Silver Head Shell Leads

Thanks for that suggestion pindac. Never thought about PC Triple C for phono use, I will check it out.

I like silver wire. That being said, for maybe 6 inches of wire total, don't think you could tell the difference. I couldn't justify $600 for contact enhancer, but haven't tried it. If you've got the cash, try it and let us know. No Rhodium!

This has been a great learning experience, thanks to all. I have known for a longtime that connectors/connections are the weak link, so still a lot of things to try. Does anyone know about intermetallic formation between gold and silver? I know from my failure analysis days that intermetallic formation was a major cause of failures, specifically between gold and aluminum. 

I guess Hughes Electronics thought so too. Something about the gold caused the aluminum to oxidize and create bond failures. I'm thinking other materials besides gold would also cause this type of failure. I know silver oxidizes and silver oxide is a good conductor. Maybe in a connector it would be okay, since we're not relying on the material for strength, only conductivity. My old Philips GA-212 had silver plated RCA connectors. I'm going to do some experimentation. Any other comments or knowledge is very welcome!

Yes, aluminum IS the problem. Just surprised it reacted with gold.