Why the popularity of germanium transistors in audio, better than silicon?

elukam wrote:

As an electronics student, I had professors who would lower their grade for the phrase "high frequency" These were the real giants of electronics, all-knowing, no longer alive. Out of respect for them, I try to keep the "good school" alive.

And this explains it all.
Engineering and academic or scientific studies talked about high frequency somewhere up to the 1950s. That's from my observations, because older documents say so.
In contrast, the term high frequency has prevailed for years, which rather germanium transistors in today's sense of high rather not apply.
In the book "Modern Toys" - as I remember there were projects on TG5, TG70-72, as some amplifier I tried to build, did not work but my knowledge was bland. Anyway, apparently from this book hardly anything worked

A little more w.h. development can be found on: high frequency
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/3465...iwosci_rozwoj_oraz_przeglad_stosowanych_metod
https://artem.zgora.pl/?mod=62
https://produkty-wykrywalne.pl/pl/p/Znak-z-PC...gnetyczne-wielkiej-czestotliwosci-ZOO-32/1965
https://sip.lex.pl/akty-prawne/dzu-dziennik-u...aszyn-i-urzadzen-wytwarzajacych-pole-16785183

The market needs a new impulse. In 2010 Lampizator was founded, a company whose owner is not familiar with transistor technology, but claims that if transistors played better he would make transistors. Interesting.
"I don't know anything about transistor technology, and comparing what I do with what these transistor experts do in their own way, I find that we are not doing so badly, so I don't feel the need to switch to transistors. If transistors played better, I would certainly do transistors. "
https://www.infoaudio.pl/artykul/185,lampizator-pokazuje-swoje-tajemnice
Now some specialist who knows nothing about tubes will probably create a Germanisator company and declare that their products play best and half-deaf audiophiles will throw themselves at the new equipment.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that at the age of 40 many people's hearing reaches 12 kilohertz and the older they get, the worse it gets. If anyone has any doubts, I suggest getting themselves tested with an audiometer.

Jawi_P wrote:

"Modern toys" - as I recall there were projects on the TG5, TG70-72, as I tried to build some amplifier, it didn't work but my knowledge was bland. Anyway, apparently hardly anything from that book worked

My amplifier from this Wojciechowski book did not work either

I am 54 years old, when I was building a headphone amplifier in pandemic on a TPA6120, I connected the generator and tested, also on headphones, it turned out that on one ear, which I used to have inflammation I can only hear up to 10kHz, on the other a little better, up to 12kHz, but in my opinion not the audible bandwidth is the most important.
The most important thing is the interaction between the amplifier and the speaker (loudspeaker) in question, along the way we still have the crossover. Imagine a section of a piece of music where there is a foot strike on the drums followed by a few ms of silence, for example One Metallica, it is obvious to me that each power amplifier design (transistor A, AB, D or tube) will sound slightly different due to different damping, inhibition of the woofer diaphragm vibrations. This is no audiovoodoo, but pure physics, we have a measurable parameter Damping factor, worse with its real translation into sound

...file do not distinguish the signal flowing through the banana from the ...fil cable. Scientifically proven. M

I think defining the band we hear has nothing to do with the condition of the hearing.
On my periodic tests in the cabin I achieve very good results, probably even 16kHz and high sensitivity. So what if in the full spectrum with all harmonics I hear poorly. If someone speaks to me in noise, I can't hear what they are saying. And a colleague barely passes the cabin and he hears better in noise.

The measurement in the cabin translates poorly into our audibility, in my opinion.

An audiophile I knew was a professor from the Adam Mickiewicz University, 70 years old, a very sincere man, he had no golden cables, he had an old amplifier without water features. I once had a conversation with him about this. He said that he could hear the double bass player's breathing, but that he had poor results in the audio booth on the test, but in music he was able to pick out sounds inaudible to others, even at the expense of becoming desensitised to the music itself. I think it's not about bandwidth at all here. Besides, how many instruments or vocalists produce sounds above 12kHz.

