Re: Gold on jack and phono plug/socket
- From: Lostgallifreyan <no-one@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 17:32:00 GMT
"ian field" <dai.ode@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:AYlcg.6938$_04.5102@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
"Lostgallifreyan" <no-one@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns97CBA580A3EDClostgallifreyangmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Alex Coleman <no@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:Xns97CB306DB341B71F3M4@xxxxxxxxx:
Does the gold plating on various plugs and sockets (jacks, phono,
SCART, etc) make any real difference?
I notice that on my PC the PCI sockets have a gold color (is this
gold or phosphor bronze or something else?)
On the other hand the jack sockets, USB, D sockets, etc all have
tinner contacts.
So is gold significant?
Are othe rmetals more significant?
Gold is significant. While it's not the best conductor, it will
maintain a good connection for a long time if undisturbed. It's not
the resistance that matters, it's the electrical noise of corrosion.
That's especially a problem with low voltage signals from tiny coils
where energy output is so small that you might want the current as
well as the voltage to get an efficient signal from them. When using
a 200 ohm input, the resistance of gold contacts is still
insignificant, but the noise of any corrosion won't be.
On a standard input, greater than 10K or even 100K, a bit of
tarnishing isn't going to matter unless it's so bad that it changes
resistance dramatically in a short time. It's still worth having a
very low ground contact resistance though, to prevent hum loops. It's
not only audiophools who might want to consider this. :) Ground loops
are a royal pain, and a bit of gold plating is usually a cheaper way
to avoid it if you want to use
the system instead of tweaking it all the time. Just avoid
butch-looking cabkes with go-faster stripes and predatory names.
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Wouldn't a poor earth connection tend to break an earth loop?
Yes. :) I made an error..
What I was remembering is that if you're using a transducer coil with low
impedance input, and have a less than excellent ground, some of the crap
the ground should be carrying will be put through the input and amplified.
To some extent that's true even with a 10K input, so it's best to make all
grounds as good as possible unless you really want to make a ground-lift
resistance to cure a hum loop. Gold plated contacts don't have to be
expensive, and it is worth buying a bulk set for a discount if you're
setting up a load of connections that you don't want to have to watch.
I normally use standard Neutric jacks where possible, for value and good
results I don't know any way to beat them, but I could use a few with a
good gold plate on them.
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