On most of the gold plated XLR's and 1/4" cables I have, the gold has worn off ... right where the contacts make contact.

Gold is supposed to add life to connectors ... but it also wipes off!

Echo 'crap'.

I think that it's super stupid to use gold plated jacks. I mean, it's aluminum/whatever and then gold, you've just added another stage of material transfer.

My point is, that having gold over silver won't improve the connectivity, maybe if it was just gold.

All that stuff is plated. Tin, silver, gold ... all over phosphor bronze or copper or steel or some alloy.

Aluminum is never used as a contact material, not even in big power mains stuff where it is more common as a conductor (wire).

Alloying, and plating both will improve the contact properties. Nothing wrong with plating.

Gold is used in RF connectors, and for good reasons.

Gold is good. But does it last longer?

This reminds me of a post I made about Best Buy and their cables.