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.
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.