Let's remember that branded expensive audiophile equipment, is characterised by more than just sound.
They often had:
-very good linear power supplies, well filtered, zero inverters and cheap filters, transformers also of special construction and quality.
-Low-noise components.
-Paired transistor pairs, etc.
-Decent connectors.
-They were usually Class A, if transistorised.
-Decent construction, well thought out for cooling without any fans.
-Good quality potentiometers, often set far away from the knobs on the board and driven by clutches or long axles.

All this had an impact on the price and class of the equipment, as well as the quality of the sound.

saly wrote:

If someone speaks to me in noise, noise then I can't hear what they are saying. And a colleague barely passes the cabin and he can hear better in the noise.

I also noticed this effect a long time ago when I was on an apprenticeship at a technical college. I wondered why we youngsters (we were teenagers) had trouble understanding the workers (on a sizable workshop with lots of running machinery) and they didn't. I came to the conclusion that, paradoxically, it was the fault of our much better hearing. We could hear all sounds, including those that drowned out speech, and the old workers had dulled hearing (especially the high notes), which acted as a filter that eliminated a lot of the noise.

Hearing is the result of many factors and ultimately takes place in the brain.
I would not underestimate hearing tests, however, such tests need to be able to be carried out. If the staff can't do it, and they usually do, the result will be the same as having your eyes tested by a poor optician.
Hearing quality is not only about L-P symmetry and not only about the edge of the band. The entire audible bandwidth is heavily wavy. Someone may have a lot of "holes" around the telephone range and the noise will bother them and they will not hear people clearly. Someone else may be deaf above 7kHz but will hear speech perfectly. Also precisely because his brain does not get to process information above 7kHz.
Older people are often hard of hearing and ordinary conversation with them is a torture, but any rumbling or similar noises they hear very well and are very disturbed by.

When it comes to listening sound quality on speakers, the room is the most important thing. This is not talked about, it is an inconvenient FACT. Because the room people usually can't change, they are doomed to what they have and strenuously try to fool themselves that it can be jumped over. It can't.
If the room is poor, it is possible to achieve some effect with complex measures, but you have to practically sacrifice the room, to subordinate it to listening. And on top of that, the listening experience will only be tolerable and in a small area.
If you already have a good room, inexpensive, decent 3-way or, preferably, 4-way loudspeakers will suffice, and the rest is a trifle, as it is of minimal importance. This means, of course, that it cannot be absolute junk, but ordinary brand equipment of the popular class is completely sufficient.
But how is this pill to be swallowed by audiophiles who are trying to achieve listening pleasure in a 16m2 room? It's better to let it go straight away and instead of spending money in vain, buy good all-round headphones.

Jawi_P wrote:

In the book "Modern Toys" - as I remember there were projects on the TG5, TG70-72, as I tried to build some amplifier, it didn't work but my knowledge was bland. Anyway, supposedly from this book hardly anything worked

The word "supposedly" in the second sentence is completely redundant. forty-five years ago I was also fascinated by this book, There is one statement there by the Author which I remember to this day, that this book may one day be a collection of topics to be developed. In fact, for that it is quite well suited. And then there's the fact that the Author massively "used" the then unobtainable ASY34-37 and the equally fabulous BF504-506. The latter even got a special mention in "Radio Amateur and Shortwave", that if they did make it to the shop they were nightmarishly priced and their usefulness with beta < 10 (measured) was basically nil. Maybe they were some kind of production run-off (that's why they found their way into the shop), and better copies made their way into the industry, but the fact is that they disappeared from the catalogues pretty quickly.

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elukam wrote:

instead of spending money in vain buy good round-ear headphones

Valuable advice, and literally so, because a really good headphone amplifier will be much cheaper than a very good amplifier driving speakers. Also in operation. And the environment will be happy too

marweg1967 wrote:

And then there's the fact that the Author massively "used" the then unobtainable ASY34-37 and the equally fabulous BF504-506.

I have also read this book, but only as a curiosity to use it anymore, I am quite a bit too young.
I wonder if the author built prototypes of his ideas at all, or just based on theory. Maybe he had access to better (foreign?) transistors and just substituted domestic ones in the descriptions?

