which sounds best silicon or germanium ?

[siliconmix]

[G7PSK]

Personaly my preference is for the germanium, I think that when set right it has a slightly less actinic sound. But my ears are a bit duff from over exposure to machinery noise over the years.

[siliconmix]

i prefer germanium too .it does sound a more complete sound

[tekfan]

I guess this is basically the same debate as is the one between transistors and vacuum tubes.

If properly designed they can all sound indistinguishable from one another.

I have studio tape recorders that use valves, germanium and silicon transistors and for the life of me I can't figure out which one is which (if they are properly adjusted of course).

[Uncle Vernon]

I like the sound of Ice Cream, it's always an appealing suggestion.

[Excavatoree]

Nice breadboard.

[Bored@Work]

Nothing beats the warmth sound of gallium arsenide.

[Short Circuit]

Oldskool breadboarding, wtf did I leave my hammer 

[Deepak]

I thought this thread was going to be about distortion.

If there's no clipping going on then they sound the same, though silicon isn't as finicky so I'd call that the winner.

If you are clipping then germanium tends to be less aggressive than silicon. If I'm using distortion I'm usually playing metal, and all of my basses are active (or active/passive in active mode) so germanium is useless to me.

[Frangible]

I like the sound of a nice old diesel.  Five cylinders or the sound is dissolute and the perturbations alkaline.

[Bored@Work]

I like the sound of a nice old diesel.  Five cylinders or the sound is dissolute and the perturbations alkaline.

But does it give the right warmth sound?

[DrGeoff]

A bit of a rubbish test.
There's no way you could tell with a mic on a video camera swinging about and a finger-in-the-air DC bias setting.
Run the same program material through both preamplifiers when they are correctly biased to their optimum operating point and record it into a DAW. Then subtract the two to reveal differences (distortion characteristics). Then if there is a difference you have something to talk about.

[Uncle Vernon]

I like the sound of a nice old diesel.  Five cylinders or the sound is dissolute and the perturbations alkaline.

But does it give the right warmth sound?

Sure does but only if correctly orientated.
Mis-aligning your diesel will result in aural colouration  from the cool shrill of inlet induction rather than the rhythmic warmth of the exhaust manifold.

I still prefer the sound of ice cream.

[IanB]

When I was a kid I had various transistor radios full of OC81 transistors, and at the time I didn't know they were special. I kind of wish I still had them, just for the nostalgia. They were real transistors, not like this modern silicon rubbish...

[vk6zgo]

A old Gardner 5 cylinder diesel in a bus,with the coins in the driver's coin tray making a musical counterpoint!
It really takes me back!
Well,I said I was as old as dirt!

[IanB]

Forget puny bus engines, you want a real diesel:



The one that heralded the death of steam on the main line and replaced it with a totally different kind of music...

[siliconmix]

A bit of a rubbish test.
There's no way you could tell with a mic on a video camera swinging about and a finger-in-the-air DC bias setting.
Run the same program material through both preamplifiers when they are correctly biased to their optimum operating point and record it into a DAW. Then subtract the two to reveal differences (distortion characteristics). Then if there is a difference you have something to talk about.

pop it up on here then drgeoff .i'd love to see it

[G7PSK]

When I was a kid I had various transistor radios full of OC81 transistors, and at the time I didn't know they were special. I kind of wish I still had them, just for the nostalgia. They were real transistors, not like this modern silicon rubbish...

I still have a supply of OC71 transistors unused as well as the transistor radios with AF115 and 117 for rf in my collection.

The Gardner 5 in line two stroke diesel sounds good but not as nice as the Commer TS2 3 cylinder with opposed pistons, and roots blower.

[dcel]

Detroit Diesel 12V149 quad turbo, dual blower at cold start-up......pure music!

But I will admit, the deltics sound really good.

on OT, I've never a/b'd the si and ge in the studio, I have an old micpre that has germanium transistors, I should check it against the neve clones that use 2n3055s. The old ge pre needs its power supply rebuilt though, and I won't get to it anytime soon....

Chris

[rsjsouza]

I don't know which sounds better... I have several Ge (AC126, AC188, OC71) and Si transistors, as well as Ge (OA95( and Si diodes, but for the life of me I can't hear any sound when I put any one of them really close to my ear... Maybe I am deaf to the sound of impure semiconductor crystals...   

[Bored@Work]

I don't know which sounds better... I have several Ge (AC126, AC188, OC71) and Si transistors, as well as Ge (OA95( and Si diodes, but for the life of me I can't hear any sound when I put any one of them really close to my ear... Maybe I am deaf to the sound of impure semiconductor crystals...   

Did you shake them the right way with respect to the earth' magnetic field?

[Uncle Vernon]

The Jury may be out on sound, but nothing in silicon matches the visual or olfactory appeal of geranium. 

[david77]

Of course, GERMANium must be the best.





Terrible pun, sorry  .

[MarkS]

Germanium sounds better because it has "German" in it and German reminds me of bratwurst. Mmmm! Bratwurst.

[Jad.z]

How about Gallium Arsenide