Vacuum tubes were also inefficient and fragile compared to transistors and had a limited lifetime.īell Laboratories demonstrated the first transistor on December 23, 1947. The need for a low voltage high current source to power the filaments of the tubes and high voltage for the anode potential typically required two batteries. Although portable vacuum tube radios were produced, they were typically bulky and heavy. A transistor is a semiconductor device that amplifies and acts as an electronic switch.īackground A seven-transistor Soviet Orljonok radio with the back open, showing parts.īefore the transistor was invented, radios used vacuum tubes. ![]() ![]() Beginning around 1980, however, cheap AM transistor radios were superseded initially by the boombox and the Sony Walkman, and later on by digitally-based devices with higher audio quality such as portable CD players, personal audio players, MP3 players and (eventually) by smartphones, many of which contain FM radios. The pocket size of transistor radios sparked a change in popular music listening habits, allowing people to listen to music anywhere they went. Billions of transistor radios are estimated to have been sold worldwide between the 1950s and 2012. Transistor radios are still commonly used as car radios. ![]() The mass-market success of the smaller and cheaper Sony TR-63, released in 1957, led to the transistor radio becoming the most popular electronic communication device of the 1960s and 1970s. Following the invention of the transistor in 1947-which revolutionized the field of consumer electronics by introducing small but powerful, convenient hand-held devices-the Regency TR-1 was released in 1954 becoming the first commercial transistor radio. Ward, see Transistor Radio (album).Ī classic Emerson transistor radio, circa 1958Ī transistor radio is a small portable radio receiver that uses transistor-based circuitry. This article is about an electronic device.
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