Glass Optical Cable on Deals page...

[Dman33]

Okay, so I am in the market for an optical cable and all... and these look nice but I have a question about it... My understanding was that this was optical so why would anyone care if it has gold plated connectors? I mean, there is nothing to conduct, right?

Glass optical cables, 3 meters, with gold plated plugs...

Call me stupid, but I did not know that this was something to look for. Anyone know what this helps with? I was gonna buy some regular optical cables this week.... Thanks!

[NullUnit2000]

Adds to the "Bling Bling" factor.

[PrObLy]

Originally posted by NullUnit2000
Adds to the "Bling Bling" factor.

Yep, that's about it as far as I know also. You're right, it's an optical (light) signal so the gold connections really don't do anything but help with marketing to the masses, or if you just want the gold look. If someone knows otherwise, please correct me, but I think that's the case.....if it were a digital coax cable, that would be a different story.

[angel357]

So they can charge more O_O

[tupacboy]

so you can wear it for dates... holla!

[Kevster]

Fiber connectors are typically plastic or ceramic (ceramic are a bit more). I couldn't find out from the cable spec what type of glass it is, but from the price it is most likely just plain old 62.5/125 multimode cable with different terminations and a much thicker cable jacket to avoid excessive bending. Why are they gold? Probably just a marketing ploy.

[vnnydapooh]

They are probably gold for the bling. But more importantly, optical cables usually have plastic ends. Having a metal end makes it "last longer." But it defeats the purpose becuase the optical plug on your dv/av component for the most part has a plastic port. So your optical port will likely get loose because of the metal plug. I can see it helping if both were metal. But having one metal will likely do more harm than good.