Drop in replacement for NE5532?

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Hi Mats,
Well, if you are going to use one of these super op amps and look at things closely, you're going to have to do more than use a chip regulator of any kind. You need to kill the higher frequency noise. That is where simple chip type regulators are weak.

You are absolutely correct though, the power supply may need an upgrade, depending on what the noise is like now. This is what I mean by having a look around the circuit first. In fact, a complete reroute of the PCB design may possibly be required. The PCB is often a determining factor in noise and distortion performance. Sometimes a division of circuits supplied by more than one power supply circuit can help too.

Is your head beginning to hurt yet?

-Chris
 
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Hi SoNic_real_one,
Many op amps were used to drive headphones. The 4556 was designed for that job, but has a minimum load of 150 ohms, while most headphones are lower impedance. 8 ohms is fairly common in fact. That would be why there is a resistor in series with the jack in many designs. There are finally newer op amps designed for headphone amplifier duty, or one could use a buffer inside the gain loop of an op amp as well. Discrete or integrated, it's all the same. I use a diamond buffer for headphones, driven by an op amp usually. A 5532 is fine for that.

-Chris
 
Hi SoNic_real_one,
I use a diamond buffer for headphones, driven by an op amp usually. A 5532 is fine for that.

Agree. The problem is that many "high-end" devices use directly OpAmps to drive headphones. And I understand that was the case in the above equipment.

Hoping that I will not be totally off-topic:

I was always puzzled why new designs would still use 5532 when obiously better options are avaiable today. And I came to the conclusion that it must be economics and supply politics (special agreements with certain manufacturers - true especially for japanase NJR/JRC in japanese audio products).
Also there are "old" school designers (70's) that by now got into design decision positions and go by "is not broken, don't fix it" philosophy. That makes their designs reliable, but just average in final performance. And that is OK with them, because marketing sells this days, not true audio performance.
New generation engineers (graduated past 2005) under them are also more into shiny cases and iPod docks. Apple Airstream garbage...
Where are the ones in between? Layed off probably since they where "overpaid" in comparation with the kids they hire now from scool.
 
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Hi SoNic_real_one,
There may indeed be some truth to what you are thinking there. Still, most of the people I know are examining the bleeding edges of what products become available. There is another side to this as well. The 5532 and 5534 are both good sounding op amps. If they weren't, they would not be here these days. They were a bit ahead of their time when introduced, and are still more than competent in many jobs.

To ignore a chip simply due to it's age is short sighted. Many times the performance of the chip is not the limiting factor in a design. Not only would using another, more expensive device be a waste, but one with higher slew rates and bandwidth can actually cause trouble in a production environment. In other words, real world performance may be better using one of these parts rather than something much faster. Remember, you have to look at the signal source to figure out how much noise is there to begin with. To specify a chip with much higher performance than what you need can get you fired. The performance difference between a 553x and what ever the popular chip is today may be essentially - nothing. The limiting factors existing in something else in the system.

Go ahead and pick on a 4558 or another lackluster chip that still finds use these days. The 5532 and 5534 are both capable of good performance. I do use some of today's better devices, but not when it's just more money spent. To add, I run these parts from voltages high enough to get the job done properly and no more. Why generate extra heat for nothing? You need the higher supply volts only when the program material peaks demand it, or the device performs poorly until you reach a certain "happy range".

-Chris
 
I was always would wish to know the term good/better based on specifications. like say noise is what killing the quality. op-amp A has this where as B has this noise figure. so would sound better. or say slewrate. input impedance and the ckt that needs such xyz. there could also be a factor say, the max supply for the op-amp is say +- 15v. and the B has +- 30. this factor helps it to perform better in linear region.

In short, What parameters of op amp makes it sound better over other. also , is it circuit requirement, that the other opamp needs better for performance.This kind of discussion will also help DIYers to go for direct better replacement using datasheet.
 
In my experience its bandwidth that has perhaps the highest correlation with sound quality of any datasheet number. Bear in mind that high bandwidth devices need more care and attention to layout and decoupling, so in the wrong hands a wide bandwidth device can actually sound worse due to instability.
 
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Joined 2002
Hi, I replace NE5532 for LME49860 ( my habit is to replace a bipolar chip for a bipolar one) with good results till now. They sounded better in all applications so they are a worthy replacement.

But I have to admit that the original Signetics 5532 are not too bad either certainly for the price they were sold for. Those are hard to beat in terms of specs/measurements too. Many of the newer opamps measure worse than NE5532.


NJM4558/4565/4580 are the real bad news in opamps ;)
 
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New NJR audio opamps

Has anyone seen the new NJR audio opamps ?

NJR's MUSES 01 and 02
And the newer ones MUSES 8820 and 8920 ?

Apparently some are available at Digikey.

MUSES 01 and 02 at $50 each ! :eek:

MUSES 8820 at a better $ 4.20 each !

Does one reach musical Nirvana using these chips ? :)
 
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My only surprise is that it took manufacturers so long to capitalise on audio fashion! $ 50 for a mediocre opamp is aggressive marketing indeed!
Of course, the first guy who shells out those $ 50 will immediately report how incredible high end this sounds!
But there's a bright side to this: it may finally make opamps acceptable to high end audio.
3 pins good, 8 pins better ;) !

jan