IMHO, plugs and wires have to be treated equal... 
Both conducts electrical signals between components andif any of the two has poor conductivity, you created a bottle neck of signal transmission that will affect or degrade the AQ....
Yeah, I remember Noel telling us (me and hte guy with the CD-17T) that he has to pay attention to what plug he uses. There won't necessarily be a "signature sound" as far as he's observed, so it's not necessarily a matter of synergy, BUT plug quality will affect the sound. He said he had someone before terminate the solder wire with (I think) Eichmann RCAs, then liked the result so much he got more solder, this time terminated with (if I remember right) the entry-level Neutrik RCAs. Sound was ocnsiderably different. As per my own experience with these neutriks, although I have not A-B'd them (nor do I plan to), the problem is that after a few months I already see some of of the outer plating off, and by that time it was a little loose, both in my car and in my home system.
This is only the entry level though, in fact I'm ordering the top RCA plug of Neutrik when I order round, 1" ribbon tweets from partsexpress. A friend had no issues with them though, so the thing is maybe its just too vulnerable to moisture. my set up was near a window, and ditto for the car's trunk given the movement. His set-up's nowhere near the windows and is 3.5m or so from the A/C.
