Unplated copper spades/banana

No. Gold advantage won't  tarnish like bare copper. The question is...which connection is better, a tight spade or a less tight fitting banana plug?

This same question can be applied to power receptacles and power cord plugs and IEC ends. It's not a matter of one being better than the other, they are just different. I comes down to personal preference and what you perceive as a good or poor match up with various combinations of wire and the connectors. Also, a specific combination of wire and cable can be perceived as good on one component and less good on another component. It's variable.

Re: the tarnishing of bare copper, well, if you have a strong preference for how a bare copper connector sounds, you will likely be willing to have to do some periodic maintenance to clean it. Spade = best chance for better sound, Banana = more convenience.

I guess my question is, what does bare copper sound like vs gold plated?

Loss of warmth?

Increase air or detail?

Thanks

I’d like to hear from someone that has done detailed comparisons as well.

Scroll to the bottom of the page..

https://www.furutech.com/technology/

The overwhelming majority of wire in audio components is made from copper. In a perfect world you would have continuous copper wire with no connections or switches so the question becomes how to provide the best continuity/conductivity across the necessary connections. For example, I had an amplifier upgraded/rebuilt by SMc Audio and we decided to provide a captive power cord resulting in one less IEC connection. An audiophile could take that one step further and create a better connection to the wall by removing their $300 Furutech wall outlet and simply connecting their power cord by twisting it to the Romex and using two wire nuts (not recommended and not approved by code!).  As other examples, it is not unusual for low current draw front end components to have no power switch, and I have heard of people removing speaker binding posts and soldering their speaker cables directly to the connector wires inside of their speakers.

To your question on sonic benefits resulting from different types of plating, I have not heard them. My amplifiers use Cardas unplated copper binding posts, which I clean occasionally (a couple of times a year) along with cleaning and reseating the spade connectors I use. I have used Cardas unplated copper spade connectors as well as Furutech spade connectors (which only come in gold or rhodium plate over copper). I have not heard a difference. FWIW, gold is a better conductor than rhodium (76% vs. 39% of the IACS conductivity of copper, which is 100%). Those platings are used primarily for corrosion control, but also as a sales incentive and, in some cases, to mask the use of inferior base metals. If you want the best conductivity as well as resistance to corrosion, find silver plated copper connectors since silver is 106% of IACS.

Interestingly, tin is only 15% of IACS but was/is used as a corrosion control on a lot of electrical connectors, which gets back to the original question, can you hear it? SUPRA uses tin-plated copper conductors in their Classic line (similar to Western Electric wire) as sort of a semiconductor (i.e., somewhere between a conductor and an insulator) and they state, "The tin plating improves sound quality by reducing the skin effect and the number of current jumps between the wire surfaces." I can attest that I do hear differences between the cables I have made using WE wire vs. unplated OFC or OCC copper wire - different but not universally better.

Back to your question, I believe that using a pure copper base metal is important but that the observable sonic impact of platings is probably small to none. However, take my comments with a grain of salt since I believe audiophiles are coerced into spending a lot of money to purchase a bunch of ancillary stuff that probably does little to nothing toward improving the sound of their systems.

@mitch2  That’s really interesting about rhodium being a worse conductor than gold — I would’ve thought the opposite and begs the question why it would be used at all on any connection.  If it’s mostly for “hardness” and protective qualities that’s not a worthwhile trade off for a decrease in sound quality for me as I’d be perfectly fine with gold or silver.  

Gauge 10 copper wire has resistance of 0.001 ohm per foot. Gold plating is typically 0.00001" thick. It adds additional resistance in order of 1 microohm (o.ooooo1 ohm). Perhaps there are other effects when signal is crossing boundary of two different metals, but resistance of plating is not important IMHO.

Most all wire is copper.  The difference between a gold plate does make a difference, but in the big scheme of things, the difference between a gold plate and naked copper is really really really small. Rather than having to polish the ends on all of my cables, I choose to go with plated ends.

My two cents.

On the conductivity scale, copper and gold are very similar and you won't hear an actual difference with the only useful testing (blind) but bare copper will tarnish and need to be cleaned periodically. 

Copper needs to be cleaned every 6 months or tarnishes  that’s why they are gold or rhodium plated 

I use COPPER spades and use DeoxIt (2 formulas are available, one for copper, and one for gold) and Stabilant 22 clean/condition them  once or twice each year. 

No big deal... 

On the positive side, taking the time to clean the connections gets me back 'into the details' of my system.  I use this time to check my TT parameters, outlet connections, speaker placement, etc.  

I once owned a set of inexpensive, platted speaker cables and learned a lesson -  avoid plating where reasonable to do so.

I use Viborg copper spades and I can hear absolutely no differences from the previous connectors.  None.  Zero.  But, I do like their look.

As I read all these posts, I can't help but wonder what the systems of the people posting are like.  If your system cost less than $10k, I'd be surprised if it would reveal differences in plating type or plated versus unplated.

