Audio cable terminal connector metals

[Will_B]

Hi all,

I am getting into making my own audio cables. Most will be made with copper wire but I will dabble a bit with silver wires. Putting that aside my questions are about the audio terminals and connectors. Lengthy Internet research has not provided me with any clear answers and I do want to avoid snake-oil explanations.

Obviously the connectors cannot be silver or copper due to tarnish and corrosion. This leads us to rhodium and gold plating. Rhodium appeals to me visually even if you're not really looking at them when in use. Rhodium, being a precious metal within the platinum metals group, is said to be more durable than gold but is worse than gold for electrical conductivity. Gold is far more common and I have heard that since most cable connectors and terminals are gold plated, the "matching" will be better for electrical conductivity.

So the first questions are:

1. Is there any truth to the concept of "matching metals" e.g. gold-to-gold?
2. Since the gold or rhodium plating is so thin, does it make any difference for the conductivity of the signal path across a copper or silver wire and the copper or silver in the connector?
   1. In.other words, is it like a kind of "bottle neck"? Great silver cable! Too bad you lost all the quality because of.the rhodium or gold-plated connectors.

I know that electroplating is at micron-level thickness. I also know that there is often a nickel plating to bond the gold or rhodium to the underlying copper or silver terminal and wire. I have no idea how thick the nickel plating is. For all I know the actual connector could be a needle of copper or silver surrounded by 1mm of nickel and then the electroplating of rhodium or gold..

So:

1. Does anyone know more about the nickel plating or other metals used to bond the rhodium or gold electroplating to the underlying silver or copper?
2. Are metals other than nickel used? Better/worse?

I am not going to be doing my own electroplating. I don't have the skills, kit or inclination to do that. I am just trying to determine what the "best" connectors are to use, minus the snake oil.

• Side quest: I am also researching the kind of solder I should use. This is another can of worms. Lead, lead-free, exotic solders with silver content etc. Share if you like.​

However you feel about this topic I appreciate you for answering if you do. I would just request that your answer contains some kind of an explanation. The level of detail you provide is of course up to you. It's your time, not mine.

I keep things respectful as one should in this community so if you reply in kind then I will reply with a thank you and maybe with follow-up questions.

Appreciate you.

/Will

 

[voodooless]

I'd say don't worry about any of it, and use what you think is pretty. and fits your budget.

As for solder, if you value your health, use lead-free, but in any case, use ventilation. With proper technique, they should all work fine.

 

[somebodyelse]

The 'best' connectors depend more on mechanical construction than material conductivity. Ideally the contact will be gas-tight like a good crimp or a correctly torqued screw connection. For plating it is more important to use the correct process than what material it is - cheap gold plated connectors often deteriorate because of poor process despite the gold. If you pick from a reputable manufacturer you won't go far wrong on connector quality and avoid excessive prices from boutique hifi manufacturers.

 

[Roland68]

Hi all,

I am getting into making my own audio cables. Most will be made with copper wire but I will dabble a bit with silver wires. Putting that aside my questions are about the audio terminals and connectors. Lengthy Internet research has not provided me with any clear answers and I do want to avoid snake-oil explanations.

Obviously the connectors cannot be silver or copper due to tarnish and corrosion. This leads us to rhodium and gold plating. Rhodium appeals to me visually even if you're not really looking at them when in use. Rhodium, being a precious metal within the platinum metals group, is said to be more durable than gold but is worse than gold for electrical conductivity. Gold is far more common and I have heard that since most cable connectors and terminals are gold plated, the "matching" will be better for electrical conductivity.

So the first questions are:

1. Is there any truth to the concept of "matching metals" e.g. gold-to-gold?
2. Since the gold or rhodium plating is so thin, does it make any difference for the conductivity of the signal path across a copper or silver wire and the copper or silver in the connector?
   1. In.other words, is it like a kind of "bottle neck"? Great silver cable! Too bad you lost all the quality because of.the rhodium or gold-plated connectors.

I know that electroplating is at micron-level thickness. I also know that there is often a nickel plating to bond the gold or rhodium to the underlying copper or silver terminal and wire. I have no idea how thick the nickel plating is. For all I know the actual connector could be a needle of copper or silver surrounded by 1mm of nickel and then the electroplating of rhodium or gold..

