[sdiy] 4580 opamp

[Seb Francis]

Hi R at F (and cc to sdiy in case any info is interesting to people),


"R at F" wrote:

> Hey Seb,
>
> i guess the 4580 is far better than the 5532 and as I know much more
> expensive. I didn`t find any source yet to purchase them. But Behringer
> headquarters are near to my home and I worked for the for a while. So I had
> the chance to get them for a low price. Do you know any online store which
> sells them?

You are right that they are hard to find.  The only place I know of is Cricklewood Electronics in London (www.cricklewoodelectronics.com).  They sell the DIP version for £0.70 and the SIP for £0.90.  They take credit card orders over the phone - the P&P is £2 per order for UK, I don't think it would cost too much more to send to Germany.  They also sell a few other hard to find chips such as the CA3280.

>
> Nevertheless in most cases TL072 should do a good job for any audio
> applications.
>

>From what I have read, the NE5532 is far superior to the TL072 for audio usage.  There's quite a lot of info about the NE5532 vs TL072 here:
http://www.dself.demon.co.uk/webbop/opamp.htm

He says that the NE5532 gives lower distortion especially with higher loads, HF linearity is better, it has a lower offset voltage, and it is quieter.  Also, the phase doesn't invert like the TL072 when the common mode voltage gets too close to the supply rails (causing nasty clipping / latch up).

I've now ordered some 4580s from Cricklewood, so I will see if I can notice the difference.  The datasheet figures indicate that they are somewhat quieter than the 5532s.  I'm guessing that I probably won't notice any difference in a modular synth situation where the levels are quite high, but in a lower level application maybe I will.

Cheers,
Seb