Why Rhodium?

Waste of money. Recently rhodium commodity prices have sky rocketed, so it falls into the hi-end trap of 'more expensive, must be better'. A friend, who is a material scientist with a PhD, tells me its electrical properties suggest it worsens current flow. You figure.

Buconero, you'd better have your friend call George Cardas and tell him, since he is pretty big advocate of Rhodium...

I work at a steel mill and just called our head metallurgist and asked him. He said that Rhodium is a very good conductor.

Maybe the more appropriate question is, when comparing a Porter Port which is unplated Copper against an Oyaide or other recepticle made with Rhodium, among other alloys, does the Rhodium outperform the Copper in terms of neutrality, or does it color the resulting signal like we all know that the Oyaide recepticles do.

Is the coloration a characteristic of Rhodium? Is it a characteristic of Copper? Or does the alloy matter?

I picked up a Furutech FI-28M (R) which is rhodium over pure copper. It's very smooth with great dynamics and soundstaging. I also use Kaplan cables. Several with all copper ends, and one with rhodium over copper for my source.

In my experience, the rhodium is generally tonally neutral while adding smoothness, dynamics, and detail. Other platings such as gold or silver may tilt the tonal balance.

Rhodium is a good conductor of electricity but not as good as copper, gold or silver. As Mofi stated it resists oxidation well. It is more durable then the above metals and gives a very smooth finish which is one of the keys to its use.

My experience with rhodium plated plugs is that there is a glare to them BUT I have not tried all the rhodium plated plugs out there (notably not the FI-28M and not the one Paul uses).

Also it is very important to realize that the wire in between the plugs drastically affects the sound as a whole. A plug that results in a great sound on one cord can sound like poop (technical term) on another.