As you are from Germany you must know better its maket and brands.Could you make a review of what was best done by the german manufacturers each decade , which brand, model, etc? Most of us , especially easterners barely know that market by its biggest manufacturers, but i know there were really many companies doing audio stuff there .If i were to look for the most interesting audio products made in Germany no matter the technology involved between 1950...2000 what should i look for?
In 2014 i had the occasion to listen two 2m tall(2/1/1 m cabinets)cabinets made in 1956 by a Siemens subsidiary or associate ( its name i think started with a K...if i remembet that well .).Those cabinets looked exactly like these ones https://www.ebay.com/itm/153455431053 had two Tannoy red 15 inch monitors and showed very simillar quality both in listening sessions and measurements to Barefoot mm27 800watts near field monitors .Originally they were active speaker cabinets being driven by 2n3055 35 watts amplifiers .As the original amps were busted we used Raimonds first Sara amplifier and its sound was simply perfect although because we kept a small back enclosure open to wire the speakers to the external amplifier the subbase region(20...50 hz) was about 3...5db less linear than than the 10k bucks fully enclosed Barefoot speakers, the rest of it being simply identical.No wonder they sell for simillar prices.Starting from there i never dared to ignore old best products.I know tannoy isn't a german product, but i had the occasion to listen to some middle range 50watts grundig Box speakers and they were pretty good to be honest despite being 4 ohms.Actually that was a bit weird about Grundig.I never saw an 8 ohm professional speaker from Grundig, but if you had the right amplifier everyone said they were pretty good.In time i learned that they were entangled with Brown somehow, Brown making some better cabinets with the same speakers or slightly higher quality ones.It's not clear to me if the drivers were made by Grundig , Brown or ITT but i know they all look alike.I know some names from west Germany like Saba, Dual, ITT Telefunken, Uher, Brown...but very little about their entangled history while i was told there were at least 20...30 other smaller german brands that didn't make it big, yet made very good or at least very interesting products like ASC or Eumig(actually this is austrian but for most of non german speaking countries is the same thing : ) who made some of the most sought for cassette decks ever.The greater mistery to me is Uher.We know it for its tape machines sold to bbc stations and countless other tv stations or secret services competing with Nagra by having better prices for an acceptable quality), but i remember having a shock once when a friend ask me to fix a 1986 Uher tv set that had three ic's and about 50 x 250mW passive components including the capacitors, same as the last crt tv sets sold in 2010...2015 under Vestel licence while Philips K40 at the same time had about 10 ic's and a few hundreds passive components yet the Uher TV was as fine as the best Phillips on the market.It's weird that such an advanced manufacturer for its time simply dissapeared.I'm pretty sure Uher had the people and knowledge to make some of the best ever audio components, but it's luck seemed to fade at some point.Grundig could have made it big too i suppose.I won't ask about Siemens because that was probably the second biggest multinational company since the 50's after Philips who made it in the 30's working with japanese and italian companies mostly for their best products selling a lot of Sanyo products at some point branded as Siemens.
I think i must have the 35 watts amplifier shematics somewhere...I'll try to find them to pick up the name.I think it was a very long name that had a technical meaning like a typical composed german word.Unfortunately i'm quite unfamiliar with german language.Tried several times to learn some, but couldn't get together for that.
What was weird is that the cabinet was stamped 1956, but 2n3055 transistors didn't exist back then...Maybe i just forgot everything and it was actually made in the 60's...or just had the original transistors changed...I should call the recording studio owner and ask him the cabinets name if he still has them.There must be a bit of interesting history there.
What was weird is that the cabinet was stamped 1956, but 2n3055 transistors didn't exist back then...Maybe i just forgot everything and it was actually made in the 60's...or just had the original transistors changed...I should call the recording studio owner and ask him the cabinets name if he still has them.There must be a bit of interesting history there.
Thanks! Interesting schematics.For some reason i'm not too fond to quasi complementary stages, not even if i can use faster silicon devices, yet i never heard one except maybe in my childhood or lm3886...actually i tell lies...i never listened to a lm3886 amp...that's really weird, isn't it?
Attention if soldering small signal and power Germaniums 
I have almost all the parts to test the circuit. It would be interesting to characterize it with modern equipment.
@ Nelson Pass and experienced in amps design Diyers
Watch Differential Amp Experiments https://m.youtube.com/c/xraytonyb/videos
Some example on the video
Any cons and pros to build Ge differential mode amplifier ?
Watch Differential Amp Experiments https://m.youtube.com/c/xraytonyb/videos
Some example on the video
Any cons and pros to build Ge differential mode amplifier ?
https://tubecad.com/
Papa is probably very busy with other things..
if somebody want quickly new more DIY projects with Germaniums
and Tokin SIT's then please guys in USA or DIY heroes contact and ask by email https://tubecad.com/
shipp a 2SB206 or other transistors samples for John Broskie future blog articles with schematics and commentaires.
Just one idea
@ Poynton and Diyers
Papa is probably very busy with other things..
if somebody want quickly new more DIY projects with Germaniums
and Tokin SIT's then please guys in USA or DIY heroes contact and ask by email https://tubecad.com/
shipp a 2SB206 or other transistors samples for John Broskie future blog articles with schematics and commentaires.
Just one idea
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Frequently Ge are PNP only, JB show autoformer coupled Mosfet amp
https://tubecad.com/2021/01/blog0525.htm"Translate" them to Ge bi-polars PNP....
https://tubecad.com/2021/01/blog0525.htm"Translate" them to Ge bi-polars PNP....
I want one of this kit for my old scope https://www.thaikits.com/index.php/measurement-testing-checker/ch-012-transistor-curve-tracer-adapter-xy-oscilloscopes-2-ranges-biasOnline Electronic Kit Store.html
Xraytonyb make interesting DIY video about this curve tracer kit , you can find on the channel.
Edit: better link https://m.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEA&search_query=xraytonyb+curve+tracer
OK is not a professional tool like TEK 576/577 but can be useful in many situations
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RE the "germanium triode" experiment mentioned sometime ago: Firstly, the linked article is not clear on how exactly they connect the DUT (for the first, "not nice" set of curves, they say "a PNP transistor gets simply used as NPN transistor", while for the triode-like curves they say "take a ... PNP Transistor, connect it simple reverse, so as NPN Transistor" :-/). I tried the various combinations, and the one where "simply" the collector and emitter are switched does indeed result in triode-like curves... for any transistor, even silicon ones, and you can easily simulate that in Spice:
(P210 is a germanium PNP, [2S]A1186 is silicon; disregard the MOSFET-related stuff - that was just a hack to make the Peak tester do voltage drive instead of current drive.)
I may be wrong (I often am :-D), but aren't these just the Vbe vs. Ic curves, offset by the base voltage source step? Meaning there's no practical triode-like behaviour as such...?
(P210 is a germanium PNP, [2S]A1186 is silicon; disregard the MOSFET-related stuff - that was just a hack to make the Peak tester do voltage drive instead of current drive.)
I may be wrong (I often am :-D), but aren't these just the Vbe vs. Ic curves, offset by the base voltage source step? Meaning there's no practical triode-like behaviour as such...?
![TotalCircuit[1].gif](/community/data/attachments/932/932648-3d3b745738ef561a2d2d43e99921f9e8.jpg)
Junk, fake components or worthwhile ?
Single Ended Germanium Headphone Amplifier:
https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/4000943925316.html for 55 euroSingle Ended Germanium Choke Load Output Amplifier:
https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/4001262370480.html for 111 euro
Honestly there is no good way to tell other than buying it and measuring the forward voltage.