Are gold-plated scarts worth it?

maxi_isa

I need to buy several scart cables (1.5m length) for my dvd recorder/tv etc. Is it worth paying extra for gold plating?
Any views appreciated.

AMO

Yes. It's debateable though. In general, most connectors have been so mass produced that the standard connectors are often poor and when you hear crackling down the wires through your speakers its often due to poor connection.

On the other hand, these days the cables go to extreme lengths to try and achieve the best connection possible and they can get very expensive.

In general, its good to pay a few quid more for gold connections, but unless you have really expensive equipment, its not worth paying many times more for the super expensive stuff.

AMO

albertross_2

I'm going to be on the debateable side, and say no. The £60 leads are a nice little earner for comet and co.. If asda can make a profit on a 99p scart, someone is taking you for a ride trying to charge £60 or so for maybe a few bits of extra wire and gold tips.

VictorMeldew

There's a post in the Quick Grabbit while you can forum about cheap gold plated scarts from tescos - £3.94 I think.

deanos

Lidl are selling some for £4.99 , got a set from Homebase for £5.99 that lock into place so dont come loose, they are gold connected and really thick cable and the picture on my Sky box and DVD player is definately better than the cheapo £1 leads i was using

John_Gray

Does the gold plating actually do anything other than look pretty? (hard facts would be appreciated...)

John

PS gold-plated speaker leads are also spectacularly expensive, but I suspect the placebo effect, cynic that I am...

albertross_2

Gold is a good conductor.. but I also suspect placebo effects, the size of the blister pack makes all the difference to audiophiles (or is it videophiles?).

John_Gray

Most metals are good conductors! I was interested to know if gold plating made any verifiable difference to 'quality', however defined...

John

raino144

As an ex-comet salesman (! - should I have posted anonymously? lol) I know the profit margin on the 'premium' leads in about 70% of SP (ie a £70 lead cost them about £20 to buy) so there's a lot of margin in there!

Having said that the gold connectors made some difference but what you do get in the better leads is a foil shielding around the cable which stops any electrical induction from nearby appliances (TVs, DVDs etc) - cuts down on picture interference especially on channels such as Sky Sports News with text on screen!

I bought my leads from B&Q for c.£4 each and to my eye they work similarly well (albeit not on a new state of the art TV now)... they also sell USB leads etc (£15 in certain retailers? Worth 75p lol)

In short, good leads are worth having... Just obtain them the MSE way!

Woby_Tide

from what I have read on this, gold plated connections dont make a difference UNLESS you are connecting them to a gold plated scart output. Then the gold/gold connection does improve over a standard one. It is very much a placebo effect that because they are gold plated the manufacturer has to put a better quality shielded lead to justify the price hence the better picture.

maxi_isa

Many thanks to all for your very interesting and quick responses.

As I'm not too fussy about about my tv quality, as long as it's reasonably clear and does not detract from the subject matter, I'll probably go for some cheapo cables. I can always think again in the future if I feel that they are a weak link in the system.