Why gold?


What is the big deal about coating your connectors with gold or silver?

I just bought a Yamaha M-40 amp that has a clean pair of steel RCA connectors. Am I missing out on some sonic advantages of Gold or Silver lining?
djembeplay
Oh ya, I think the dial on my freezer goes down to about -375f... I suppose that should do it.
I spent a winter in Elko, Nevada. You could toss anything outside over night to cryo it, then toss it in your freezer for a slow warm up :-)
Shellie

"Gold has a warmer sound, silver more air and detail- all things considered"

- That's what I heard but it applies to material of the wire and not the thin plating of connector.

Audioquest uses silver since gold is not a very good conductor but, in my opinion, it doesn't make any difference in interconnects because of high input impedance and very thin plating.
Kijanki,
From what I have gathered, cables (when properly designed) are voiced with materials that compliment a given cable by things like conductor material, and connectors. An easy experiment (though not inexpensive) is to listen to two different Oyaide wall outlets- SWO-DX with a heavy silver plating compared to the SWO-GX with a two micron thick gold plating. This is very enlightening.

I have talked to two different cable manufacturers about this- Purist Audio Design and Synergistic Research. They confirmed when voicing their IC's they use different materials for their RCA's to get the balance they are looking for.
Shellie - I don't have experience with wall outlets but it is a different application since current flow is involved. In case of interconnects there is a very little current.

Audioquest plates interconnects with silver for the best connection. It might make a difference but I probably don't have gear or ears to be able to tell the difference. Also - where you can find exactly same interconnect with different plating to compare?