Rhodium, a member of the exclusive platinum group, is the most costly and rare precious metal. It’s extremely hard and doesn’t corrode. Most people don’t think about it but most of world’s rhodium production goes into the catalytic converters under your car! Furutech chooses rhodium plating for their highest-performance cable lines. Numerous tests with different plating and treatments reveals that durable rhodium plating provides fast, powerful, controlled bass, an open and extremely palpable midrange with detailed and transparent mid- to upper-frequencies and a smooth, nuanced wideband tonal balance. Furutech recommends rhodium as the most refined plating metal.
Gold is a dense, soft, extremely malleable metal that — in pure form – won’t oxidize in air or water. Among gold’s more practical characteristics is its resistance to corrosion – better than nickel or silver – and its superior electrical conductivity. Gold is softer than rhodium and the surface is not molecularly flat. Over time some erosion takes place and a dark build-up occurs that is, in fact, gold dust! Furutech recommends periodically disconnecting and reconnecting gold-plated connectors with all components turned off, of course. Auditioning reveals that gold plating produces a warmer, slightly more plump and romantic midrange, somewhat more powerful but less controlled mid to deep bass, with high frequencies that are either sweeter or less extended than rhodium plating. As always it depends on the connected equipment.
Silver is very malleable and slightly harder than gold. Pure silver distinguishes itself with the highest electrical and thermal conductivity and the lowest contact resistance of any metal. It tarnishes when exposed to air or water with ozone or hydrogen sulfide and that forms the familiar tarnish, silver sulfide. Silver is effective at protecting bare copper heat oxidation and boosting the conductivity of braided shielding. Silver-plated copper conductor’s sound is more detailed and open than gold but slightly less natural than rhodium. It offers a very tight bass and detailed midrange, plus extended high frequencies with a tendency towards detail rather than warmth.
Copper is another very malleable metal and its low hardness is one reason for its high electrical and thermal conductivity, the second highest among pure metals. Copper is a good conductor because there are a lot of “free electrons” that can carry current flow efficiently. These free electrons don’t remain tied with the copper atoms but instead form an electron cloud around the outside of the atom and move through the solid very quickly. Long auditioning reveals that copper plating produces a sound that resembles gold; somewhat warm mid frequencies, a big bottom end, and relatively sweet high frequencies, but not as extended as gold or especially rhodium.
Dear @Blackbird , thank you for your reply, you convinced me bolts and nuts are having no function! However I am still having good experience with G and R plated lines. I know there are many opinions and to give some credibility I will quote Furutech engineers in a email to me, ask them if you still in doubt. “Our engineer suggests that the gold-plated connectors should offer some balance to the sound presentation. The signature of rhodium provides fast, firm sound with informative mid to high frequencies. Gold plating offers a warmer more powerful mid to low range.”
This was my original question “ I noticed the Empire cable has gold plated plugs and the rest of the system is rhodium plated, is this OK, or shall I change the power plugs to match the rest the system?”
I have one of those going into an NCF rhodium wall socket, then my power block is UK MK sockets with Naim Powerlines, I’m not suffering from brightness but did get a fair bit of improvements over the Legrand socket and plug I used previously, though I’ll not try to describe it.
If my trial of a second 555ps is a success I plan to make a new Schuko based block using Furutech NCF sockets and replace the UK Powerline plugs with Furutech FI-E38s, all in rhodium, as I’ll need more sockets. MK aren’t what they were and I’m in France now anyway so the second ps will come with an EU spec Powerline with a FI-E38(R) on the end.
Initial listening first 30 mins — better control , more depth , more body , wider presentation , very quiet ,vocals are more defined, more refine , better decay . Better separation
And some said it’s bright in the forum , it’s not bright at all … it’s very balance