Does anyone know which small signal op amps Blue Circle uses in their NSL Amplifiers? I am interested in the design - the designer parallels 288 small signal op amps for 28 watts - reviews say the amplifier sounds awesome ! - Unfortunately it runs around $ 19,500.00 . Has anyone out there tried to clone it or design something similar?
done it, opa amps for a headphone, but .. i have to be honest here.
it ain't that good as a concept to begin with.
its exotic, and audiophoolery is mostly what makes it so remarkable.
not even close to a hybrid amp, makes no difference if the comparism is made on hard numbers or subjective comparism.
but its sure a fun a prject to do, i have to admit thatone.
the challange is that all those opamps are not identical enough, there is allways some fight going on. the more you got in pralell, the more likely one of them will act silly, and one of them will have to carry a lot more of the load than others. surely if you paralell enough of them they sortha .. sort it out, but as the number of chips goes up, the more wires you have, and more complexity, the end result becomes less and less what we look for.
its far better to slap a more powerfull chip into the feedback loop of a trusty opamp and form a hybdrid out of it. less components, no fight going on, and the power amp ic will inherit its sound from the single chipamp that does not have to do any heavy lifting.
so it can stay "clean".
it ain't that good as a concept to begin with.
its exotic, and audiophoolery is mostly what makes it so remarkable.
not even close to a hybrid amp, makes no difference if the comparism is made on hard numbers or subjective comparism.
but its sure a fun a prject to do, i have to admit thatone.
the challange is that all those opamps are not identical enough, there is allways some fight going on. the more you got in pralell, the more likely one of them will act silly, and one of them will have to carry a lot more of the load than others. surely if you paralell enough of them they sortha .. sort it out, but as the number of chips goes up, the more wires you have, and more complexity, the end result becomes less and less what we look for.
its far better to slap a more powerfull chip into the feedback loop of a trusty opamp and form a hybdrid out of it. less components, no fight going on, and the power amp ic will inherit its sound from the single chipamp that does not have to do any heavy lifting.
so it can stay "clean".
Thank you for the input , I appreciate Any and All the input have you guys have given! In the area of DIY I am just a young thing - so your help is greatly appreciated !
I was also wondering if anyone else has heard the Blue Circle NSL Amplifiers? . . . . . a few other opinions are important to make sure I'm hearing things I think I'm hearing !
I was also wondering if anyone else has heard the Blue Circle NSL Amplifiers? . . . . . a few other opinions are important to make sure I'm hearing things I think I'm hearing !
Douglas Self once did something along those lines with the "5532 OpAmplifier", published in Elektor. 32 or somesuch NE5532s per channel.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/chip-amps/174540-doug-selfs-ne5532-power-amp-thoughts-anyone.html
288 (so 144 per channel) is quite the feat, I must admit. Still, there tend to be more economic ways of achieving the same kind of performance.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/chip-amps/174540-doug-selfs-ne5532-power-amp-thoughts-anyone.html
288 (so 144 per channel) is quite the feat, I must admit. Still, there tend to be more economic ways of achieving the same kind of performance.
Thank you for the link to the . . . "Thoughts anyone" thread, on Doug Self's 5532 OpAmplifier Amp. I will definitely read thru it. I had found and read a different thread where someone had built Doug's amplifier using the 5532 Op Amps, but from the comments on it's sound it evidently sounded good , But no where near as good as Gilbert's NSL Amplifier does !!!!
I agree that the power supply will play a major part in the final sound , but I had also read in a review on the NSL Amplifier , that different Op Amp than the 5532 was used in it's design. And I'm sure that the choosing the right op amp plays a major role in the sound as well - unfortunately the reviewer didn't say which Op Amp was used . So I had hoped others knew which one .... or had a better suggestion than the 5532s that were tried.
I agree that the power supply will play a major part in the final sound , but I had also read in a review on the NSL Amplifier , that different Op Amp than the 5532 was used in it's design. And I'm sure that the choosing the right op amp plays a major role in the sound as well - unfortunately the reviewer didn't say which Op Amp was used . So I had hoped others knew which one .... or had a better suggestion than the 5532s that were tried.
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