So:

1. Does anyone know more about the nickel plating or other metals used to bond the rhodium or gold electroplating to the underlying silver or copper?
2. Are metals other than nickel used? Better/worse?

I am not going to be doing my own electroplating. I don't have the skills, kit or inclination to do that. I am just trying to determine what the "best" connectors are to use, minus the snake oil.

• Side quest: I am also researching the kind of solder I should use. This is another can of worms. Lead, lead-free, exotic solders with silver content etc. Share if you like.​

However you feel about this topic I appreciate you for answering if you do. I would just request that your answer contains some kind of an explanation. The level of detail you provide is of course up to you. It's your time, not mine.

I keep things respectful as one should in this community so if you reply in kind then I will reply with a thank you and maybe with follow-up questions.

Appreciate you.

/Will

You can assume that nickel is underneath all coatings, even if the manufacturer claims otherwise. The only exception is WBT, and then only if explicitly stated.
This also eliminates the need to worry about other materials and contact resistance, as nickel surpasses all other common materials.

 

[dualazmak]

Several links to my (affordable and reliable) preferences and practices mainly on my project thread; just for your possible reference and interest on SP cables;

- Elimination of magnetic susceptible metals in SP signal handling: #250, #013[remote thread]

- I have been using 4-core AWG10 (max. 3.37 Ohm/km) and 8-core AWG12 (max. 5.24 Ohm/km) copper color-coded Vinyl Cabtyre (VCT) Cables and really affordable industry-use tin-electro-plated pure copper crimp R-lugs/Y-lugs with heat-shrink insulator covers (ref. #150[remote thread], #28, #895, #906).

- Semi-annual intensive cleaning of all the metal-to-metal connectors/contacts, and complete renewal of all the tin-electroplated copper terminals with heat-shrink insulators: #895

- You should never solder the crimped spade terminals: #904
(I prefer crimping rather than soldering: ref. #895, #905, #904)

- Renewal of SP cabling boards beside SP systems: #906

- Safe accurate robust 22 Ohm(Ω) 30 W non-inductive non-polar wirewound power-type metal-clad resistor (FHN50-22OHMF, PCN Corporation, made in Japan) for renewal/replacement of so-far-used rather fragile(?) ones: #976

I wrote in #25 on remote thread;
At least based on my own long-year experiences, I now believe that it would be better avoiding Caig DeoxIT DN5 and/or similar protective(?) materials;

Spoiler: Better to avoid CAIG DeoxIT DN5 and/or similar protective(?) materials

refer to posts #676, #677, #680, #682 on my project thread.

I believe "periodical, say semi-annual, check and cleaning" using pure IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) would be the best way to go;

Spoiler: Semiannual complete cleaning of all the metal-to-metal connectors

- Semiannual complete cleaning of all the metal-to-metal connectors: #671
- Semi-annual intensive cleaning of all the metal-to-metal connectors/contacts, and complete renewal of all the tin-electroplated copper terminals with heat-shrink insulators: #895
- Renewal of SP cabling boards beside SP systems: #906

and,,, only if you would be interested;
- The latest system setup of my DSP-based multichannel multi-SP-driver multi-amplifier fully active audio rig: #931

 

[Will_B]

You can assume that nickel is underneath all coatings, even if the manufacturer claims otherwise. The only exception is WBT, and then only if explicitly stated.
This also eliminates the need to worry about other materials and contact resistance, as nickel surpasses all other common materials.

Thank you!

 

[Will_B]

You can assume that nickel is underneath all coatings, even if the manufacturer claims otherwise. The only exception is WBT, and then only if explicitly stated.
This also eliminates the need to worry about other materials and contact resistance, as nickel surpasses all other common material

You can assume that nickel is underneath all coatings, even if the manufacturer claims otherwise. The only exception is WBT, and then only if explicitly stated.
This also eliminates the need to worry about other materials and contact resistance, as nickel surpasses all other common materials.

Several links to my (affordable and reliable) preferences and practices mainly on my project thread; just for your possible reference and interest on SP cables;

- Elimination of magnetic susceptible metals in SP signal handling: #250, #013[remote thread]

- I have been using 4-core AWG10 (max. 3.37 Ohm/km) and 8-core AWG12 (max. 5.24 Ohm/km) copper color-coded Vinyl Cabtyre (VCT) Cables and really affordable industry-use tin-electro-plated pure copper crimp R-lugs/Y-lugs with heat-shrink insulator covers (ref. #150[remote thread], #28, #895, #906).

