Thomas McGahee wrote:

> Have you considered using a Direct Coupled Compound (DCC) arrangement?
> This has the gain advantage of a Darlington, but has only one forward
> diode drop (Vbe drop).

  I'm not sure it was the *input* bias (effective Vbe) that was
concerning the original poster.  More likely the effective Vcesat, which
is identical to a darlington and consists of the Vcesat of the input
transistor *plus* the Vbe of the second.

> A DCC has gain = Beta1*Beta2.

  Virtually identical to a darlington of course, where it is
Beta1*(Beta2+1).

--
  Cheers,
        Paul B.