Re: Tone Difference between Silicon & Germanium Diodes?
The threshold difference between GE and SI is more or less well know, but the GE also (IIRC) have a bit of a non-linear response to frequency, as the higher frequency breech the turn on point faster than the lower frequencies do, resulting in more high harmonics, that's around the clip point though, SI are higher in threshold and bit more in sensitive to Fc.Per a given signal level the GE will clip sooner, and more than the SI. SI also has a faster forward/reverse bias changeover, when they clip they tend to do so a bit quicker and recover a bit quicker, in a sense being *harder*. The Ge are a bit laggy in their response .The Ge has bit more even ordered harmonics than the SI, which I find odd because the ge is a bit more sensitive to high frequencies ,while the SI is a bit more balanced as to even and odd harmonics. Of course the differences become hardly noticeable under high gain, and whether or not the diodes are arranged for symmetrical or asymmetrical clipping, and the mix of diode types further alters the harmonics.
That's if memory serves correctly, at high gain I feel they have a slightly different *feel* to them, as the tonal differences become very hard to notice.
) and it's got to the point where It's a lot more time efficient to use Si.
