@jetter You may be right. I lost my link to Joe's a long time ago but have notes that I wrote down and I haven't looked at them in years. I still give gold pins a slight advantage as it stays nice and clean and does conduct better than steel. Does it make a difference? I can't really say as I've not had the same tubes in both steel and gold pin to compare. It might be a fun thing to check.
As to @slaw finding them bright in his preamp, it might be just the difference between the EAR preamp and the Cary PH301 that I used. This is why we have to make our own comparisons as every piece of gear will have it's differences. I always try to find someone who has the same piece of equipment that I have and see what they liked for tubes in theirs. Finding two exact same systems would be about impossible and why we see so many varied opinions on just what worked for each of us. Total agreement on anything is virtually impossible for many reasons.