When I worked at a stereo store, we had a few well-known musicians as customers and one night, a couple of teen-aged guys were ogling the equipment, making plans for the future when they could afford it (not a high-end shop). One of them commented that he wanted to get a cord with gold plugs, for his guitar. It just happened that one of the well-known musicians was there and he stepped in, saying that if they really wanted to get the full benefit of improving the connections, all of the jacks and internal wiring of everything in the signal path would need to be upgraded, too. He told them that the typical cable has nickel-plated ends, that they're scraped clean every time the plug moves in or out of the jack and that everything would be fine as long as the equipment has no inherent problems with components or solder connections.
Said musician has produced albums and singles for a wide range of musical artists in addition to the 2007 Grammy nominated Kenny Wayne Shepherd release 'Ten Days Out', including O.A.R., Von Bondies, No Doubt, Stroke 9, Foo Fighters, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, The Verve Pipe, Rusted Root, Live (Throwing Copper, Mental Jewelry), Crash Test Dummies, Poi Dog Pondering, Fine Young Cannibals, BoDeans, It's Immaterial, and Violent Femmes.
He left and the kids asked who they had been talking to- I thought they were going to pass out when I told them.
