Opamp better than OPA2604 with big soundstage, and analog like sound?

Good morning. I'm looking for opamp better than OPA2604 witch big soundstage, and "analog" like sound?

But e. g. opa627 (in dual), lt1028 (in dual), lm6172 is too much speed, and are unstable in my tube-opamp hybrid preamplifier.

Anybody know beter opamp than OPA2604 with realistic "analog" like sound and good soundstage? (Without discrete opamp).

Thanks
 
In my experience, the lower the noise the more 'air' in the soundstage so I would recommend OPA1642 its noise is way lower than OPA2604. Low noise opamps need to be used with low noise surrounding circuits though so just rolling in a lower noise opamp won't always produce improvement.

If your application circuit has low enough valued resistors, you may get even lower noise going to OPA2210. Its bipolar input though.
 
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Op-amps don't work like this.*

Soundstage is dependant on the source material, room acoustics and loudspeaker placement.

*Unless the op-amp is part of some type of tone control circuitry.
Opamp parameters certainly do affect sound stage as the latter is solely dependant upon the reproduction condition and the opamp is one that reproduces.

Crosstalk, psrr, distortion all should affect the soundstage, to name a few
 
Opamp parameters certainly do affect sound stage as the latter is solely dependant upon the reproduction condition and the opamp is one that reproduces.

Crosstalk, psrr, distortion all should affect the soundstage, to name a few

Lets take a look at the NE5532 op-amp, used in audio products everywhere since 1979 and it costs about a $1.00 :

Crosstalk - 110dB
PSRR - 80dB min, typ 100dB
Distortion - 0.004% @20KHz

The above parameters are insignificant to the audio level variations imposed by substandard audio recordings, room modes and compromised loudspeaker placements in the average home, some of these variations could be 10dB or more.

Can you explain (in engineering terms) how these op-amp parameters can contribute beyond what is experienced in someone's lounge room ?
 
I knew this arguement would come up sooner or later as it always does.

Im sided with the opinion that human ear hears more than what test equipments can express and therefore things sound different for reasons we cannot put on a graph. If thats not the case this forum would not exist and we'd be all using 5532 and nothing else.

The human ear CAN distinguish -0.004% distortion of your dear champion and -0.000035% of opa1656 so may you can start your talk there. But not with me, ive seen how these discussions usually end up 😅
 
Lets take a look at the NE5532 op-amp, used in audio products everywhere since 1979 and it costs about a $1.00 :

Crosstalk - 110dB
PSRR - 80dB min, typ 100dB
Distortion - 0.004% @20KHz

The above parameters are insignificant to the audio level variations imposed by substandard audio recordings, room modes and compromised loudspeaker placements in the average home, some of these variations could be 10dB or more.

Can you explain (in engineering terms) how these op-amp parameters can contribute beyond what is experienced in someone's lounge room ?

Indeglo

I have no argument against the NE5532 other than it's a product of it's time. I have done a bit of 'rolling' myself and found it fairly easy to improve upon them with modern devices. Some of the newer types are also very reasonably priced and in my view often (though not always) an easy swap, yielding (in my view at least) good improvements.
I was lucky enough to converse with a world leading audio designer from the U.K. where 5534's are used in some of his CD player designs of the late 80's, his view was this regarding any change.

"Changing the 5534s is the minimum. Almost everything these days sounds better !!"

I don't wish to upset anyone, we all have our favorites, it's simply what I have found.
 
The human ear CAN distinguish -0.004% distortion of your dear champion and -0.000035% of opa1656 so may you can start your talk there. But not with me, ive seen how these discussions usually end up

If we use your op-amp roller logic for a moment, how do you hear the 0.000035% distortion over and beyond the 1% distortion that a loudspeaker contributes ?

These two parameters aren't meaningful without a specified frequency. Would you fill that in?

True, in the meantime you could have read the datasheet.

I have done a bit of 'rolling' myself and found it fairly easy to improve upon them with modern devices.

If we use this "rolling" process, sure we can change the NE5532 and use a 100MHz op-amp, that's an improvement right ?
What if the circuit now oscillates because it was never designed for high speed op-amp devices. Is this still an improvement ?
 
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Indeglo.
I made no reference to specs, only the end resulting sound. These things were also confirmed by others in a small audio gathering against an unmodified unit. I'm sure that there can be unfortunate results of mismatching in some cases, but my findings have been positive. To think otherwise would infer that no advances had been made to these types of devices in over 40 years, would it not? Anyway, I have no wish to get into a heated discussion, so will leave it there.
 
If we use your op-amp roller logic for a moment, how do you hear the 0.000035% distortion over and beyond the 1% distortion that a loudspeaker contributes ?
If your speaker have 1% distortion, I think you have very bad speaker. This is xrk971 measurement of his speaker with some amplifiers: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/virtual-audition-of-very-simple-quasi-mosfet-amp.295286/

Human have response differently of harmonic profile distortion. H2 distortion usually percept as pleasing sound, etc. Distortion is not always harmonic distortion.
 
Been playing with a DSP implementation for my 2 way PC speakers.
Have tried to add distortion, and it is really difficult to hear before it's a quite large amount!
Frequency response on the other hand .... very easy to hear just 1 db difference.
As to sound stage, I have found that especially treatment of first reflections will help a lot on the sound stage. I use diffusors, as my side walls are quite close to the speakers, and using absorbers simply took out too much energy.
my 2 cent
 
In actual fact there isn't one datasheet since the part is a generic made by several vendors. So you don't have the frequencies? Or did you just forget to include them?

I quickly pulled the figure from the TI datasheet because I've got better things to do with my time than regurgitate facts and figures for op-amp rollers who can't be bothered to do it themselves.