Gold analog cables is certainly better than their cheaper counterpart because the connector is less likely to corrode and would maintain perfect contact after repeated connect/disconnect cycles. Gold HDMI cables however is complete scam.
Especially gold plated like in the meme. Solid gold isn’t really worth it, but gold plated means a thin layer of gold at the point of contact. Less corrosion at the point of contact, a better electrical connection, fewer sound issues.
The problem is when they start selling digital cables that cost 10x as much and use exotic materials. First of all, digital has error compensation built into the protocols so even if one bit gets flipped occasionally, the numbers still add up and exactly the same data gets through. Second, as long as the cable follows the standard (say HDMI) even the cheapest cable will be indistinguishable from a really expensive one.
The thing is: For most people and situations cables never corrode so badly that somebody would hear any difference.
For the ultimate bullshit factor you need gold plated digital cables.
What about these directional ethernet cables?
Just checked the cable prices as the article is from 2015.
So, the top of the line RJ45 12m cable is … 13k€
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Fool! Those cables aren’t even shielded from electromagnetic radiation! I can literally hear the cosmic background noise of the universe it’s so bad.
As an audio engineer I can confirm that shielding is more important in a cable than whether or not it has gold plated connectors. Gold plated connectors don’t really do much unless the connectors are worn down and don’t make good contact in the first place, shielding actually does something for signal to noise ratio, especially for unbalanced and/or mic level(low level signal) and/or long cables. This is really only applicable for analog stuff for the most part of course.
Not an audio engineer, but I had unshielded (thin) cables in my home speaker setup. If the cables were positioned correctly, everything was fine. Accidentally move them even a little, and there’d be a huge amount of noise, due to power cables going near the speaker cables. Switched to shielded (thick) cables, and there’s no noise ever.