I also wonder about the listening skills of those posting.  Do they have have a playlist of "system test" tracks that collectively reveal the major aspects of sound quality?  Do they have a disciplined approach to listening?

I'd like to hear from someone with a $250k+ system who is a highly skilled listener.

For what it’s worth, coming from Monoprice 12g wire with Nakamichi bananas, I went with the Viborg pure copper banana plugs on Furutech FS-A36 12g speaker cable. I tried one speaker with the Nakamichi & the other with the Viborg both treated with Stabilant & the Viborg & the OCC Copper made a HUGE difference. And I thought my system sounded good before the change.

@dougthebiker 

As I read all these posts, I can't help but wonder what the systems of the people posting are like.

I often wonder that too.  Mine is posted, as is yours, and it is nice to have that perspective about the system a poster is listening to, in order to help understand how they developed their viewpoint. 

Why do we need to have high skills to listen or enjoyed music?

twisting it to the Romex and using two wire nuts (not recommended and not approved by code!)

Hardwiring is code-compliant, you just need to provide an appropriate junction box. 

Using "two wire nuts", however, would be a code violation as it would leave one of the 3 conductors unconnected :)

Hardwiring individual components may not be ideally convenient, but it would seem appropriate for a power conditioning unit.

If you can find pure silver wire with pure silver connectors I would assume this would be the best conductivity of signal one could get.

https://tempoelectric.com/cables.htm

Copper is more conductive than gold.  If you're worried about tarnishing, put a thin layer of silicone grease on the bare copper surface.  But will you hear a difference?  Does it matter that you have a pure copper spade with no plating if the jack is nickel plated?  Let's assume even the jack is bare copper, will it matter while the leads of any resistors or capacitors in the signal path are a tinned metal inferior to bare copper?  Will it matter if you have pure silver speaker wire if the interconnects leading to the inputs of your amp are copper running through plated brass jacks, which are fed by copper traces on a printed circuit board?  Honestly, where do you draw the line if you're going to chase nonsensical things like this?

There are bigger fish to try, such as upgrading to better quality electronic components within your current equipment.

In theory sure bare copper or silver is more conductive than gold plated connectors. In use, there’s no way anybody could hear the difference all else being equal. We’d be talking about a fraction of a decibel that’s just not close to being audible. So it makes sense to use gold over copper to avoid corrosion. 

@megabyte - I agree with your post but would add that in my world bare copper is fine too as long as you clean it occasionally.

@logistics 

There are bigger fish to try, such as upgrading to better quality electronic components within your current equipment.

Absolutely, but if you read these forums, you will find that audiophiles fry very small fish quite frequently.

@tommyu - I have seen that info from Furutech and even though they offer unplated options for AC plugs, and  IEC connectors, it seems their preference is for plating, and they seem to like rhodium over gold for durability reasons.  They indicate that erosion and gold dust build-up occurs over time with gold-plated connectors, which must be rectified by occasionally disconnecting/reconnecting the connections.  Oddly, they don't mention cleaning them.  They do address perceived sonic differences between gold and rhodium.  I have used their gold-plated connectors for years with no issues.

Cardas also appears to prefer a silver/rhodium plating and seems to have stopped making their gold-plated and bare copper GRS U Spades (at least I cannot find them on their website).

@mitch2 

Not sure about the spades.. mostly had Gold or Rhodium over the years but on wall receptacles I use the Furutech Cu, I have 3 Furutech NCF outlets in my power strip and rhodium NCF plugs on 3 of the 4 power cords I have..

But if I run the Furutech NCF at the wall feeding the whole system it's too much of a good thing the tonal balance gets ever so slightly white or grey sounding and not as natural as the copper feeding the whole system.

It's a definite balancing act and every system is different and all the platings have a different flavor. you don't know till you try.

Gold doesn't do anything but slow down corrosion vs. copper, so unless you're putting them outside in the wet Florida air for a few years, there's no point in spending more.

I am an owner of a cable company that has done much research into different platings of different audio connectors.  We have evaluated copper, silver, gold, and rhodium.  The subjective listening tests were conducted with multiple participants on multiple, yet distinct, systems costing $150k+ each.  A double-blind methodology was used on cables identical except for the plating used.  We used scorecards collected and discussed only after the experiment.  Surprisingly, all of the participants' notes tracked the same between one another.

We all heard that, yes, there is a difference in the sonic presentation between the different platings.  After a while, we were even able to blindly guess the plating used just by listening once we understood the differences.

BUT, was it a night and day difference?  No, it was not.  We found that the test cables all sounded basically the same with only subtle, sometimes very subtle, changes to the presentation.  Our specific impressions of the distinct platings were very similar to the Furutech findings linked in a previous reply. 

Please do not confuse the conductivity of a particular material with musicality.  Measurements are all well and good and do lead to better engineered products.  However, we all listen with our ears and not with an oscilloscope plugged straight into our brain, so our ears should always be the final judge in ANY audio product.

Happy listening!