Jango Fett II

I'm kind of new to this kind of stuff so If this is a dumb question I'm sorry. I'm planning on buying a 27" Sony Trinitron television in the next few months and was wondering which was better for the best quality possible on a DVD, S-video, or component cable. I play my DVD's through my PS2 so I'm also wondering which is better for video game quality also. Another question is how much better are the gold plated monster cables.

joshd2012

The PS2 isn't prog scan, so I don't know how much better a movie would look by using component video. As for the Monster cable question, there is a heated debate on this forum as to weither Monster Cable is worth the money. I say, yes, there is a difference. Weither or not you will see a difference depends on your TV and your personal viewing habits. If you plan on using the PS2 as your primary DVD player, I say go for it.

Brian Shannon

Best possible on a DVD would be a set of component cables.

You would need to identify the TV to see what it will accept.

Gold plated anything has nothing to do with quality, gold is used because it does not oxidize.

Sn0

Well component is your best bet but you have to make sure your TV accepts COMPONENT and NOT COMPOSITE, if it really is composite then the s-video is a better solution. Also IMHO there is no need to buy the monster cables you can buy the radio shack cables or even the other line of cables Best Buy sells and you will never notice the difference except in your wallet.

joshd2012

Also, gold is a good conductor.

X

Please only state things as facts if they are facts! As Brian Shannon said, gold is used because it does not oxidize.

"Silver has the highest electrical conductivity of all metals. In fact, silver defines conductivity - all other metals are compared against it. On a scale of 0 to 100, silver ranks 100, with copper at 97 and gold at 76."

"Incidentally, gold is often used for electrical contacts not because it is the best electrical conductor but because it is perhaps the least chemically reactive of metals. Metal oxides and sulfides (the tarnish on copper and silver) are insulators and disrupt electrical connections."

See http://www.amm.com/index2.htm?/ref/conduct.HTM for the conductivity tables.

joshd2012

The only thing I said is that Gold is a good conductor. I didn't say it was the best. It is true that gold is a good conductor, as you have shown in your quote. What you failed to mention is that other commonly used metals rate below Gold, which would make it a good conductor as compared to other materials. The fact that Gold is least chemically reactive was not disputed, but the fact that it is also a good conductor is true. These two properties of gold are why it is used.

Another fact that you left out is that those numbers are for the pure metal, and not the alloy. As i'm sure you know, the pure metal is never used, but rather combined with other metals in order to add to the strength and make it more cost effective. Now that these metals are combined, and no longer in there pure state, their conductivity numbers are even closer together, and the advantage of using silver over gold (as far as conduction goes) becomes substantially less.

I don't know what your definition of "fact" is, but that seems to be a fact to me.

Sn0

Actually in the most expensive cables pure silver or pure copper in an oxygen free environment are used.

joshd2012

Well, considering that we are talking about gold plated connectors and the fact that we do have to deal with all this oxygen in our environment, I thought that this fact was irrelevant to the post.

X

That's always the problem.

I guess the reason gold is used is because it's an inferior conductor to silver and copper but it costs a lot more. That really helps the justification for those expensive (and therefore better) cables. But that's not one of the most important factors that they tout as being the advantage of using their expensive cables, is it?

And gold plating, as used on most cable ends, is pure gold. The plating process insures that. Now you can alloy gold with other elements and form an end out of the solid material, but I don't think we usually see cables spec'ed as 18 or 20 karat. However I have seen ones that say they're some esoteric combination of gold and silver. Why the gold? Because it does not oxidize. And that's the only reason.

joshd2012

As you said yourself, Silver and Copper tarnish, which is why they are not usually used on end connectors. The next metal after those two is Gold. Gold is not as conductive as Silver or Copper but, for metals which do not tarnish, Gold is the one of highest conductivity. It is the most conductive of non-tarnishing metals.

Gold plating is not always 24K (pure gold). There are some cheeper gold plated cables which are less than 24K.

X

Let's just refer to the original post that started this discussion. That was the answer then, and is still the answer now.

joshd2012

Jango Fett II...

Gold does improve quality. It is non-oxidizing which means that the metal will not be tarnished nearly as much as other metals. Tarnishing disrupts electrical connections (as X noted). As the link provided by X shows, Gold is a good conductor (as I originally said and the link confirms). When dealing with electricity, conductivity is a good attribute. Gold is not only used for it's non-oxidizing characteristics, but also its high conductivity.

The gold plated monster cables you refer to will be better than the cables issued by Sony with your PS2. If you want optimal perfomance from your PS2, monster cable is the way to go.