Are germanium and silicon transistors considered low quality

[gnugear]

I'm talking about the old mullards, and the silicons like the BC108

[LP Hovercraft]

Old Mullards have the reputation of being very high quality for a germanium transistor.  Search "OC44" on this site and you will see it is highly sought after.   I have never used a BC109, though and couldn't tell you.

[putrefusion]

Old Mullards have the reputation of being very high quality for a germanium transistor.  Search "OC44" on this site and you will see it is highly sought after.   I have never used a BC109, though and couldn't tell you.

you have one of the best monikers I've ever seen  :lol:

[LP Hovercraft]

Thanks for the props, brougham!!  If I knew what town you lived in, The Hovercraft, with Poseidon in tow, would show up there with filter Cap discharge to ground tools for your tube amps so you can quit licking them!!  Man, yous guys do things the ouchy-deadly way!!!  Back on topic-There are few bad transistors, just bad in the way that they are wrongly substituted in applications for certain circuits.  Some folks here get a little overly substitution happy.  2N3904 for ANY NPN application.  2N3906 for any PNP, Etc...   Sometimes that works, but sometimes you're really missing out in terms of gain and noise performance per stage.  There really are other variables such as gain and leakage (See RG's notes on Geofex about GE transistor leakage testing) and matching that are quite important too and will determine the performance of the transistor in relation to the rest of the circuit.  If a circuit calls for a certain transistor, then try your best to get the spec'd transistor through Smallbear, Digikey, Mouser, or your favorite or random supplier.  No need to beat yourself up over it if you can't get exactly what is spec'd.  Germaniums are so rare these days that a closely gained device that is non-leaky is quite recommended for substitution.  I personally have enjoyed as close as possible to the real deal.  Half assed approximations have always sounded not as good, as far as what I have made.