Here's a nice comparison by Jay of AudioBacon of identical ZenWave PCR-14 copper ribbon power cables, with only the plugs being different. And the plugs are close to identical with the exception of gold vs rhodium plating. The electrical contacts are identical, both use Furutech's "Alpha Copper". Both use Furutech's NCF material to reduce noise. The rhodium plated plug has a carbon fiber/stainless body that does give it a slight advantage, but the gold plated plug has a high quality metal body that's significantly better vs the plastic bodied Furutech plugs.
https://audiobacon.net/2020/08/22/power-connectors-they-sound-different/I totally agree with Jay's findings. The only thing I'll add is that I think rhodium is clearer and more neutral, which is pretty obvious, but it also makes the base material more audible. For that reason I prefer rhodium only on pure copper connectors. I also think platings from different companies sound different, Furutech uses really high quality plating with good thickness and a mirror finish.
I can say from my testing that many undesirable characteristics that have been attributed to rhodium have been mistaken. It's very easy to do in this hobby! Cause and effect are not always clear. This reminds me of working on cars, it's very humbling. Nobody knows it all. If you think you do you're only setting yourself up for disappointment.
Here are a few myths:
-Rhodium sounds harsh.... it's most likely 1. the base material or 2. The additional clarity of rhodium is allowing you to hear harshness gold plating smoothed over.
-Rhodium has this hard or glassy sound to it.... That's the quality of your AC power making it's self more audible.
-Rhodium accentuates bass.... It's just that gold softens dynamics and reduces the vibrancy of bass notes.
-This is more of an observation: Some issues with rhodium stem from using it with gold plated receptacles and IEC inlets. Most often this isn't an issue but in some cases it certainly is. You're better off using FI-50 NCF plugs with matching NCF receptacles and IEC inlets, if possible.
As I progress in my own audio journey the less I want gold plated anything, I've almost eliminated it entirely.
If you need some warmth, don't use cables if you can avoid it. I can see fine-tuning an otherwise complete system, which is why I offer some cables on the warm side and why I offer the gold plated plugs. However, the most ideal situation would be to use the most neutral cable possible so you get the highest fidelity possible. This doesn't need to lead to overwhelming highs, an unpleasant and fake "HiFi" experience, or any burst eardrums.
It can also lead to a more immersive and 3-D soundstage, and more realistic and convincing timbre, better separation of images in complex music, and that elusive "Wow! " experience when you hear sounds coming from your system that sound real.
OTOH, if you just prefer a very warm system that's more than ok, and I do offer what I consider warm cables that are also very high end and lose the least amount of resolution possible in order to provide that warmth, this is the whole point of using UPOCC silver/gold alloy and ribbon vs round wire in some of my cables. Most would not prefer a round-wire pure UPOCC silver cable, which is why I don't offer one. I may offer it for phono cables as it fits that application well, but otherwise it's silver/gold wire or pure UPOCC silver ribbon wire for my top end cables.
I'd be interested to hear your experiences, let me know!
