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Gold plated is good, because gold is rather chemically inert. Oxydation of steel/aluminium will cause small contact points of high resistance, that cause heat and accelerate oxydation. Rarely a problem though, and very easy to hear. One problem you might get with cables is if a long signal cable is too thick and long it can act as a capacitor and filter out a bit off the high frequencies. All in all "audiofile" grade cables are bullshit at best.

There was a website sound-westhost or something where they wrote good about a lot of audio topics. I can dig it up if you are interested and can't find it yourself.