"Don Pearce" wrote in message
...

You can safely ignore the stuff from downunder. Switching transistors
are just as linear as any other kind. What makes them good for
switching is that when you turn them on fully they drop less voltage
across the collector and emitter.

My undergraduate engineering circuits class challenge project was for teams
to build as good of a RIAA preamp as could be built with 2N404A transistors.
The prof forgot to limit how many transistors could be used, so I used two
Darlington pairs per gain block, full loop feedback. There was a RIAA preamp
followed by a line level amp with a gain control in-between. It easily
outperformed just about anything commercial in the day for both noise and
distortion. Note that the 2N404A was a dirt cheap switching transistor.