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What is RED copper & Eutectic Copper speaker cable connectors...??? RHODIUM...

HI guys... and maybe a few gals,

Question 1: What are RED copper connectors and EUTECTIC copper connectors such as spades and bananas for speaker cable terminations?

QUESTION 2: Rhodium seems popular but are they REALLY plated with rhodium?


I am making a set of my own custom speaker cables and am looking for connectors, either spade or banana, that look nice and sound good. (and of course at a reasonable price...)

ALL the items I see on ebay, google search, or any site for that matter are all from China, Japan, Taiwan. They all look the same. There are many that state they are either RED copper OR Eutectic copper. What is red and eutectic copper?

They all claim to be 'RHODIUM' plated which I doubt because plating a wedding ring with Rhodium can costs HUNDREDS of dollars!! Some of the Rhodium plated spades and bananas look identical to high-end manufacturers such as Cardas, Oyaide, Furutech, WBT etc....Makes me wonder if the 'high-end' companies who clearly purchase their connectors from China even test to see if they are truly plated as stated.

So, do you think they are even worth buying? I don't have much choice since virtually ALL options are coming from that part of the world.

Thanks!
stevethe4th
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perfectpathtech's avatar
perfectpathtech
236 posts
 
I forgot to address the wedding ring, the jewelry trade surpasses the audio trade in gouging the consumer! plating thickness is measured in microns, know how many rings a ounce of rhodium will plate?
A serious amount! hundreds if not thousands.

perfectpathtech's avatar
perfectpathtech
236 posts
 
Red copper is a fancy name for beryllium which is not a pure copper.
The long and the short of it is pure conductor connectors are not cheap. Furutech and Wbt are the best, and their cost reflect it, Cardas are good as well. With respectable manufactures, yes it is 
real rhodium plating. I have a personal bias with WBT, every connector and binding post has been replaced with WBT AG or 
pure silver with no plating, it wasn't cheap, and took me several years to do it, but was so worth the investment! I am also biased with Furutech as well, their GTX line of outlets are simply a work of art! First one I tried was like inserting a new component costing thousands of dollars! I now have 5 running my system. If you are going to stick with copper make sure its OCC or keep on looking.
Hope that helps.

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