preconsonant disc preamp

As explained in greater detail in the Consonant article, the design aim for both· units was to achieve superior performance in a true home-construc-tion project. For this reason, readily available transistors have been used throughout. It may not seem `up-to-date` if a circuit doesn`t contain at least one IC, but the fact is simply that integrated circuits are either not good enough or else not readily available to the home constructor. A 7 41, for instance, make.s for a notoriously sub-standard audio design, whereas a TDA 1034N (which does offer good performance) is any-thing but readily available - in fact, it is doubtful whether many of our readers had even heard of it before reading this issue! On the other hand, the BC I 09C and its relatives (BC 249C, BC 549C etc., see the TUP /TUN list elsewhere in this issue) is available all over Europe -and, for those of our American and Canadian readers who have remarked that a code number like BC I 09 reminds them of a jet aircraft, almost any high-quality low-noise Silicon transistor will perform equally well in these circuits.