germanium Preamp?

prorms · 23rd May 2006, 01:32 PM

does any one know any good germainum transistors to use
for a preamp one that dont have a high gain ?

jackinnj · 23rd May 2006, 02:01 PM

get yourself some 1N34's and you can build one (a germanium transistor) for yourself (that's how Raytheon did it).

john curl · 23rd May 2006, 05:02 PM

Sean, Germanium is interesting stuff, but it is difficult to get parts. My recommended parts would be the 2N1304 and 2N1305 by Texas Instruments. These devices are complementary N and P and were popular back in the middle 1960's. Another device that was popular was the 2N404. These parts are, of course, American, however there should be some European made germanium that you might get more easily.

coresta · 23rd May 2006, 10:01 PM

Yes , OC44 and so on that were used on Nagra III give very very good results. Most of them can be found on Ebay but for fuzz phasers

cheers

PMA · 23rd May 2006, 10:15 PM

I had been working a lot with them in their times.
103NU71, 156NU70, OC71, OC30, OC26, 2NU74, GC511/GC521, GD607/617 and many others.

My advice is - forget them. We were young, but the stuff was horrible

Cheers,
Pavel

P.S. Stone age parts. How about selenium rectifiers? Some hiend power supply?

john curl · 23rd May 2006, 10:43 PM

Germanium sounds good.

Zen Mod · 23rd May 2006, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by john curl
Germanium sounds good.

hehe
we were young .....and now we are old farts

Sir John

;

is there some interesting germanium stage to look for?

audio3000 · 24th May 2006, 01:00 AM

<quote> Germanium sounds good. </quote>

I agreed. I am now playing with a Heathkit AA-21D which uses all germanium transistors. It has a problem with one pre-amp channel. So I hooked it up directly to the input of the power amp via a passive voume control. When I first turned it on, there're some crackling sounds which faded away after some time.

The sound is unbelievely clean, tube-like, easy listening... I used a FR125 BLH.

I also remembered the good old sound of 2SB77 (hope my memory serves me right).

PMA · 24th May 2006, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by john curl
Germanium sounds good.

Narrow bandwidth, lot of noise, ageing /change of parameters/.

Of course - "ideal" building component

john curl · 24th May 2006, 07:00 AM

I have an working example of a battery powered fm radio designed more than 40 years ago with germanium transistors and it sounds very good, better than one would expect. It beats virtually every table radio that I have heard for the last 20 years. There are a few exceptions, but they are not made any more, either.

23rd May 2006, 01:32 PM	#1
prorms diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2006	germanium Preamp? does any one know any good germainum transistors to use for a preamp one that dont have a high gain ?

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23rd May 2006, 02:01 PM	#2
jackinnj diyAudio Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Llanddewi Brefi, NJ	get yourself some 1N34's and you can build one (a germanium transistor) for yourself (that's how Raytheon did it).

23rd May 2006, 05:02 PM	#3
john curl diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: berkeley ca	Sean, Germanium is interesting stuff, but it is difficult to get parts. My recommended parts would be the 2N1304 and 2N1305 by Texas Instruments. These devices are complementary N and P and were popular back in the middle 1960's. Another device that was popular was the 2N404. These parts are, of course, American, however there should be some European made germanium that you might get more easily.

23rd May 2006, 10:01 PM	#4
coresta diyAudio Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Paris	Yes , OC44 and so on that were used on Nagra III give very very good results. Most of them can be found on Ebay but for fuzz phasers cheers

23rd May 2006, 10:15 PM	#5
PMA diyAudio Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Prague, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka	I had been working a lot with them in their times. 103NU71, 156NU70, OC71, OC30, OC26, 2NU74, GC511/GC521, GD607/617 and many others. My advice is - forget them. We were young, but the stuff was horrible Cheers, Pavel P.S. Stone age parts. How about selenium rectifiers? Some hiend power supply?

23rd May 2006, 10:43 PM	#6
john curl diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: berkeley ca	Germanium sounds good.

24th May 2006, 01:00 AM	#8
audio3000 diyAudio Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Canada	<quote> Germanium sounds good. </quote> I agreed. I am now playing with a Heathkit AA-21D which uses all germanium transistors. It has a problem with one pre-amp channel. So I hooked it up directly to the input of the power amp via a passive voume control. When I first turned it on, there're some crackling sounds which faded away after some time. The sound is unbelievely clean, tube-like, easy listening... I used a FR125 BLH. I also remembered the good old sound of 2SB77 (hope my memory serves me right).

24th May 2006, 07:00 AM	#10
john curl diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: berkeley ca	I have an working example of a battery powered fm radio designed more than 40 years ago with germanium transistors and it sounds very good, better than one would expect. It beats virtually every table radio that I have heard for the last 20 years. There are a few exceptions, but they are not made any more, either.

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