i just remembered i have an oscilloscope and how awesome that is
was wondering how bad a very low quality audio cable is
no difference
@sciss gold plating is actually very very good, gold doesn't oxyde that easily so it will keep making a good connection for a long time, whereas most others will quickly get a non/badly conductive layer that you'll have to remove regularly or moving the jack slightly will make a lot of noise
but yeah the rest is mostly bullshit