[sdiy] Discrete Op Amps

[cheater00 cheater00]

I also very much disagree with all of Gordon's points. I'll add on top of
yours that even just a slightly modified power supply circuit can yield a
very different sound with different musical applications. I will agree
however that often people are duped into buying super expensive sound stuff
for no reason other than milking their for their FOMO (fear of missing out).

On Sun, 9 Apr 2017 14:08 Mattias Rickardsson, <mr at analogue.org> wrote:

> On 9 April 2017 at 12:45, Gordonjcp <gordonjcp at gjcp.net> wrote:
> > That doesn't really happen though.  All opamps sound pretty much the
> same.  All distortion pedals sound pretty much the same too, and it's
> really only the frequency response - which is not determined by the
> distortion "shape" - that gives it a particular tone.
>
> Quite an oversimplification. Different distortion pedals typically
> have a pre-equalisation that differs, followed by a nonlinearity of
> many kinds, followed by a post-equalization that differs.
>
> The pre/post equalizations not only shape the "tone" but affect the
> waveshape and hence the result of the chosen nonlinearity, and also
> determine parts of the dynamic behaviour.
>
> The nonlinearity (distortion shape) can vary - I can think of at least
> 5 radically different distortion constructions used in commercial
> distortion pedals, and they do give different tones and frequency
> responses.
>
> Common for successful distortion pedals is that a good combination of
> these parts are chosen, since all of them are affecting the end
> result.
>
> > Building discrete opamps to chase a particular distortion shape is the
> sort of thinking that leads to folk buying specially-imported
> hundred-dollar rocks to damp out vibrations in their mains cables.
>
> True, locally produced hundred-dollar rocks do the trick just as well. ;-P
>
> When it comes to discrete op-amps and their usefulness today, I do
> think that they can be seen primarily as a distortion device - not as
> the hi-fi component solutions they once used to be. Using them would
> require that you know what particular distortion they give you, and
> why you want it. And they could very well be a valid choice, of
> course. But today there is no big need of replacing op-amps per se, so
> introducing another known type of distortion in the signal path might
> be a much more reasonable way than staring at clumsy discrete op-amps.
> :-)
>
> /mr
>
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