Gold plating, why?

[AndrewM]

Maybe someone where will know the reason for this, but why do companies like to gold plate connectors and everything else under the sun?  Is it strictly a corrosion avoidance thing or do people actually think it is the "be all" of conductors?  Silver would seem like a much better metal to use for electrical connections.

Ppphew.  I feel much better getting that off my chest.

[airman00]

Although silver has better conductivity then gold, gold has some unique properties:

Gold does not form oxides or sulfides, so it has greater longevity. It is used for sensitive electronic devices for this reason, and the reason that gold does not migrate into the device's semiconducting material

however,many companies just plate it gold because , hey  it sounds better. Which sounds like a better part , a copper breakaway header or a gold breakaway header?

[maverick monk]

i know for a fact that gold plated audio connectors rock! they are awsome, and as said, other metals oxidize, i use gold connectors in all my dc, high current projects

[GHF]

i know for a fact that gold plated audio connectors rock! they are awsome, and as said, other metals oxidize, i use gold connectors in all my dc, high current projects

Yup.

Ever turned a headphone plug in a headphone jack and heard static? That's the non-conducting parts of your connector caused by corrosion... not conducting. However, gold plated audio connectors don't have that problem. Believe it or not, a silver plated connector would conduct less current, just because silver would tarnish quickly.

BTW, I do use 22AWG silver-plated, teflon-insulated wire for breadboard jumpers, just because they look good and are incredibly nice to use. I can't really describe it. That said, the silver plating is probably for high frequency stuff because of the skin effect

[Brandon121233]

Gold relatively speaking does not tarnish (get a nonconducting oxide layer on the outside) where as silver readily does.