Vintage Transistors

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#64
The old PNP germaniums a were used as Class A amplifiers in the late 1950s transistor AM radios in automobiles. Not because the were great or because Class A was great but, instead, because it was cheap, and a lot easier and more reliable than the tube amps they replaced (imagine how long a filament in a tube would last in an old-time car with bad roads and low-tech suspension and plenty of engine vibration.

They are not going to sound amazing, but they might make a unique sound for a low wattage guitar amp. I would at least set up a breadboard to see how it sounds - or if it even works after all these years.
 
#66
Young guys may think old things had crappy sound

Not real.... we had beautifull sound in the past...now a days we have a lot of bad sound devices around.... so much or more than we had in the past.

Human ears are the same.... 50 years ago or today...live music also the same..so...old folks knows what is a good sound...maybe young folks have never listened to a live orchestra...some of them do not know what is this.

Listen a recording made with a cheap digital camera.... a Germanium amplifier playing from 1968....old thing, old capacitors (young guys goes replacing all them and fast) and with wonderfull sound.

how audio (could have) sounded on 14 may 1968 - YouTube

regards,

Carlos
 
#67
Any have any info on the very old Honeywell power transistors Circa about 1957?
I have a friend that has about 30 or so of the H5 types.
The number he gave me is H5B5D2.

He was thinking about building an amplifier with these and I suggest a classic transformer driven Class AB/B or something may be the easiest design to do.
He was thinking about using four of them per amplifier.

Any info at all would be Great!! 😉

Cheers !!

jer 🙂
 
#68
When I was an Aprentice Test Engineer in 1967at Weymouth Radio (Weyrads), I was told by the Chief Engineer that Germanium Transistors had a shelf/useful life of 25years. Silicon had no such shelf life.
What happens is the Germanium gradually gets leakier and leakier until the gain or Hfe returns to 1.
 
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#69
Hmmmmm....Very interesting I will tell my friends this.

I asked him to check the hfe if he could and he will get back with me later on this.

I told him to expect a rather low hfe from what little data I could find if it even pertain's to this family of devices.

jer 🙂
 
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