Burson sent me a pair of V5i's to try out in the AD797 phono stage.
The AD797 started out as a cheap easy to build phono stage and has evolved into something that provides great performance for little cost. It centered around the AD797 op amp which is very very low noise and well suited for use with low output moving coil cartridges. The second stage uses the LME 49990 op amp after trying pretty much every other op amp out there it worked best with wide open sound stage and extracted the most detail from the grooves.
The only problem is that the LME 49990 is no longer in production, and all other op amps are a step down IMO so what to do?
Well there's a new kid on the block the Burson V5i, if I have this right it's an IC with some discreet components thrown in and comes in a little silver case, it's plug and play, no tricky soldering onto adapters like with the surface mount 49990's or AD797 BRZ's.
I flipped the lid on one of my phono stages and replaced the 49990's with the V5i's, put on Helpless by Neil Young off the Deja Vu album, immediately I noticed Neils voice was smooth as silk, then I tried Money for Nothing by Dire Straights and Mark Knoffler's guitar rifts were haunting.
Enough of this swapping out albums, now for some serious listening, I put on Journey to the Center of the Earth by Rick Wakeman. This has as much detail as you can get, and it all came through as intended, wide open sound stage with pin point precision, the way he gets some of those notes to go back and forth was mesmerizing. My wife even asked what's that, it was like hearing it for the first time.
Have I found a replacement for the LME 49990?
Let me put it this way I hope Burson don't want the V5i's back again as I've screwed the lid on the phono stage nice and tight!
The AD797 started out as a cheap easy to build phono stage and has evolved into something that provides great performance for little cost. It centered around the AD797 op amp which is very very low noise and well suited for use with low output moving coil cartridges. The second stage uses the LME 49990 op amp after trying pretty much every other op amp out there it worked best with wide open sound stage and extracted the most detail from the grooves.
The only problem is that the LME 49990 is no longer in production, and all other op amps are a step down IMO so what to do?
Well there's a new kid on the block the Burson V5i, if I have this right it's an IC with some discreet components thrown in and comes in a little silver case, it's plug and play, no tricky soldering onto adapters like with the surface mount 49990's or AD797 BRZ's.
I flipped the lid on one of my phono stages and replaced the 49990's with the V5i's, put on Helpless by Neil Young off the Deja Vu album, immediately I noticed Neils voice was smooth as silk, then I tried Money for Nothing by Dire Straights and Mark Knoffler's guitar rifts were haunting.
Enough of this swapping out albums, now for some serious listening, I put on Journey to the Center of the Earth by Rick Wakeman. This has as much detail as you can get, and it all came through as intended, wide open sound stage with pin point precision, the way he gets some of those notes to go back and forth was mesmerizing. My wife even asked what's that, it was like hearing it for the first time.
Have I found a replacement for the LME 49990?
Let me put it this way I hope Burson don't want the V5i's back again as I've screwed the lid on the phono stage nice and tight!
Hey HT, I have followed you for a while on AK and have built a few of your phono stages the last being a dual mono set-up which kicks ***. I've been wondering about those discrete ICs. Glad someone finally tried some out. Two questions. 1) Did you try them in the AD797 spots? 2) What hook up wire did you use? I ended up passing all my wires through some copper braid but that was a real PIA Your hook-up wire seems perfect.
WntrMute2
WntrMute2
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I did briefly but found they were slightly noisier than the AD797's, which has the lowest noise levels of any op amp when used in the right config so I didn't mess with them any further as I wanted to find a good replacement for the 49990's.
It's RG142 silver plated 50 ohm coax that I had and seemed like a good idea at the time.
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