wads the use of the coat of gold on the plug

[papaya86 0]

my grado headphone plug, the coat of gold starting to drop off liao leh, but the sound still the same, wads this coat used for? thanks

[lekguan 0]

Corrosion resistance and oxidation prevention. Should not really change the sound until the plug itself oxidise.

[Firefox 0]

I quote from Jan Meier:

"Gold plated contacts: No, gold doesn't sound better than bare copper, but it does prevent cracks and drop-outs due to oxidized contacts."

 

This is especially true for low-level signals like from the source output. In fact, the voltage fed into headphones (at reasonably loud volumes) is actually lower than that of a CDP's line-out.