i will second the notion of the opa1612 being audibly superior to the ne5532 its a huge difference my daughter who patiently sat through almost 2 hours o bling listening tests on 3 upgraded cd players a nad 546bee with foil film coupling caps and 50 volt 100uf muse bipolar and wima fkp3 .022uf film foil were only caps in audio path she picked the opa1612 from ne5532 the opa1656 and lm4562she thought the 1656 and lm4562 were ok she noticed the ne5532 as the worst and tried to trick her but it was to no avail the opa1612 in low voltage scenario like a cd player or preamp performs like no other the bass is full and tightly controlled the upper register is crystal clear the mids are clean and seperation of soundstage is most accurate of any i have heard . You know its good when music becomes so transparent that you feel as if the musicians were actually there thats best way to describe great audio and you have to have ALL OF YOUR EQUIPMENT UPGRADED IF ANY WEAK LINK IN SOUNDPATH EXISTS IT WILL SHOW IN THE REPRODUCTION AMP SPEAKER CROSSOVERS SPEAKER CABLE CAPACITOR TYPES OPAMPS IN AMPS AND CD PLAYER STREAMER ECT........ ALL OF IT IS IMPORTANT TAKE YOUR TIME STUDY ALL YOU CAN FOLLOW ADVICE OF KNOWN EXPERTS AND SAMPLE DIFFERENT COMPONENTS THERE IS NEVER JUST 1 SOLUTION AND WE ALL HAVE DIFFERENT TASTES IN THE END ITS UP TO THE LISTENER BUT I WILL BET NO ONE WOULD SAY OPA1612 IS BAD CHOICE .KEEP IMPROVING AND ENJOY THE RESULT
check out
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/opa828-opa2828-vs-opa627.400109/
there are upload any interesting measurements.
And my comment in post #79
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/opa828-opa2828-vs-opa627.400109/
there are upload any interesting measurements.
And my comment in post #79
check out post #81+84 under
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/opa828-opa2828-vs-opa627.400109/page-5#post-7482994
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/opa828-opa2828-vs-opa627.400109/page-5#post-7482994
Hello,
Sorry, or you're welcome, for necromancing this thread. Interesting reads, I am about to start a opamp upgrade on 2 components and wanted some opinions (those are still easily elicited in the audo community ? : )
1. Melior Museatex bitstream DAC. It has a pair of 8-pin AD845 op-amps for each channel.
2. Wiim Pro Plus streamer. It has a se5534 for analog output in each channel.
... Fire away please ! What would you put in these ? No opamp is crazy expensive so something priced like sparkos / staccato / Muse / Burson is fine if that is what would get the best result. This is a present to myself, more or less, so I'll spend the money.
Thanks
W
Sorry, or you're welcome, for necromancing this thread. Interesting reads, I am about to start a opamp upgrade on 2 components and wanted some opinions (those are still easily elicited in the audo community ? : )
1. Melior Museatex bitstream DAC. It has a pair of 8-pin AD845 op-amps for each channel.
2. Wiim Pro Plus streamer. It has a se5534 for analog output in each channel.
... Fire away please ! What would you put in these ? No opamp is crazy expensive so something priced like sparkos / staccato / Muse / Burson is fine if that is what would get the best result. This is a present to myself, more or less, so I'll spend the money.
Thanks
W
Try a TPA6120A2 as an “opamp”. It’s a Class AB headphone chip amp that can drive 750mA from +/-15v rails. The slew rate is something else at 1300V/usec. Pretty decent distortion figures and clean neutral sound. There isn’t a line level load this cannot drive.
https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tpa6120a2.pdf?ts=1706681333542
That’s a non traditional opamp, but if I had to pick one…
It’s OPA1642.
https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tpa6120a2.pdf?ts=1706681333542
That’s a non traditional opamp, but if I had to pick one…
It’s OPA1642.
Well its not an operational amplifier is it? An opamp has to approximate infinite input impedance to be used for "operations" like Sallen/Key filters, integrators etc.
