Audio cables - do you go for gold plated shielded etc?

[PoloMint]

I just bought a cable to connect my mp3 player to my (new) amp and speakers.

It's becoming harder and harder to buy a normal, non gold plated or heavily shielded cable nowadays, which can cost a small fortune.

I must admit that I went for one of these gold plated and shielded ones - a Phillips one from Ebay (£4) but this will retail for much more on the high street.

Anyway I unscrewed one end and the inner cables look very like those inside the plain black cables that everyone seemed to use until a few years ago, except this one is covered in wire mesh and thick plastic (making it look even thicker) and has a splash of gold on the ends.

I'm not disappointed, had I carried on using an old one I would always have wondered if a more expensive one would sound better, and I know this is a controversial topic on AV forums. As for the sound - well it sounds good, but so too might an ordinary one...

I can't help thinking this is just a trend that people are getting carried away with, with things like gold plated USB cables helping confirm my suspicion that it's all marketing hype - or am I being over sceptictal?

[mhku]

I may be wrong, isn't the plating to both prevent tarnishing to the connector (which will reduce signal quality) as well as for conductivity?

Before I made my last set of interconnects (satellite cable and silver wire) I read lots of "info" on various hifi websites and I'm sure I read that shielding isn't always a good thing (and also makes the cable stiffer). But as gold plated connectors cost only a little bit more than unplated I always by plated. But hearing a difference between cables? Not in my price range...

[TJExcalibur]

I bought 2 digital optical cables unbranded on Ebay . Can't get them to stay plugged in let alone work. A waste of money so in the end I had to buy 2 Belkin Pure AV Digital Optical Audio from Dabs. Serve me right for being tight fisted. Was going to say tight arsed but thought it gave the wrong impression.

I just bought a cable to connect my mp3 player to my (new) amp and speakers.

It's becoming harder and harder to buy a normal, non gold plated or heavily shielded cable nowadays, which can cost a small fortune.

I must admit that I went for one of these gold plated and shielded ones - a Phillips one from Ebay (£4) but this will retail for much more on the high street.

Anyway I unscrewed one end and the inner cables look very like those inside the plain black cables that everyone seemed to use until a few years ago, except this one is covered in wire mesh and thick plastic (making it look even thicker) and has a splash of gold on the ends.

I'm not disappointed, had I carried on using an old one I would always have wondered if a more expensive one would sound better, and I know this is a controversial topic on AV forums. As for the sound - well it sounds good, but so too might an ordinary one...

I can't help thinking this is just a trend that people are getting carried away with, with things like gold plated USB cables helping confirm my suspicion that it's all marketing hype - or am I being over sceptictal?

[PoloMint]

Yes mhku I think the gold plating is for that too. I'm still sceptical, but as you say it isn't much more expensive, I have a feeling a lot of people will buy them 'just in case'.

Another thing I'm going to try is bi-wiring my speakers, this seems even more controversial, but I needed to order some more cable anyway and when it arrives I should have enough to try it out.

[TJExcalibur]

Just what is bi wiring spakers. Not that i can have more cables as there is enough moans about wires going to the rear speakers. Wish i had run some speaker wire under the floor when i converted the garage into a TV room.

Yes mhku I think the gold plating is for that too. I'm still sceptical, but as you say it isn't much more expensive, I have a feeling a lot of people will buy them 'just in case'.

Another thing I'm going to try is bi-wiring my speakers, this seems even more controversial, but I needed to order some more cable anyway and when it arrives I should have enough to try it out.

[mhku]

Biwiring is when you run separate cable to the woofer and tweeter terminals on the back of the speakers. Ideally you'll need an amp(s) that can be used for biwiring although you can use a normal amp.

I heard no difference when I tried it although it's supposed to be more obvious if you bi-amp.

_http://www.davidmannaudio.com/faq/faq3.html
_http://www.soundstage.com/synergize/synergize031998.htm
_http://www.cobaltcable.com/which/speaker_connections.htm

And then there's different speaker cable and how "bright" it is....