Why are TI's chip amps (OPA549) six times the price of National's (LM38xx)?

[nick_g_evans]

This might be a dumb question, but I still find this strange that National's high quality amps are around $2 and TI's are like $12. It would make me feel bad to get samples from TI at that price.

[Nuuk]

Similar here in the UK where the LM3886T is about 6 UKP and the OPA549T is 25 UKP.

Perhaps all those samples that Texas send out have to be paid for some how!

[kinser]

Hi guys,
This might be of toppic but...
My name is David im 14 years old, here in Israel at one shop the price of an LM3886 was 60NIS ($13.3) THE OPAxxx would be cheaper to order from over seas!
Alaso the price diffrence between the $90 TO-3 packege and the $11 TO-220 (I think) its crazy!
Kinser

[kinser]

Forgot to write about which chip im talking about!
"Alaso the price diffrence between the $80 TO-3 packege and the $11 TO-220 (I think:xeye its crazy!:
Im talking abou to OPA541!
Sorry abot that
Kinser

[peranders]

The LM38xx is aimed for a consumer market and the OPA541 for a professional market and has nothing to do with performance. I think this is the simple explanation.

[carlosfm]

Originally posted by kinser
Forgot to write about which chip im talking about!
"Alaso the price diffrence between the $80 TO-3 packege and the $11 TO-220 (I think:xeye its crazy!:
Im talking abou to OPA541!
Sorry abot that
Kinser

OPA541AM.
I have some of those.
They are so cooool.

[Evilsizer]

The SQ between the two is?

[troystg]

Hey Carlos-

"They are so cooool."

Enlighten us... What are you using them for, and how do they sound compared to the LM38 75/86?

[carlosfm]

Originally posted by rabstg
Hey Carlos-

"They are so cooool."

Enlighten us... What are you using them for, and how do they sound compared to the LM38 75/86?

I'm not using them at the moment, but I have made tests.
Actually, I have two of them mounted on heatsiks (10 holes to mount each of these things ), fully assembled in P2P, inverting, gain of 22x.
I tested them with input OPA627 buffers (gain of 1), as a power amp.
The sound is different from the LMs, it's somewhat smoother.
Very good, but not up to the LMs (for my taste, of course).
BTW, bass is very good indeed.
I didn't make any more changes, but I'm quite sure that BB power op-amps need a different implementation, because of the lower bandwidth.
They would be better used at lower gains (no more than 10x), with an input gain stage.
That's a test I will make someday, when I have the time.

[paulb]

Originally posted by peranders
The LM38xx is aimed for a consumer market and the OPA541 for a professional market and has nothing to do with performance. I think this is the simple explanation.

Right. Also, the OPA came from Burr-Brown, who were a smaller company that charged more, who were bought by TI. I believe the OPA was developed before the National parts and probably costs more to fab.