OPamps still inferior to discrete circuits?


Do the current OPamps sound good? Are they comparable to the best "discrete OPamp" designs? If you have two identical DAC's. One DAC has world's best OPamps and the other DAC has a state of the art discrete analog section: which will sound better? Of course: the unit with the OPamps will be (much) cheaper than the one with the discrete analog section, but that's another discussion.

Chris
dazzdax

Showing 1 response by drew_eckhardt

>Yes - quality op amp packages can have outstanding performance. The only reason to use discrete components is for building output side of power amps. This is because of the high heat.

You get better thermal tracking and lower cross-over disortion with transient signals when the bias diodes are on the same die as the power transistor.

You could use the ONSEMI Thermal Traks, but parallel LM3886 or other power op amps work well and make for a decidedly clean board layout.

The Rowland Model 10 ($8K MSRP) is six LM3886s per channel.