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New Audio Op Amp - OPA1622

I was wondering what the resistors were for on these DIP8 adapted OPA1622, after some inspection it turns out to be a virtual ground for the GND pin on OPA1622. you could remove the resistors and use the through-hole provided to connect the chip to true ground... would there be any point to that?
Yes, they form a virtual ground for the ground and enable pins.
I remove two resistors at the top and put 0805 or 1206 capacitors instead (10-22uF) and add extra resistor at the bottom from 10k one to ground to form a voltage divider for soft start, 68k on +/-9V rails.

Currently have 3 of those in my DAP :)
 
> I think you're underestimating the real cost of product development.
You are telling someone with 35 years semicon equipment experience, both front- & backend ?

> Have you actually looked at the specs for the OPA1622? Or played with the evaluation kit?
Have you read post 225, 247, 255, 270, 297 ?


Cheers,
Patrick
 
Yes, they form a virtual ground for the ground and enable pins.
I remove two resistors at the top and put 0805 or 1206 capacitors instead (10-22uF) and add extra resistor at the bottom from 10k one to ground to form a voltage divider for soft start, 68k on +/-9V rails.

Currently have 3 of those in my DAP :)
good idea! so you have them connected to DAP ground now,
did you notice any change from that?

these things are great, for around $8 including opa1622, adapter, gold plated copper pins (possibly brass, they are non-magnetic at least) plus soldering that most would not be able to do at home
 
good idea! so you have them connected to DAP ground now,
did you notice any change from that?

these things are great, for around $8 including opa1622, adapter, gold plated copper pins (possibly brass, they are non-magnetic at least) plus soldering that most would not be able to do at home

Yes, they are awesome as little building blocks, I probably bought around half a dozen of these by now. And yes, connected to ground.
No, I did not notice change as I never listened to them in their "stock" configuration.
Will post photo later, although it's very guerrilla DIY ;)
 
IMG_8169.jpg

There, 3 OPA1622 in AK4497 based DAP.
 
Yes, indeed.
What is on the photo is an analogue board from Zishan DSD DAP, AK4497 based version.
Google it to get some pics and better impression of the features.

Ah so there is another board for SD card, display, controls, makes sense now.

I finished connecting a couple OPA1622 chips to ground and did some comparison to the remaining ones, its certain the voltage divider is not helping performance. I can understand now why the OPA1622 is a good choice for driving headphones directly.
 
I can understand now why the OPA1622 is a good choice for driving headphones directly.
Absolutely!


Especially low-impedance ones, high supply current + low output impedance make it one of the best in class, if not the best.


I have a pair of DIY single-BA driver IEMs, based on Knowles RAB-32257, they sound absolutely atrocious with any source where output protection resistors are utilised, but with OPA1622 they transform into very clean, even, detailed and even have decent bass.



Unfortunately manufacturers could be somewhat conservative and offer aged but tested (and sometimes cheaper) solutions, I wish there was less lag in adoption of something like OPA1622, luckily I can DIY retrofit it into designs that allow for it ;)


Thanks for OPA1622 @johnc124, much appreciated!
 
Your first assertion can easily be argued as what is acceptable noise depends on the particular application. You second assertion is stated as a truism with so substantiation; in fact many excellent audio circuits have been built with FET-input op-amps. It's not clear what you mean by "FET-based".
 
4.3 nV/√Hz at 1 kHz is very bad for an audio op amp. Moreover FET based op amps are not good for audio.

Isn't your beloved NE5532 5 nV/rtHz? And given the bias requirements of a BJT-input opamp vs FET-based, the current noise (and ultimate input referred noise) of your NE5532 is going to be much higher (for any reasonable feedback resistor).

4.3 nV/rtHz for a FET-input opamp is down near the lowest noise for a monolithic opamp. Yes, there's plenty of lower e_n BJT-input, but you have to mind your p's and q's in terms of current noise, too.