When one is in the market to buy audio cables, one thing that stands out in a cable's appearance is the contact plating. Often high-end cables are made using connectors with gold plated contacts, therefore an image easily develops that gold contacts are superior to silver contacts.

The fact is, there isn't any one contact material that is superior to the rest in all applications. A quick glance at the periodic table tells us that gold has an electrical resistance of 22.14 nano ohms per meter (nΩ·m), while silver has an electrical resistance of 15.87 nΩ·m. Therefore, silver is more conductive than gold, or any other known metal for that matter.

So if silver is the most conductive metal, why not use it on every contact surface in every industry? The answer is that there are two other factors acting on contact surfaces: friction and corrosion. Because of this, contact metals have to be chosen with this in mind. The two best suited contact metals for audio equipment are silver and gold.

Properties of Gold

Gold has a natural lubricity that makes it resistant to wearing thin by high mechanical usage. It also does not oxidize under normal conditions or even corrosive substances. It has an electrical resistance almost 7 nano ohms greater than silver, which is in many applications a negligible difference.

Properties of Silver

Silver is slightly harder than gold, and slowly tarnishes from exposure to air. However, the tarnishing does not affect its electrical conductivity. It is well suited to applications where plugging and unplugging is less frequent.
Its high conductivity makes it the best suited contact metal for high-voltage applications. Therefore, it is the ideal metal for amped speaker connections.

Equalizing Both Metals

We apply Caig Labs ProGold (recently renamed to Deoxit Gold) to all connectors on our cables. This solution:

1: Lubricates the contact surface
2: Improves conductivity
3: Protects the contact surface from corrosion and oxidation
4: Lasts 1 to 10 years

Applying ProGold to both silver and gold contacts brings both metals to an almost equal state of lubrication, conductivity, and tarnish resistance.

We make most of our cables with gold connectors for the added visual aesthetic, but we also provide cables with silver connectors. Our speaker cables are always made with silver connectors due to the fact that silver conducts high voltages better than gold.