The best sounding audio integrated opamps

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leeperry

Member
Joined 2007
we'll never know the truth..Audio-GD said it was making the *old* burson chip as OEM.

Burson says they are making counterfeits:
The Audiogd opamps are counterfeits of our design. Unfortunately, many audiophiles fall for their lies because they are cheap and look “similar” to our opamps. However, like all things in life, it’s the stuff that our customers don’t see that makes a difference. Our opamps go through a very strict component selection, component matching and tuning process that ensures their quality and stability. They are covered by a life time of replacement warranty. Our opamps have near zero DC offset which is very important for music reproduction. Studios select our opamp for this very reason. Poorly built discrete opamps often have very high DC offset that can either damage the equipment immediately or over the long run.
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many chinese manufacturers like to say that they make OEM stuff...mundorf has the same problem: MUNDORF - Rumors on OEM products

all I can say if that I've A/B'ed the 3 A-GD parts against the *new* burson(it's reversed and uses different components), there's a HUGE gap between those.
 
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scott wurcer

scott wurcer

R.I.P
Joined 2004
leeperry said:
we'll never know the truth..Audio-GD said it was making the *old* burson chip as OEM.

Burson says they are making counterfeits:


many chinese manufacturers like to say that they make OEM stuff...mundorf has the same problem: MUNDORF - Rumors on OEM products

all I can say if that I've A/B'ed the 3 A-GD parts against the *new* burson(it's reversed and uses different components), there's a HUGE gap between those.
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Like I said, if you read more they willy-nilly claim one for one substitution with JFET, bi-polar, and current feedback op-amps including ones with 10x the BW.

Technical nonsense. The Audio-GD and Burson schematics show fairly mundane circuits, the output cascodes in particular make no sense (at least with the values I found). Aol of 45-70, you have to be kidding. I'm sure they work fine in a CD mod but general purpose they are not.
 
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ROBSCIX

Member
Joined 2004
scott wurcer said:
I figured anyone who could build post #582 could pull it off. There are any number of valid reasons that daughtering those fairly exposed cards into a CD player would be problematic vs. say a discrete IC.

I would love to listen to all these modded players.
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Nope, that card was built by another at Head-fi. Marko modded that card with modifications including:
1. The main XO ->Replaced by a Audio-GD clock
2. I/V section opamps replaced with Burson discrete opamps with mundorf Cap mods.
3. Buffer opamps replaced with a Burson discrete opamp with mundorf Cap mods.
According to him, it was disassembled and the parts were sold off.
Just for sake of clarity.
 
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leeperry

Member
Joined 2007
hehe, always the same clueless whiners that speak w/o hearing the gear they diss...they only seem good at reviewing PC soundcards(that they get for free as review samples), OMG IT ROX!!!!1 ITS DA BOOOMB BUY IT NOW COZ I SAID SO...Any resemblance is purely coincidental :p

now all we need is majokel, I hope he'll honor us with his presence...he always cracks me up with his dull statements, like "burson=opa-moon" hahah, good one :D
 
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Andrea:

Banned
Joined 2009
scott wurcer said:
Like I said, if you read more they willy-nilly claim one for one substitution with JFET, bi-polar, and current feedback op-amps including ones with 10x the BW.

Technical nonsense. The Audio-GD and Burson schematics show fairly mundane circuits, the output cascodes in particular make no sense (at least with the values I found). Aol of 45-70, you have to be kidding. I'm sure they work fine in a CD mod but general purpose they are not.
Click to expand...

Interesting, thanks. I believe the open loop gain is too low, but probably it's what (or part of what) makes them good for unity gain applications like the output of a CD player or a DAC. On the other hand, my favorite opamp (LT1028) has a very high open-loop gain...


I'm curious about this Burson, as I'd like to see if it truly sounds better than my favorite from Audio-GD which was the OPA-Sun V2 (definitely not the more popular OPA-Earth). On the other hand, I'd never pay that much to satisfy my curiosity... particularly as I have had all my hundreds of opamps for free. :D
 
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Andrea:

Banned
Joined 2009
leeperry said:
yes crippled, like if I had become half deaf...like broken ears, like something's seriously missing/messed up

like "flatter" sinewaves, like some "colors" that were simply not output.

majkel said it was lacking some tonal nuances, that's another way to say it.
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I found it quite good. I'm not saying "better than an LT1028", but quite good. :)

Oh and if it was that awful, then how about the LT1364 and its monochrome sound... there's something I don't get here. Definitely the LT1364 is a worse case of lacking tonal nuances. :) And note that I still consider it a pleasant opamp, that I would prefer to quite a number of others..
 
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leeperry

Member
Joined 2007
oh yes, I cannot bear LT1364 anymore...LT1124ACN8 is better in every department, 1364 sounds grossly distorted in comparison. It does vocals really well, but all the rest sucks.

get some 1124(get them shipped to a relative if LT banned you :D), try them in the NG94..tell me what you think ;)
 
zapnspark

zapnspark

Member
Joined 2006
Andrea: and leeperry,
I started collecting some phrases/adjectives that you both use to describe the "sound" of various op-amps

bland and lifeless
nice, but flawed
fluid and grainless
tonally dull and midbass lacking
mechanic in the mids
unique sonic flavor
more dynamic
creamy and pleasing midrange smoothness
mostly transparent
untameable
mellow and warm sound
Very refined
magic sound
lifelike tonality
distorted/saturated/compressed/I don't know
artificial
surreal
natural weight to sounds
hi-fi color
euphonic sound
Colored but also a bit unresolving
in-between clinical and colored
mids... more dark and smoothed out
authentic sounding
mono-izes
meaty sounding
crippled somehow
more stereo coherent
sounds too round or too spiky
holographic stereo stage
dirty
grainless
too aseptic
trebles were metallic
dryish mids
expressive
screechy mids
shouty
laid back
metallic/thin/blurry/computer-sounding
more fluid

I had to stop there.
I developed a severe headache.
I feared that if I continued, my ears would start bleeding.
That's just my subjective experience.
;)

Cheers.

ZAP
 
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