- Semi-annual intensive cleaning of all the metal-to-metal connectors/contacts, and complete renewal of all the tin-electroplated copper terminals with heat-shrink insulators: #895

- You should never solder the crimped spade terminals: #904
(I prefer crimping rather than soldering: ref. #895, #905, #904)

- Renewal of SP cabling boards beside SP systems: #906

- Safe accurate robust 22 Ohm(Ω) 30 W non-inductive non-polar wirewound power-type metal-clad resistor (FHN50-22OHMF, PCN Corporation, made in Japan) for renewal/replacement of so-far-used rather fragile(?) ones: #976

I wrote in #25 on remote thread;
At least based on my own long-year experiences, I now believe that it would be better avoiding Caig DeoxIT DN5 and/or similar protective(?) materials;

Spoiler: Better to avoid CAIG DeoxIT DN5 and/or similar protective(?) materials

refer to posts #676, #677, #680, #682 on my project thread.

I believe "periodical, say semi-annual, check and cleaning" using pure IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) would be the best way to go;

Spoiler: Semiannual complete cleaning of all the metal-to-metal connectors

- Semiannual complete cleaning of all the metal-to-metal connectors: #671
- Semi-annual intensive cleaning of all the metal-to-metal connectors/contacts, and complete renewal of all the tin-electroplated copper terminals with heat-shrink insulators: #895
- Renewal of SP cabling boards beside SP systems: #906

and,,, only if you would be interested;
- The latest system setup of my DSP-based multichannel multi-SP-driver multi-amplifier fully active audio rig: #931

Thank you very much for all this information!!

 

[G|force]

It is my opinion that gold is preferable for permanent installs and should be avoided when repeatedly plugged and unplugged in which case nickel is preferable.

 

[DVDdoug]

The material isn't really critical for resistance/conductivity (assuming it's not corroded) for two reasons:

1. Resistance depends on the cross sectional area and the length. A longer or thinner wire has more resistance. In the case of wire, silver has slightly better conductivity (lower resistance) than copper, but you can simply use fatter (lower gauge) wire for even lower resistance. Connectors have almost no "length" The plating is VERY thin so there is even less "length". The significant (if any) resistance is in the wires (and sometimes in the solder or crimp connections between the wire and connector).

2. For line level connections, the cable & connector resistance is too low to matter. Line level inputs typically have an input impedance of 10K or more. And for example, 1000 feet of 22AWG wire has about 16-Ohms of resistance. That's 32-Ohms round-trip but there is no measurable or audible signal loss into 10K. You might get noise pickup over the long length, especially with unbalanced connections but 1000-foot cables are a special-unusual setup anyway.

With longer speaker runs, you DO have to consider wire gauge and length, but the connectors are a tiny fraction of an Ohm and usually fine. (And there's almost no reason to use anything smaller than 16AWG speaker wire anyway.)

 

[3125b]

I will dabble a bit with silver wires.

There's no point to that, but knock yourself out. The conductivity of copper is about 58MS/m, silver is 62MS/m - it doesn't matter. For signal quality, cable geometry is far more important.

Is there any truth to the concept of "matching metals" e.g. gold-to-gold?

No, unless it is going to be used in highly humid conditions (galvanic corrosion).

In.other words, is it like a kind of "bottle neck"

The cross-sectional area of the contact patch is ideally much greater than the cross-sectional area of the conductor, but of course connector material can have an impact on contact resistance. This may or may not matter for high-current applications, nothing that you would encounter in home audio.

I am just trying to determine what the "best" connectors are to use, minus the snake oil.

Depends on the application, what type of cables are you making? Generally sticking to established manufacturers like Neutrik or Amphenol (and many more) is a good idea. I would use crimp connections whenever possible, for removable connections spring terminals are usually preferable over screw terminals since they are maintenance free.

Lead, lead-free, exotic solders with silver content etc.

If you are selling these cables in the EU you must use lead-free solder. Get a proper soldering station, lead-free solder requires higher and more stable temperatures to work with.

 

[LTig]

Just buy Neutrik and forget about the rest.

 

[Sokel]

Depends on use.
Neutrik for example clearly states the useful life of its connectors by cycles.

If the use for example is testing gear, Pomona bananas may come more handy depending the model.