5534 audio amp

[panson_hk]

Is 5534 still a good choice for audio amp (pre-amp) design?

[AndrewT]

Hi,
yes the 5534 (5532-dual) is still good for audio pre.
It is cheap and can be compensated for 0db gain although it then loses some of it's speed.
There are many that can outperform it in at least some parameters but as far as I know all of them are more expensive.

[peranders]

It works pretty good and if you consider how much it costs, you will get much hifi for the money but if money issn't an issue why don't you try a something newer, maybe some JFET opamp like OPA134 or many others in the segment of 10-30 V/us slewrate.

[klitgt]

Wonderful question!!

in DK there is a discussion going on regarding the bipolar NE5534 versus FET based opamps. BTW NE5532 is not a dual 5543. 5532 is unity gain stable, 5534 is stable at a gain of 3 or more + other minor differences.
If possible you should use 2 x NE5534A (one for each channel) and not one NE5532 (½ per channel) for audio. The A grade is specially made for audio.

Now to the war between people who love and those who hate NE5534.

Lovers say NE5534 is much more musical than FETs.
The opposite point of view is that FETs are less grainy, especially in the high octaves, and therefore "sound better".

My own opinion is based on the AD825 (FET) versus NE5534.
The AD825 is perhaps more easy to listen to. On the other hand the NE5534 is more dynamic with better punch in the bass and up in the mids.

But if you are willing to pay, the OPA627 is the best of 2 worlds.

It is still woth considering that one of the most rewarded brands of poweramps, the Gamut, uses NE5534A in the balanced input stage to convert it to unbalanced before the signal goes into the following stages of the amp.

Kind Regrds!

[Joseph0]

Is it a bad idea to replace the NE5532 with it's 8 V/us slew rate with the AD825 with it's 140 V/us slew rate, or does it matter more what the op-amp is being used for?

what does 8 V/us slew rate even mean?

[peranders]

V/us indicates some suitability for the task.

1 V/us like uA741, LM324

5-20 V/us

-> kV/us Warning! May be hard to get working properly in a given design.

[peranders]

Originally posted by klitgt
Lovers say NE5534 is much more musical than FETs.
The opposite point of view is that FETs are less grainy, especially in the high octaves, and therefore "sound better".

If you really want to compare, each opamp type must work under optimal condtions and this isn't the case, very often. You don't really compare the opamp itself rather where it is.

[Original Burnedfingers]

5532's and 5534's hummm.

Well, these op amps have been the stable in most commercial equipment since the dawn of their existance. These have worked very well with minimum problems. Would their be an advantage to using something else? Looks like that would be more of a matter of personal taste or that hidden something that tells you that a piece that costs 10 times more is really worth the extra money.

To answer the question (Is 5534 still a good choice for audio amp (pre-amp) design?)

In my opinion, yes either the 5532 or 5534

[jaycee]

Where would OPA2134 come in all of this?

[peranders]

How do you mean?