state of the art relays

[till]

What about switching signals with discrete Transistors? Does anyone know a good cicuit to do so?

we know its possible but only few know how.

Is sound quality better than with normal relays?

i doubt.

 

[jan.didden]

Pickering in the UK have very good relays with Ruthenium-sputtered contacts specially for very low level switching. They are reasonably priced and sell small quantities by CC. I have used them with excellent results.

For instance, type 101 or 100 :

http://www.pickeringrelay.com/sil.htm#sil100

Jan Didden

 

[BrianL]

The Pickerings look interesting, but reliability is not good
in my experience. However, the mercury-wetted ones
that are supposedly useable in any orientation are interesting.

But, in general:

Friends don't let friends use Pickering relays

 

[The Peasant]

I have a few of these large mercury relays; Durakool general purpose ac load type. They are rated at 30 amps for anything up to 277 volts and 20 amps at 480 volts. They consist of a solenoid plunger that gets pulled down into a pool of mercury when energised, causing the mercury level to rise and short out the contacts. I would think that this would give you a fairly fast relay, but I have not yet tested them.

So how well would these work for speaker protection relays, or does anyone have experience with other large mercury relays in this application? Good enough for high-end? Could I gain sound quality by replacing speaker fuses with these and a DC sensing circuit? (Yeah, I know, try it and see!)

Thanks for any suggestions!

Take care,
Doug