Does the quality of the spades matter

I think it was the great Enid Lumley, who after extensive listening tests gave pure copper the final nod. Edson Price used to make and market those in excellent quality. But then I am no expert in "metallurgy" and I would think, that the result would also depend on what material the metal in your binding posts is. I reckon gold on gold, or silver on silver, copper on copper would give the best results but have never really tested that hypothesis for myself in any serious fashion. Copper on copper works best for me, the only drag is, that it needs to be cleaned quite often. Cheers,

I think the only reason gold is used for plating is that it oxidizes less readily than the other metals. I haven't done any listening tests myself, but I think that using any form of plating that is of a different metal than the spade itself would have some effect on the signal. I'm interested to see what others think as well.

My Snell XA-90's have gold plated posts...before I get gold plated spades, anyone else got any thoughts?

Gold is the least conductive of your three choices Silver 1 copper 2 gold 3

I used Rat Shack gold and cut them off the next day. They destroyed the sound. I'm sure there is alot better. but I'll stick with bare wire and Caig for now.