Before the advent of LEDs every tv used ultrasonic remote controls, so no rocket science is required for 30 yeard old aplication. At that time 741 was considered not lousy. actualy if you see further back some 20 years ago, man was on the moon using their lousy rockets and lousiest computers. A 2 transistor audio preamplifier stage like used for head signal amplification can provide a lot of gain. If technic is not right, Discovery with latest technology can fall back on the head. Tech says just leave those 555s and 741s but i find no problem with them. I get 23 741s for one $.