NE5532 Vs Burr Brown OPA2604AP With Blind Sound Comparison

Is OP Amp swapping the key to better sound quality or a complete waste of time?

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[Douglas_Blake_]

I know Marty spent a bit of time ditching on measurements... and that's okay.

But a couple of tips from a service technician, who replaces these things as part of the job, if you don't mind...

1) The best technique when pulling a chip out of a socket is to pull straight up with a very gentle end to end wiggling motion. The socket is a friction fit, there's no lock. It might take a bit of pull but it won't bend the pins as long as you have the chip firmly locked into the extraction tool. Apply pressure to clamp the chip.

2) Take a real close look at those sockets under a magnifying glass. In the true military grade socket, those are copying, the gold inserts are shaped like a little funnel that will guide the pins into place automatically. However these imitations have a flat bottom on them. If you don't get the pins started into the bottom holes before you press down you're going to bend them and you may have one or more that are not making contact. What I do is view it through a magnifier and use the big end of a sewing pin to nudge the tips of the pins into the bottom holes first. Then I press it into place.

3) As a general precaution and because these op-amps are so cheap, I never reinsert one after pulling it out. I always use a new chip, every time.

4) Be aware that in a service scenario these chips might get replaced once in the lifetime of a device. The sockets are there to accommodate that. They are not designed to be tugged and pressed on a whole bunch of times. Since this whole "chip flipping" craze started, I've replaced more damaged sockets than chips. I replace them with true military grade sockets.

5) The op-amps in these mini-amps (V3, A07, etc.) are not providing any gain. They run at "unity gain" serving as a "phase splitter" for the balanced inputs of the TPA3255 amplifier chip. Thus any differences we notice will be truly slight and at some point not worth the price of the replacement chips. I certainly wouldn't be spending $75.00 for the discrete op-amps in this case... even $10.00 each is questionable value.

Hope this helps....

[jimmyzhang]

That’s what I swapped on my v3. More sound stage. Mids. Vocal is superior. You definitely can hear the difference.

[ruffrecords]

I ttok the test and preferred A - the 5532

[electronash]

I never had any luck with that style of IC extractor, or even the posher ones.

I found it MUCH safer and easier, to just gently pry each end of the chip with a small flat screwdriver.
Prying slightly at each end of the chip in turn, you get very used to it after a while.

Just be careful not to shove the screwdriver between the socket and the PCB. I've done that once or twice in the past. lol

[pyntzer]

I swapped to Muse 02, is less bright but with more detail. I like both. The NE5532 (stock) do a good job.

[hobbyrob]

I thought the difference was too small to hear over the internet!
It could differ depending on location, but I think it was minimal.

Friendly greetings from The Netherlands!
Rob

[merakrut]

Your op amp removal is a very good part of the video, showing HOW NOT TO DO. Maybe you should do more HOW NOT TO DO videos. 😉👍

[tweakerman]

ic op-amps are always difficult to remove & fit, great video👍

[terryclair]

In your test and as you mentioned the 2604s sounded better to me with how YouTube presents the audio. Thank you for the test but the only real test will be in each listing room with their individuals speakers. Everyone needs to take this test as a reference point and decide if the difference represented here is headed in the direction they want or go. It will be fun to try them all but I'm afraid each set of op amps will work better in different music genre.

[KajottR]

Today I replaced the pre-installed NE5532Ps in my Fosi Audio P4 preamplifier with OPA2604APs. Only one is needed. In my Fosi V3 monos, I swapped the four 5532Ps for Audiophonics OPA1642s. The cost is low, the effect is amazing. A total of €30 plus €5 shipping from France to Germany. As far as I know, the OPA2604s are no longer regularly available; Audiophonics will be able to get them again at the end of June 2025. And please don't slap me

[rich.e]

Preferred B through MacBook Air + DT 770 Pro; felt it was a bit fuller, which is more my bag but it was distorting a bit during the latter part of the first track. A wasn't too bad by any means.
About to swap a pair of Muses02 into my Fosi V3 Monos so this video was timely.

[idleprepress]

Interesting. I've read so many reviews mentioning OPA2604AP as a very good choice, with warm, but like a super detailed, wide and balanced sound. Although here I found it rather muddy, I tried to perceive it like a certain "dark" colouring, but failed cause having in fact a bit wider stage it performs som that I found pretty much every band to sound grainy and kinda overlapping, interfering each other what makes the overall sound noticeably less clear than the stock IC did. Sure, it can be my setup's sound that makes it sound like that.

[nancyblubberhead]

I could tell before you revealed it which was the 5532 and which was the 2604. I personally prefer the 2604 which has a "warmer" sound. The 5532 possibly has more defined treble, but I find it a little fatiguing to listen to after a while. I have tried many different op amps and they all have pros and cons. My current favourite is the Muses 2208 which I find very easy on the ears.

[terrykemp]

Have you thought of getting the bigger 48v power supply, to change the sound even more?

[rancosteel]

When performing A-B testing classical music with long sustain and silent passages is always a better choice like Sarabande from the film Barry Lyndon.

[charlesmoore]

Despite the. Limitations of YouTube sound quality (and the horrid recordings used),
I felt that the OPA2604 sounded a bit better. Will have to try on my own amplifier. Thanks

[reelchef]

Use a flat blad micro screw driver and pry it upwards to release . The pins stay intact.always, photograph before removal just in case.

[daryokenar]

thank you for the comparison . it`s also a matter of taste and 5532 is much more like an allrounder . the other components like room acoustics before all would have a tremendous impact on listening experience . the circuit components are also very critical for the desired sound .

[carreras]

I tried a few under $20 opamps in the V3 I could not tell much of a difference then I tried the muses02 and finally yes better sound but they cost more than the amp.

[ivolol]

That tool likely works fine, you just need to be patient and do a *lot* of wiggling. Left, right, left, right. Slowly does it, a bit at a time. I have one the same, works for me.

I thought A was better... sounded very slightly more open. I'm not sure if they were 100% level matched. But it was interesting to hear some kind of difference.

BTW if you have a tiny bit of electrical soldering skills, you can buy the SOIC-8 version (surface mount) version of these sorts of chips (2604, 1656, 1612, 2134, etc) for likely 1-5 pounds from a trusted distributor (mouser, digikey, farnell, lcsc, etc). In fact unless you buy enough of them, the biggest expense will likely be the shipping cost. Then you can solder them to a small DIP-8 adapter board for use in one of these sockets.