Apparently the fashion for new distortion is returning. Tube amplifiers produce even harmonics, which are indeed very acceptable and pleasant. Now the fashion is back for odd harmonics and TIM, which amplifiers based on germanium transistors produce in abundance.
Enjoy listening.

Of 'Modern Toys', the introduction captivated me the most and stayed in my memory. In a short story, the author describes how it happened that he became a radio amateur in the first place. It was very true and worked strongly on my imagination. Unless I twisted something and it was elsewhere.
The book was particularly educational. If one was first captivated by it and then not discouraged by it, it was already clear that one was initially suitable

elukam wrote:

Hearing is the result of many factors and ultimately takes place in the brain.

This is acutely true. I have a significant hearing loss (audiogram drama) and problems understanding human speech. Any noise makes it worse.
I started using hearing aids and unfortunately I still can't understand what is being said, even though I can hear. I started digging into why this was and it turned out that the reason was that I had 'unlearned' these sounds. Everything I hear now sounds different to when it was truncated from the bandwidth affected by the hearing loss. My technician claims that I wore the hearing aids too late. Now here's an interesting fact:
in combustion engines I can hear everything. This is because I can't hear background noises and my brain has picked up on this perfectly and learned to recognise it. I have a friend after an accident who has an audiogram worse than I do. My jaw dropped when, in one song, he was disturbed by the creaking of the boards in a scene and it turned out that they were indeed creaking and he was the only one who heard it.
I believe that due to a variety of factors, someone may legitimately prefer a worse/different sound than from a perfect amplifier.

The key word is MODA. Later an ideology is added.
It is the same with MiniDisc players - neither any particular quality nor practicality. And yet aftermarket prices go up and up and up.

Because such a kind of pyramid scheme. Like, for example, retro computers for just a Voodoo 5 you can buy a rtx 5700

Exactly. And it should be remembered that often on vintage audio forums etc, there is a large number of traders hawking under the guise of enthusiasts who create demand for themselves.

James596 wrote:

The key word is MODA. Later an ideology is added.

Of course it is. Half of the obscenely expensive things are rubbish.Some people will buy just because they are expensive and recognisable.Functionality,the actual need and the cost-effectiveness of the purchase comes down to how you can flaunt yourself - let them be jealous.

CHCl3 wrote:

I wonder if the author built prototypes of his ideas at all, or just based on theory.

A small part he probably actually built, I bet robotics, car equipment or model controls. The rest is rather fanciful, like the mention of induction cookers somewhere in the beginning. In the days when an ordinary gas cooker from Wronki was sold, for example, with an obstructed gas pipe to connect to the plumbing in the flat (the use of a drill helped) Anyway, you can tell by the greater complexity and the descriptions of the schematics and practical tips. Remote control of models, I guess, was his passion, because he also committed a book on building radio-controlled models. Unfortunately, I never had it in my hands. He also wrote a book called 'Electronics for Everyone' and in those days this was a valuable item for beginner hobbyists. Somewhat amusingly, I first read it when I was a student, having borrowed it from the departmental library.

elukam wrote:

The book was particularly educational. If someone was first captivated by it and then not discouraged by it, it was already clear that it was initially suitable

Oooo that's me. But that's because I probably didn't understand much of it

The author later evolved from electronics and flying models to just flying.
https://nakanapie.pl/autorzy/janusz-wojciechowski

By the way, I was wondering what happened to him. He is probably dead by now, given that his books appeared in the early 1960s. A search for information on the net covers the results relating to a certain politician of the same name.

puchalak wrote:

By the way, I was wondering what happened to him.

ChatGPT:
There is virtually no reliable, up-to-date information about what Janusz Wojciechowski - author of cult books such as Electronics for Everyone and Modern Toys - does today. The web is mostly filled with archival references to the books themselves, auctions and reminiscences by amateur electronics engineers.

It seems that:

was active mainly in the 1960s-70s,
published by WKiŁ,
strongly influenced generations of Polish electronics hobbyists,
but later disappeared from public life and the trade media.

