... SPECIFICATIONSAll non-magnetic α (Alpha) Phosphor bronze Conductor |
Confirmed, it actually states that at the beginning of the second video I posted above, and one can see the UL logo on the front of the plug. I don't suppose you have tried the Shunyata one? |
Well, there it is. Why pay anymore when $20 cables conduct electricity perfectly fine, and I hear stuff emitting from the speakers? If it is good enough to make the light bulb glow, it is good enough for me.
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