Scott Huffman wrote in a message to Fane:
F> coaxial called?  Are gold plated connecters best or what?  What about the
 SH> Gold plated connectors are always best to use, if you want
 SH> to part with the  few additional dollars required to buy
 SH> them. However, the benefits of gold are vastly overrated and
 SH> the difference is very miniscule. Only reason you would need
 SH> them is if you absolutely insisted in having the very best
 SH> set-up  you can and you wanted to minimize losses,
 SH> especially on longer runs.  
The principal benefit to gold plate is immunity from corrosion.  This is 
essentially unimportant in networking, where currents are negligible.  In 
audio, for example, you might commonly pass tens of amps to a speaker, and 
corrosion would form a high-resistance spot which would heat up.
 SH> The only real governing factors with connectors which
 SH> determine loss, is the connector type itself (which for LAn
 SH> set-ups is usually fixed, but some of the old hands and pros
 SH> sometimes choose to install all new different types of
 SH> connectors in their set-up, these connectors having lower
 SH> losses than traditional types. the type of connector also
 SH> has a bearing on how much reflection you would get from the
 SH> discontinuity of the connector. Whether the  plug was gold,
 SH> nickel plated, etc.. makes little difference in terms of
 SH> reflected signals.
Connectors of proper design should not introduce impedance discontinuities.
 
-- Mike
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