The "Best" Opamp - Opine Please

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What are the newer ones I should be looking at that are compatible in place of the the TL072 types?

It has been awhile since I've delved into the opamp side of things. Suffice to say, my last high-end opamp reference would be to the Analog Devices AD712 series.

I'll appreciate the info.

speaker
 
my opine is u should learn to search!

many threads here already discuss op amp replacement in some depth

for more sources try google on combinations of
doug self, jon risch, tangent, tangentsoft and op amp, + substitute, upgrade , replacement, rolling...

you'll easily find more opinions that anyone might care to read

to address the issue of diffuse, low information content, repetitive posting the forum has added the "did you search" checkbox - SEARCH 1st
 
..some people also love 741... :clown:

No honestly speaking I was often using the NE5534
Cheap and OK...
When working with high values of resistor I typical used
TL072...
And when I had some money, then the LT1037or OP37....
Long time back .
:rolleyes:

One year back I had look to more modern types, which I never
tried. But their data sheets look promising:
OPA 2111
OPA 2132 (single) / OPA 2134 (dual)
AD 826 (quite fast, unity gain 50MHz)
AD 829 (fxxx high unity gain of 120MHz)
AD8510 (single) / AD 8512 (dual) / AD 8513 (quad)
AD 8033 (single) / 8034 (dual) (nice alrounder, unity gain 40MHz, but be careful with supply voltage==> not more than +/-12V)
AD 8065 / 8066 , promising trade off between speed & low noise

Have fun
Markus
 
I would consider the AD-8610 and OPA-627 at the "high end", OPA-604 as a "middling", and the OPA-2134 (et. al.) at the "low end". All will be superior to the ubiquitous veteran TL072. (as for PMA's comments, I was a µA748 fan as an undergraduate in the early 70s)

The highly-regarded Odyssey Tempest preamp uses OPA-604 buffers and NE-5534s in its output stage (European friends, this is the Symphonic Line RG-11 board in an American package).

The bottom line is to acquire several of each and conduct your own sonic evaluations. I'm still working on the headphone amp(s) that will facilitate such.
 
jcx said:
my opine is u should learn to search!

many threads here already discuss op amp replacement in some depth

for more sources try google on combinations of
doug self, jon risch, tangent, tangentsoft and op amp, + substitute, upgrade , replacement, rolling...

you'll easily find more opinions that anyone might care to read

to address the issue of diffuse, low information content, repetitive posting the forum has added the "did you search" checkbox - SEARCH 1st


More whine than opine from thine.

:bawling:

Prior search effected, results collected & more info duly requested.

Many thanks for everyone else's contribution.

speaker
 
There is no single best op-amp as there are far too many conflicting variables. There are many possible good choices depending on which factors are the most important for the application: Distortion; bandwidth; supply voltage range; noise; power; package; offset; cost etc.

I think OPA627 is widely regarded as the best audio op-amp generally. Certainly the specs are excellent and it's very stable, it's just rather expensive. NE5534 is a good low-cost choice, although the bipolar input stage can be a disadvantage.

I would stay away from OPA604 (and 2604). Although the datasheet makes it look very promising, having gone thorough a lot of them over the last few years (bought a huge tube of them - bad choice) I have increasingly come to see that they are really no better than average at best. D. Self also comes to this conclusion via his distortion measurements.
 
perhaps you care to explain what "value" you are deriving from laundry lists of devices without even the minimum notation of fet vs bipolar front end? - particularly when you seed the discussion with fet input devices? - no noise requirement? - you start with 3-4 MHz GBW devices: is your app going to have stability issues with 20-40-100 MHz devices? Need unity gain comp? Driving C load? …

without any context a "Best" part request is closer to a troll than a valid forum discussion topic

ps: sorry Evil, I was 1 min late, but I kinda was feeling Speaker should be encouraged to search for himself, (I did give self as a non-obvious search term) Or at least clarify the app context to make it possible to give meaningful advice

if we teach a fish to troll, can he lead us to water?
 
jcx said:
...but I kinda was feeling Speaker should be encouraged to search for himself...
I agree with that; it can become very repetitive when newcomers post the same few questions at regular intervals, but on the other hand, as a newcomer it can be a daunting task to sort through ten squillion search results stuffed full of conflicting, obscure, incomplete information buried beneath a ton of completely unrelated material, most of which is posts telling the original poster to search. I also think it worthwhile to linkify as much as possible, since having to search for a dozen different items from a post is time consuming when it would only take a second to turn them into links in the first place.
 
jcx said:
without any context a "Best" part request is closer to a troll than a valid forum discussion topic

ps: sorry Evil, I was 1 min late, but I kinda was feeling Speaker should be encouraged to search for himself, (I did give self as a non-obvious search term) Or at least clarify the app context to make it possible to give meaningful advice

if we teach a fish to troll, can he lead us to water?


I am sorry my request triggered you. "Best" seemed a valid way to state it and it did derive down to a couple of choices in a minimum of posts. I agree with you that "best" is fraught with bad connotations but I was not asking for the "Best" AC or speaker cable opinion. Did I search? Yes, and I found bits & pieces of what I needed after ~45 minutes or so. Certainly the whole picture could have been gotten if I spent more time and I would probably have learned far more too. I wouldn't call your post exactly encouragement to do that however.

speaker
 
The one and only
Joined 2001
Paid Member
Mr Evil said:
I would stay away from OPA604 (and 2604). Although the datasheet makes it look very promising, having gone thorough a lot of them over the last few years (bought a huge tube of them - bad choice) I have increasingly come to see that they are really no better than average at best. D. Self also comes to this conclusion via his distortion measurements.

I played with the 2604's and the first thing I ran into was
marginal stability at low gain settings, that is to say they
oscillated when your back was turned. Of course this seems
to be true of a lot of op amps, and so we tend to want to throw
away some feedback to be certain of their behaviour.
 
I find the OPA2604 to be a big improvement over the LF353/TL072 types.

Self says it measures poor? So what, its 50dB better than the LF/TL mentioned.

I still like the NE5532, especially for the $0.50 they go for, Self does too, just based on measurements.

The AD823 gets good press from some people I trust (James Bongiorno for one), on my 'try' list.
 
djk said:
I find the OPA2604 to be a big improvement over the LF353/TL072 types.

Self says it measures poor? So what, its 50dB better than the LF/TL mentioned...
It's not just measured distortion that makes it poor; it's really not very good in any respect. I'm not talking measurements either, but practical experience. I have constructed circuits where its behaviour is simply atrocious, going way beyond just a few dB of extra distortion, such as a current-feedback amp I was testing which when using an OPA604 gave terrible distortions, both clearly audible and visible on the 'scope, yet even a lowly LF351 worked perfectly and almost every other op-amp I tried too.
 
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