LM4562 vs TL072 and NE5532 ..impossible ?

[ashok]

I got curious today and decided to try and see how our old friends compared against the latest and greatest (?) chip.

The chips were put into the active filter at the output of a DAC ( Zhaolu V2.5 ).
Results .
1. LM4562 -- not by a very large margin !
2. TL072 was VERY good !! Equal or better than 4562 in some respects.
3. NE5532 was VERY good in LF and midrange performance.
Voice reproduction was BEST in the NE5532 ! Unfortunately it was a bit low in the HF. Transients were still good but the HF levels seemed to be a bit rounded off.

If the NE5532 improved its HF performance it would sound the best of all these by a reasonable margin .. my opinion. Bigger margin than there was between 4562 and TL072 !
( the TL072 and NE5532 were made by TI ).

What's the best sounding TL072 and 5532 ( brand )?
Cheers.

[weissi]

hmm.... another one discovered that implemention of a opamp is more important than some of datasheet spec's... An now try that with really compareable circuits. You're mixing a "standard" opamp (NE5532) with a JFET (TL072) and a high speed device (LM...), that's not a fair comparison without adjusting the circuit to the individual ..IMHO..

[ashok]

".............that's not a fair comparison ............."

Sure , I agree with that . I have already said earlier that implementation matters a lot.

Just confirms that opamp ' rolling ' doesn't really produce any reliable results.
However I was surprised at how decent the TL072 sounded and the mid-range performance of the NE5532.

Cheers.

[tvicol]

@ashok

... and your setup, for this test, was ... ?

Regards, Tibi

[ashok]

The setup :
Pioneer DVD player > SPDIF digital out to Zhaolu V2.5 DAC > analog out to Creek 5350- II power amp > biwired to Mission 701 speakers on 2 foot sand filled stands . Speakers almost 2 meters from the rear wall and 1.5 meters from side walls.

The LP filter on the DAC appears to be similar to the one in the application note by Cirrus Logic for DAC filters. Resistors seem to be low value , below 10K I think. That would mean that all parts must be low impedance in that circuit.
I saw the Zhaolu filter circuit diagram somewhere on the Net.

Cheers.

[weissi]

Btw, my favorite Opamps are NE5532, MC33078, OPA2134 and if it really needs more I go for AD8022/8066, more power comes from AD8397. So I'm not demanding aswell... cheers

[ashok]

The NE5532 sound makes me want to do some experimentation.
It's a chip one can play around a bit ( maybe the 5534). Maybe the single version 5534 doesn't have the hf problem. Would that make it 'awesome ' ? Has anyone tried to run the output with a ccs on it ? Must try it out . I could do some experiments on my TD1541 DAC board which has single opamps on it's output !

Weissi , have you tried an AD826 ? You might find it interesting.
Cheers.

I forgot to add that the Mission 701 was converted to bi-wireable mode . The crossover was duplicated with better quality capacitors and air core inductors . The cabinet has additional stiffeners on all walls with cross pieces going from wall to wall. It improved the sound quite a bit from it's stock performance. It's not as good as a Dynaudio 52 but comes very close . It is more efficient and transients sound better ! Imaging is far better than the Dynaudio.

[Juergen Knoop]

I found the OP275 a good compromise, at least in my Philips CD, between NE5532 and TL072/OPA2134.
Maybe it would fit your taste too.
Regards
Jürgen

[ashok]

Hi Jürgen,
It's hard for me to get chips easily and so some do get left out . I will get pairs of some of those that keep getting attention .
Next chance to get some will probably be in a couple of months time.
Cheers.

[mlloyd1]

the Ne5532 dual is unity gain stable; the NE5534 single is not.
therefore, you have the option of tailoring the compensation with the NE5534. that might be of some use to you for your application.

i have also heard that versions of NE5532 and NE5534 from different suppliers perform differently.

mlloyd1