HERESY! General and redundant info on opamp testing within..

ok so I had some spare channels for the console laying around.. normal sort of circuits with 5532s, tl082 and tl084 parts peppered in the various sections, about 12 ICs in all. I usually use the OPA2134 parts in the channels and have a few pairs with opa627s and ad825s. I used to have opa2604s in some channels but really ended up disliking them.

So i thought it would be fun to try an ALL 5532(signetics) channel as see what I came up with. I broke out the bag of nichicon KZ MUSE caps and went to town. I recapped and reamped until the beast was complete.

and I must say that I like the signetics 5532 over the opa2134. :shock:

the top end isn't as crunchy and the mids are a little more smooth but still open. the low mids aren't as pronounced which is great because I always had to cut the 200-600 region pretty heavy and now I don't.

It's interesting what we see as ideal and how different parts can sound totally different in the same circuit.

All my coupling caps are socketed as well as the opamps so I will try some PWs and HEs next and see if the Muse caps are really all that much better. but they were really only a few dollars more to buy them by the 100s than the HEs which was a shock.

Which Nichicon Muse did you use??

I'd be curious to hear your results when the caps are the same in both sets of channels...

Justin.

I used the top model, the KZ.

they are REALLY large for their value. a comparable HE series is HALF the size of the KZ series. :shock:

I just bought a bunch of Phillips ne5532 because i couldn't find the original Signetics anywhere. I'll try to compare those and see.