[sdiy] Your favourite NPN General Purpose Amp transistor

[Steve Carter]

I suppose it depends to what end.  There are plenty that have higher  
frequency ratings but that's not really appropriate in synth  
applications. The European BC549B is similar in many respects to the  
2N3904 but has a slightly lower noise figure. The BC549C has a higher  
gain.  Again, without knowing what circuit application you are  
designing, it's difficult to comment much.

I'm not sure that the 2N3904 is that bad anyway - it's a pretty fast  
switcher and low enough noise for it not to be a problem in most synth  
applications.

IIABDFI

Steve

On 27 Aug 2009, at 11:24, Justin Owen wrote:

> Hey,
>
> I'm finally getting back to working on a bunch of simple transistor- 
> based projects and was wondering if anyone could suggest a decent  
> quality transistor that might serve as an 'upgrade' for the 2N3904...
>
> ...if there is such a thing.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Justin