Drop in replacement for NE5532?

Can someone tell me what a better drop in replacement for the NE5532 might be? I got a DAC kit from China for really cheap and am putting it together. It uses the NE5532 opamp for output. It has the nice plug/receptacle on tue board that the NE5532 fits into so it could be easily pulled and switched. I am fairly new to DACs and opamps but have heard there are much better opamps than this one.
Thanks for your advice!
Jeff
 
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Thoughts... its very subjective really.

The OPA2064 is definitely more musical sounding in my experience compared to many others. It was designed (as of course were others) for audio and differs in that the distortion spectrum it produces has the even harmonics predominating. Which is what the ear likes.
I suspect that its this "coloured" sound that makes it so appealing... if thats what you like.

The NE5532 should and can sound very transparent... when used correctly and in the right applications, however, I read an interesting article on the 5532 and how its bjt input stage can give rise to odd distortion products when used at the output of DAC's due to the residual HF hash causing non linearities. That might go some way to explaining its "poor" reputation for sonics when most upgrades of the 5532 are in CD players etc.

My experience of the 5534 (the single version of the 5532) in my Micromega Stage 2 player was that even the old TL071 was better sonically.
After trying these different opamps I came to the conclusion the reputation of the 5534 and 5532 was justified (the poor sonics), however my view has changed a little over the years and I find when used as just a line amplifier etc they are very transparent.

So ultimately you are going to have to try for yourself. I mentioned the TL071, well the TL072 dual is a drop in replacement too for the 5532 and well worth a try. If you like it then I would definitely try the OPA2604.
 
I recently did a series of mods to my diy Gigawork big dac and they all improved the sonics. The final mod was to swap NE5532 for LM4562 and this turns out to be the icing on the cake....no mincing words, there was an immediate improvement in all respects - dynamics, soundstaging, bass, detail, transparency. Wow moment. Not bad for a $4 part.
 
You could try NatSemi's LME49860. Their audio opamps have extraordinary performance figures and are getting a lot of attention at the moment. I ordered a couple for a friend's headphone amp and he seems impressed, I haven't tried them myself, but I shall soon.

w
 
What i found is a more or less drop in replacement for the NE5534 is the OPA227 and the somewhat faster OPA228. Both ment originally as a replacement for the OP27. They also have rather low current noise of 0.4pA/qHz. That is low for a BJT Opamp and the NE5534 was so far hard to beat in that issue. It makes it particular sutable for low noise use in somewhat higher impedance circuits like a phono MM inputs where usually Fet input Opamps are better because of lower current noise.
 
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It seems to me that the selection of what op amp to use depends greatly on the circuit they are in as well. You can't simply pick a an op amp and call it the best without defining where or in what circumstances it performs better in.

Swapping out the 5534 or 5532 without looking a little deeper isn't wise. After all, these are both ancient part numbers, and there must be a reason why they are still with us. It's not price, 'cause there are less expensive numbers to choose from. One thing's for sure though, you can do a lot worse than these old war horses. Another point to consider is what the load will be on the output, and what the compensation is compared to the actual gain in circuit. This was touched on earlier.

Another point should be made. Some attention should be given to the input technology. We now have bipolar, J-Fet and mixed (Butler or example) input stages. There are also mosfet types, but those are generally for extremely high impedance work in instrumentation.

Finally, I'm going to bet that there are several that might make people really happy. The subjective sense of sound quality depends greatly on preconceived ideas (like: there is an improvement at all to begin with). Mix some up in identical equipment and try to decipher which is which. Some devices can be identified, others will not be so easy to pick out.

-Chris
 
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Hi SoNic_real_one,
Old engineers are not always stuck on things. Otherwise you'd see more 741's and 4136's out there! Even TL072's have had their day.

Believe it or not, there are times when a 5534A brings the best performance for a dollar. That is what engineering is all about. I have seen new designs that use some of these mature parts. Don't forget that they benefit from improved technology too. A NOS 5534A probably isn't the same chip that is sold by a large semiconductor vendor today. They got better with the times, even though the base design is the same. You'll probably find them more consistent and less noisy simply due to advances in silicon processing.

Sticking in a newer op amp without considering the circuit is not the way to audio nirvana. There is no substitute for using your head and doing some research. Besides, I'm going to bet that there will be more than one part number that would perform really well.

-Chris