Rhodium vs Gold AC connectors

01-23-15: Bo1972
When you compare the Oyaide with gold against the 004/M1 the difference is quite clear!!

Bo1, I think you completely missed my point. I provided a detailed commentary supporting the view there is in fact a small, not night/day difference between the FURUTECH copper/rhodium and copper/gold products given a tonally neutral system. I don't doubt there is a clear difference between the Oyaide P-004/M1, but you are talking about apples vs oranges. Firstly the Oyaide P-004 is a lower range connector compared to the M1. And secondly, Furutech's FI-50M(G) is much superior imho to any Oyaide gold connector due to their superior materials, design and metallurgy. As far as the FI-50 and M1 goes, Chris expressed a personal view that he prefers the FI-50, but noted the M1 is a very good connector. He also qualified that in some systems, the M1 may have better synergy (eg: if you're running R1's). In my ss/digital system, I would likely obtain better synergy using FI-50M(G)'s as i'm already running a GTX-D(G) wpo. I'll have to have a think about that one as both are excellent connectors.

01-23-15: Audiolabyrinth
Hi Melbguy1, I do not understand why Chris said he uses both the gold and Rhodium in his system, I tried that, it was horrible!, they worked against each other, a real train wreck, weeks of testing revealed someone can only use one version or the other through out a system, atleast that is what happened to my system any way..I do not believe at this point untill I do more auditioning that one would have to use the same wall plug's through out, just the wpo's.

Audiolabyrinth, you're comparing apples and oranges. Chris correctly recommended the Furutech GTX-D(G) for solid state systems which are not overly warm. You are using a tube cd player as your source/pre and warmer, gold plated connectors (079’s), so I am not surprised you prefered the GTX-D(R) in your system. If you ran a ss cd player & Oyaide P-004 connectors, it could well have been a different story. As for mixing Gold and Rhodium wpo's, obviously that works in Chris V's system, but I would personally not advocate mixing gold and rhodium hardware.

01-23-15: Audiolabyrinth
Chris was dead wrong about what his recommendation's were for my system, The Rhodium over and over again was the clear winner on my solid state amp and tube/solid state Hybred digital cd-player that run's direct to amplification, extrodinary transparent hugely

I thought Chris V's advice was to go for Rhodium "on tubey sounding equipment, or tube amps or pre-amps, and gold on tube cd-players"? You're running tube preamp & warm sounding gold connectors, so his advice that Rhodium best suits that mix is correct.

I have mentioned this before, when people use a different connector to get a more musical sound it is caused by the properties of the other tools. So they use a connector or other cable to create a more musical sound.

That is why when you are not aware of each property a tool owns you never will understand how the overall sound is made.

The reason that I test so much is to get known with all the properties of new tools. When you are aware of all the properties it is a lot easier to create the sound you want.

This is the main reason that I can outperform all my competitors. This way the endresult always will be better. As you know the best and most convincing sound alwys will win in audio. This is what make audio the most easiest!

Jeb, i'm confused. Your friend did "the Furutech GTX duplex outlet taste test", but "The clear winner was the Rhodium plugs"? That just tells me your friend preferred FI-50M(R) connectors with a GTX-D wpo. That said, it's not surprising he preferred Rhodium to Gold given he has a mostly tube-based system.

In your system, i'm not surprised you prefer the GTD-D(R) given you have a vinyl front end & are already using Furutech Rhodium connectors. It's all a question of synergy. In general, the commentary on this forum about Furutech GTX-D and FI-50M hardware is heavily biased toward rhodium. If I were a lay person reading most of the commentary, I would assume the Rhodium version of the GTX-D and FI-50m sounds better in most cases than the gold version without stopping to ask how their amps, front end, cables, pc connectors & wpo influence the sound, and thus their preference.

Hi Melbguy1, Chris told me on the phone before I did all these direct comparisons that the Gold version was suited for any kind of digital, even if it was a tube based machine,also, the krell sound's better with the Rhodium, however, I admitt, I do like the treble better with the gold wpo's, it's a trade off, everything else sound's alot better, litterally veils up-on veils were taken out of the sound, the way the Rhodium does vocal's and mid-range snare drum's, mid-range in general was the decideing factor for my choice, the most realistic vocal's I have ever heard, Melb, I really believe these wpo's have more to do with one's cable's than solid state or tube's, you know my amp in it's orginal state before I had it modded was kinda of a transparent dark sound, now it's extrodinary transparent with the GTX R and the modds, also, you may be very well correct about staying with the same wall plug as the wpo, the reason I believe you can mix the wall plugs, is because I have a mix currently to decent prevail, like I said, when I tried that on the wall power, it was an incredible disaster, it was worse than useing the $6.00 industrial 20 amp wpo I took out, and the $.50 house wpo combo, melb, as good as your speaker's are, transparent!, you likly done the correct move with the Gold, will add some balance that should be appealing.