It was not possible to find:

contemporary interviews,
information about his professional activities,
obituary,
official biography,
nor traces of internet activity.

In the old electronics community, his books still have legendary status - especially for their practical approach and 'home cybernetics' vibe. Forums like Elektroda regularly feature reminiscences from people who started out in electronics with these books.

m2606 wrote:

There is virtually no reliable, up-to-date information on what Janusz Wojciechowski does today ...

In all probability he is not occupied with anything today because he is dead. The first editions of Toys are from 1962, I think, but to have written such a book, one must have already had a lot of experience.
There is no trace of it on the internet.

puchalak wrote:

There is no trace of him on the internet.

Pity. Even as a child I was delighted with the book "Toys" (Russian edition) and years later, while studying at the Catholic University of Lublin, I used to go to the library to read "Toys" already in Polish. I have not come across this book in antiquarian bookshops either. Although I have quite a few books from Poland, even editions from 1949 onwards. But they are rather linguistics, philosophy etc.

Added after 11 [minutes]:

puchalak wrote:

There is no trace of it on the internet.

Pity. Even as a child I was delighted with the book "Toys" (Russian edition) and years later, while studying at the Catholic University of Lublin, I used to go to the library to read "Toys" already in Polish. I have not come across this book in antiquarian bookshops either. Although I have quite a few books from Poland, even editions from 1949 onwards. But they are rather linguistics, philosophy etc.

andreyatakum wrote:

From the microphone. Set up a studio to play and sing, sell recordings to audiophiles.... pure analogue sound. It doesn't matter if you can play and sing, that's another matter. The most important thing is analogue sound!

Yes it would be best, but I will say that you can even record from some high bitrate uncompressed files and it sounds nice afterwards too. I sometimes record myself cassettes of some tracks I like to listen to, and even though it's from digital, you can still hear the analogue intrusion of the decks.

But it has long been proven that the so-called "wires", i.e. amplifiers that have minimal distortion, play correctly, but add nothing to themselves and are therefore not iconic. On the other hand, amplifiers that have relatively a lot of distortion sound so-called warm and pleasant.

In the past, people used to get excited about CDs and other novelties, and all sorts of cool equipment ended up in the scrap heap. Now I'd pull it all out of the dumpster. There's a shop in my neighbourhood, where a guy has a reel-to-reel player and some unknown brand of speakers.
Music is playing there quietly all the time. At home I have a good audio system, but when I come back from this shop I always have the impression that something is missing.

It's just that people have a stupidly perverse nature.
Something is poor, then they want to have a better one. When they reach the pinnacle and it becomes readily available, then they start to like again the vagaries they previously rejected.
And so it is with everything, which is why mankind has always traversed life sinuously. There is war, they dream and desire peace. There is peace for too long, they look for an excuse to cause war.
That is why the world generally stands still, only oscillating. Only a few people, who have enough oil in their heads to free themselves from this psychological whirlpool, are pushing civilisation forward slowly.
This is why I believe that nothing good comes from all this cultivation of tubes, germanium, gramophones, tape recorders and nixie. It's one thing to be nostalgic and to remember history and understand the basics of it, it's another to freak out and convince ourselves that something has been 'lost'. Apart from a bygone time that won't go back and is worth accepting, nothing has been lost. Magnetic recording can still be useful, even more so the tube technique. Germanium elements are sometimes used. But this should stay in use where and only where it works best and has indisputable advantages. It does NOT work best in audio equipment. Whoever claims otherwise is simply a caveman or a shaman of this religion.

Well there is a bit of a point in that. When there is no great effort to build a good amplifier on transistors or tubes, one looks for challenges. E.g. to make an equally good amplifier on something that makes no sense. That kind of "I can't do it"?

Rest assured - connoisseurs are not flying to the shops to swap Goldmunds for TG70 upgrades, nor Sonus Fabery for Bambino speakers.
It's a figment of the minds of budget audiophiles who want something unique within their financial reach and create a legend around it.