Radio receiver with transistors vs "semiconductors"

[TeoChristian]

Hello!
This is my first post on the forums . I don't know if it's the good sub-forum to ask and sorry for the low quality post, as I am a beginner (I very recently started to be really interested in radio broadcasting and receiving). In the past, Radio receivers used vacuum tubes, then transistors. I observed that the number of transistors was a way to compare radio receivers in the past. Some better radio receivers used to have 11 transistors for example. On the other hand professional receivers had even 100 transistors. However I saw multiple radio receivers which are saying in the specs: "Number of transistors: semiconductors present". I know transistors are a kind of semiconductors but... what are semiconductors in this case? Are they better than transistors? I can't find anything useful on the web. Thank you very much!

 

[AK9R]

Quoting from Wikipedia, "A semiconductor material has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as metallic copper, and an insulator, such as glass...Its conducting properties may be altered in useful ways by introducing impurities ("doping") into the crystal structure. When two differently doped regions exist in the same crystal, a semiconductor junction is created." These semiconductor junctions can be used to create different types of diodes and transistors. Transistors are a generic type of semiconductor. An integrated circuit might contain millions semiconductor junctions.

In the tube days, the number of tubes was often used by the marketing people to make potential buyers think the device was high quality. If it's a radio receiver, more tubes might mean more stages of amplification and mixing. As the electronics industry transitioned to transistors, some of the same, old marketing speak continued. More tubes was better, so more transistors is better, right?

But, now that many receivers use what are called "radio on a chip" integrated circuits, the number of transistors is kinda meaningless.

Rather than count tubes or transistors, it would be better to look at sensitivity and selectivity specs for the receiver. But, us consumers are too dumb to understand that. So, it's easier to brag about the number of tubes or transistors.

 

[TeoChristian]

Thank you very much for your reply! Now, I understand

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Some of those "11 transistor" radios only had 9 transistors working as transistors, the other two were used as diodes to bump up the specsmanship.