Does the quality of the spades matter

Pure copper

The AQ site says that AudioQuest spade terminations are available in a choice of thin gold plating (thin for complete protection with minimal distortion), or with thick silver plating for maximum performance. On their high end speaker wire (Type 6 and above), AQ offers Silver-plated #P-8 spades as standard (over thick LGC copper).

Which spades would be preferred: Gold or Silver plated P-8's?

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.