Why Rhodium?

Interesting discussion so far.

Here's an experiment I tried several weeks ago, although it's not specifically about Rhodium it is related to the conversation.

I've been using an Acrolink 6N-P4039 PC terminated with Oyaide P-004 & C-004 on my amp. I like this cable a lot in this position. This is a high purity copper unshielded cable. The Oyaides are beryllium copper plated with platinum then palladium.

I replaced the Oyaide C-004 IEC with a Fim model 302 IEC. The Fim is gold plated high purity copper. This one termination is the only change I made to my entire system.

The deep bass and punch diminished significantly. I was surprised how much difference I was hearing because, frankly, I expected any difference, if audible, to be subtle.
When I replaced the Oyaide the bass returned.
Note: Male Oyaide was plugged into Oyaide R-1 outlet.

I did this experiment because the amp IEC is a gold plated Furutech and I thought like metals might be the way to go.

Footnotes:
1. I like the Fim terminations in other applications but not this one.
2. I also like Fim outlets.
3. I'm not even pretending I understand any of this but it's fun and interesting.

>>10-11-09: Mooglie
For example, silver sounds very different than copper.

Not at all. It depends on the design.

A csble's "sound" depends far more on its' geometry, dielectric, and conductor purity than the conductor itself.

I can conduct a listening session with 10 interconnects and you would never know which is silver or copper or hybrid.

Mooglie,
I agree that nickel probably has no place in audiophile cabling. On an interesting note I found that the elements name is derived from the German word nickel, which means "Old Nick", a name for the devil. I think in this application he's messing with "good" sound. 8^)
On a related note, I'm not sure brass is all that "good" either and I'm trying to "exorcise" it from my PCs as much as possible. It's amazing how much brass is in most PCs even the megabuck varieties.

In my example I was referring to silver and copper platings such as AC and RCA connectors. In regards to cables I would tend to agree to a point. Certainly geometry, dielectric, etc., have a significant effect on the sonics. However, I also believe that materials impose some audible character on a cable. I’m certain there are some designs that may minimize the effects.

As I previously mentioned, the Pure Note Alluvion digital cable I use is a palladium-silver alloy. I’m quite certain that palladium is used to remove the edge off of the silver, and it’s quite effective in my view. Other vendors such as Silversmith and Siltech use materials such as palladium and gold in their cables. I’m not sure one could replicate the sonics of some of these cables via geometry and dielectrics alone.

Rja, I agree, brass is ok, but has limitations. Pure copper tends to sound better to me, and is usually a safe bet for just about any interconnect or PC. FYI, I use a mix of cables and PCs. Some are high purity copper, and some are copper-silver hybrid (separate types of wire). A couple of rhodium plated connector PCs are also used in strategic places.

I experimented a few years ago with two power cables with Acrolink 7N copper wire and one with Oyaide gold connectors and the other with Oyaide rhodium connectors (this was going from the wall to a PS Audio Power Plant Premier). The difference in the sound from just the plating was stark. This is why Oyaide has different types, to voice your system, not WAF as suggested above (though your system may have bottlenecks that keep you from hearing the difference well). In that instance I found the rhodium to be slightly more defined, but it also had some glare. My system had plenty of resolution, so I went with gold to smooth it out and add some body.

I would say the choice is totally system dependent, but I would go with gold to inject a bit of warmth. I don't think relative conductivity is the real issue when it comes to sound. I'm currently struggling with which Furutech plugs and connectors to use in my new setup, because the decision is not entirely straight forward.