Op amps

[Burto]

Hi.

Anyone had experience of changing op amps.

Noticed some pc sound cards have optional ugrades for these and wondered if changing could improve hifi kit.

Easy to fit and not that expensive. Also I have found on sale an adapter to enable two single op amps to replace one dual.

Any advice appreciated

 

[Vladimir]

It could improve immensly. I'd recommend checking out www.diyaudio.com forums for a good discussion with experienced and reliable tweakers.

 

[pete321]

In my experience, opamps have quite a say in how equipment sounds. All too often amplifiers, DAC's, etc. are manufactured with ultra cheap opamps, upgrading will produce noticeable improvements for relatively little outlay.

 

[eggontoast]

They can make a difference depending on where they are in the circuit, whether it's an improvement will be subjective from person to person. Just be aware that some circuits can become unstable with certain chips and start oscillating though.

 

[Overdose]

The circuit that you find the opamp in is the one that was designed for it in mind. If you change the opamp, you change the design parameters and may well mess things up. A change is not neccessarily good, but whatever that change may be, it will most certainly be a change in the distortion characteristics. That's what variations in sound character are, distortion.

 

[pete321]

I've had 2 pieces of equipment upgraded in the past by Fidelity Audio, a Yamaha Z7 amp had all the opamps replaced with LM4562's (as used in the Z11) and a Cambridge Audio DacMagic with Burson opamps. Both upgrades produced sonic improvements, the Bursons in the DacMagic took it to a new level.

Much like analogue interconnects, different opamps will give a different sonic signature, e.g. Burr Brown opa627 gives a rich sound, but at the expense of some detail, I found the LM4562 to give a more detailed sound, the Bursons gave the best of both.

I guess it all depends on what your equipment already uses, I wouldn't upgrade the manufacturer fitted JRC Muses in my current DAC as they are already highly regarded.

 

[Burto]

Have installed a pair of burr brown opa627 on a browndog adaptor a few days ago to replace a single chip in a relativly cheap wolfsen dac fom ebay.

Surprised how good they sounded and getting better as burn in.

Well worth the swap and simple plug and play 15 minutes to fit.

 

[ellisdj]

The burson opamps are supposed to very good - but expensive - there is a chinese company that looks to make simialr looking ones for a lot less.

If you are looking to upgtade an asus st or stx then the same opamps that in there but the metal capped ones are good

LME49720 something like that - there is a chap from america who sells them on Ebay = they are spot on from him

 

[TrevC]

Have installed a pair of burr brown opa627 on a browndog adaptor a few days ago to replace a single chip in a relativly cheap wolfsen dac fom ebay.

Surprised how good they sounded and getting better as burn in.

Well worth the swap and simple plug and play 15 minutes to fit.

Burn in LOL.

 

[Supreme]

upgrading op amps can make a huge difference but you have to know what you're doing. I'v had equipment extensively upgraded by a pro and the accumulative results of all the various upgraded bits have had made a massive difference to sound quality.

 

[richard38]

I think he means the veru good sounding asus essence stx heahpone and line amp to but in aan desktop and to be honest, i have never heard a better sounding hifiunit , with a standard sennheisser hd598. Maybe a 1000euro plus unit sounds better, but i'm not that stupid.

You indeed can change some opamps with that card and hole forums have hundreds pages about that old(2007), card. When it comes to replace opams in other gear , you really need the schematic to be able to replace it and maybe you have to replave three opamps.

But offcoarse can replacing opamps make the gear sound better, if you know which kind and what the purpose of that opamp is.

Lately i have to say that the manufacturers of electronics, have replaced the older opamps for newer better once, just like most other gear.

gr richard