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Do I need to be wary of connector ends that have a gold color but are actually just brass pins? I know there are industrial cables built this way, but I don't know if there are PC cables built this way.

Thanks

Yes. If there's no gold, it won't be a connector end.

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My grades are my own opinion and not an official grade from Boardsort

In reality bare brass in electronics connectors are quite rare. Rare enough I wouldn’t worry myself over it.

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Wile it is rare its not unheard of in audio equipment. My rule of thumb if its not audio retailed its likely gold, if its audio retailed take a closer look. I found brass being used in cheap "gold plated" RCA and TRS jacks more than once. normally you can tell by the tint, gold brass

I’m with you but a lot of that stuff is still technically gold plated.
I deal with pm and have the supplies so I line them up and scratch test them with 8K acid blend.
Gold is good and brass goes in 3-brass recovery.

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true but I found a lot of it is brass to, more is gold plated by far but I came past enough brass audio stuff being pass off as gold plated that I always take a closer look before chucking it in the connector end pile, better safe then sorry after all.