Whatever happened to Straight Wire?

the use of expensive wires is a very recent phenomenon. i have a pair of pear audio anjou interconnect cables. i believe this cable represents an innovative cable design. it is an all gold-wire cable.

another metal that is interesting is platinum.

What are the interesting characteristics of Platinum?

Funny thing that you mention gold as a conductor. A few (10+) years back Siltech used to play with gold conductors. At one point they offered the same cable with diff count of gold wires - FTM-4Si which was pure silver, FTM-4Sg which used one single golden wire, and FTM-4Su which ATAIR used 4 golden wires (the rest was silver). Me and all my audio buddies who have heard them, all prefered the least expensive, all-silver version. Siltech quite soon abandoned that technology.

Platinum is extremely resistant to oxidation and to corrosion, and a very good conductor of electricity. What this does for your audio cable that cheaper metals don't is up for debate.

Musicman, Platinum being a good conductor of electricity is an urban legend. . . Even Iron is a better conductor than Platinum. Here are some resistivity figures:

Silver: (20 °C) 15.87 nO·m
Copper: (20 °C) 16.78 nO·m
Gold: (20 °C) 22.14 nO·m
Aluminum: (20 °C) 26.50 nO·m
Rhodium: (0 °C) 43.3 nO·m
Zinc: (20 °C) 59.0 nO·m
Nickel: (20 °C) 69.3 nO·m
Iron: (20 °C) 96.1 nO·m
Palladium: (20 °C) 105.4 nO·m
Platinum: (20 °C) 105 nO·m
Tin: (0 °C) 115 nO·m
Lead: (20 °C) 208 nO·m

So, I shall ask again: why seek Pt in wires?