What I'm not trying to do is get a better measurement. I'm not a person who believes THD numbers are what we're interested in I like vinyl and tubes. I'm just trying to make my digital side sound a little more like music and a little less like a recreation of music. Toward that end others have praised burson and sparkos opamps and some of the ones you have mentioned, even in place of the 5532 and the other device I mentioned in my DAC.
I have tested my SE/Balanced to SE and Balanced buffer (BTSB panel mount) with NE5532, OPA1642, OPA1656, and LM4562. I had multiple ones built and did not test A/B but one at a time with known test tracks. So my own personal preference based on listening tests. Here are three of the boards. In all cases, the balanced output was provided by OPA1637. Input and SE output was provided by opamp under test.
OK, understood. If not going for performance and only "sound" you will have to listen for yourself. No point in other people giving you recommendations from a technical point of view. You can gather a list of opamps to try out. A "ranking" which one to try first, probably not
I'd still go for top performers, others have pointed them out, the whole TI range of 16XX is probably well suited if you replace a bipolar with a bipolar, a (j)fet input with a (j)fet input (current noise and input resistance will vary wildy between the two, so much as you might get noise or DC offset problems otherwise). Other than that, get it rolling
Thank you gentleman.
By power supply if you mean literally the source the powers coming from (rather than something internal) Yes, I have found that a 5v battery pack improves the sound. It takes a little bit of the glare off of the upper mids and treble. There's an interesting USB cable out there, which is the power cable for my streamer, that has a small supercapacitor in line. I'm going to get it .
I didn't mean to say that technicalities or measurements are completely out obviously something that measures like crap probably sounds like crap but what I mean is some people get into splitting how many zeros are after the decimal point and I'm not as worried about that. As I said, I really like tubes and vinyl and R2R ladder DACs. But I also have some Delta sigma DACs that are really sharp and clean and measure like they fell from the heavens and I like that smooth sound too sometimes especially for classical and jazz
So, all in all, thanks so far and please keep the recommendations coming. I'm thinking 1611 or 1656 so far from what you guys are saying
By power supply if you mean literally the source the powers coming from (rather than something internal) Yes, I have found that a 5v battery pack improves the sound. It takes a little bit of the glare off of the upper mids and treble. There's an interesting USB cable out there, which is the power cable for my streamer, that has a small supercapacitor in line. I'm going to get it .
I didn't mean to say that technicalities or measurements are completely out obviously something that measures like crap probably sounds like crap but what I mean is some people get into splitting how many zeros are after the decimal point and I'm not as worried about that. As I said, I really like tubes and vinyl and R2R ladder DACs. But I also have some Delta sigma DACs that are really sharp and clean and measure like they fell from the heavens and I like that smooth sound too sometimes especially for classical and jazz
So, all in all, thanks so far and please keep the recommendations coming. I'm thinking 1611 or 1656 so far from what you guys are saying
Meant internal and "external". Battery power supply will probably eliminate some common mode crap fed through linear and ac/dc smpus. So a step in the right direction. Especially when not using differential wiring between your components.
But I also meant power regulators. But won't take this too far, a bit off topic. Helpful nontheless. Give it a try and report...
But I also meant power regulators. But won't take this too far, a bit off topic. Helpful nontheless. Give it a try and report...
TFive,
Thanks for your response and for mentioning that. I don't know much about power regulators but I basically know that is one of the things they do when they charge you twice as much for the next model up and a line. They remove some of the Band-Aids that they have to throw on the cheaper model by maintaining tighter tolerances as the circuit goes along. If I wanted to look into that... I know a good tech What would I tell him to check for or where can I educate myself ?
Thanks for your response and for mentioning that. I don't know much about power regulators but I basically know that is one of the things they do when they charge you twice as much for the next model up and a line. They remove some of the Band-Aids that they have to throw on the cheaper model by maintaining tighter tolerances as the circuit goes along. If I wanted to look into that... I know a good tech What would I tell him to check for or where can I educate myself ?