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Re: RG you out there? about Germanium leakage

5/8/2004 5:14 PM

R.G.

Re: RG you out there? about Germanium leakage Sorry about the low "good" rate. But it is in line with my experience.     quote: "Q: what effect does the leakage have on the sound? is it just a matter of eating up current (bad battery life) or does the leakage cause crappy sound, or hiss, or what?"   High leakage is often, but not always caused by surface contamination of the semiconductor die. This form of leakage is particularly hissy. High leakage is usually, but not always associated with easy thermal runaway. Lastly, leakage makes it hard to bias a device so that the power supply is not all eaten up in bias voltages, not signal.     There isn't anything that says you can't have good sound from a high leakage device, but it gets much chancier, so chancy that I would not recommend it. The real answer is to put in sockets and try them. If you like the result, great! But you have a back up if they turn out bad.