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Objective Reviews & Commentary - An Engineer's Perspective

Op Amps: Myths & Facts
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INTRO: The op amp is a fundamental building block of

audio gear. Op amps are widely used and, not
surprisingly, they’re a popular topic among audiophiles.
So what are the myths and facts?

MYTH: MOST OP AMPS SOUND DIFFERENT -

There’s a general perception that op amps sound
different. Many gear manufactures tout op amp brands
and part numbers in their marketing literature. The $3
OPA2134 is supposed to sound much better than the
$1 NE5532 and the $10 AD8610 is supposed to sound
better still. But do they? The chip companies don’t help
the perception implying some of their op amps offer
better sound. But used properly, in a typical audio
application, I’ll challenge anyone to a listening test and
bet they won’t be able to tell the above three op amps
apart. The only catch is it would be a blind test and the
listener won’t know which op amp is which.

HISTORY: The Operational Amplifier (op amp) was invented in the 40’s. Bell Labs filed a patent in 1941 and many
consider the first practical op amp to be the vacuum tube K2-W invented in 1952 by George Philbrick. Texas
Instruments invented the integrated circuit in 1958 which paved the way for Bob Widlar at Fairchild inventing the
uA702 solid state monolithic op amp in 1963. But it wasn’t until the uA741, released in 1968, that op amps became
relatively inexpensive and started on the road to ubiquity. And they didn’t find their way into much consumer audio
gear until the late 70’s and early 80’s.

MYTH: DISCRETE IS BETTER - For audio use the op amp’s main competition is a fully discrete amplifier made out
of transistors, resistors, etc. Which is better? It turns out, for nearly all applications for which IC op amps are suitable,
they easily outperform discrete designs in the following areas:

Better Performance – It’s very difficult to match the overall performance of even the  inexpensive 5532
op amp with a discrete circuit. The discrete circuit is at a disadvantage in many areas including
component matching, bias stability, and the need to use off-the-shelf components (every “component” in
an IC op-amp can be custom tailored and optimized to its task).

Simplicity – To even come close to the performance of an IC op amp many more components are
required. You need differential pairs, multiple stages, current mirrors, constant current sources, bias
circuits, protection circuits, etc. You end up with dozens or even hundreds of components to try and
match a single dual op amp IC in a little 8 pin package.

CMRR/PSRR – Common Mode Rejection Ratio is how well an amplifier can reject unwanted noise. 
Because their internal components are so well matched it’s easy for op amps to achieve excellent CMRR
and PSRR (Power Supply Rejection Ratio) performance. This helps their real world performance in audio
applications because they can reject noise on the power supply, and inputs, much better than most any
discrete circuit.

High Open Loop Gain – Op amps typically have higher open loop gain. This allows more feedback which
in turn lowers distortion. There’s another audiophile myth high feedback is somehow bad but that’s the
topic of another article. Look up Bruno Putzeys recent article on the topic. He pretty much busts all the
feedback myths wide open with real science. He even explains how so many people got off track. Trying
to get comparable open loop gain in a discrete design typically creates challenging stability issues.

Repeatability – Op amps have tightly controlled specifications and detailed information available on their
performance. They’re typically individually tested when they’re made so you know exactly what you’re
getting. You can buy a TI 5532 today and an On Semi 5532 a year from now, and both will perform very
similarly. High performance discrete circuits often require matched or hand picked components to achieve
 their best performance. This makes them difficult to reproduce and their real world performance is more of
an unknown and sometimes requires detailed testing of each implementation (something few DIYers can
do). Discrete circuits also typically cannot hold as tight of performance over a wide temperature range.
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Massive R&D – The big semi conductor companies compete against each other for design wins. They
spend serious money trying to out perform each other and have million dollar labs full of advanced
equipment. They design the ICs right down to the properties of each transistor and have at their disposal
types of internal components that are not even available as discrete parts. It’s impossible to match all
their capabilities with a discrete design.

Built In Protection – Many op amps have at least current limiting and some also have other forms of
protection like thermal shutdown. This makes them more robust than a discrete circuit unless similar
circuitry is added to the discrete design making it even more costly and complex.

Ease Of Use – Op amps are very well characterized and typically well supported by the manufactures
with detailed specs, performance graphs, and even application notes and sometimes reference designs.
Following their guidelines usually results in predictable performance. They’re also typically easier to “glue”
together when using a proper bipolar power supply as the outputs are referenced to zero volts and can be
directly coupled to the next stage. The discrete designer is largely starting from scratch and has far more
hurdles to clear.

Lower Power – An op amp, because of all the advanced techniques available to IC designers, can
operate its output stage in Class-B with vanishingly low levels of distortion. While discrete designs are
often forced to use much more power hungry Class-A to even come close. Overall, an op amp typically
needs substantially less power than a typical discrete equivalent. This is a huge advantage for battery
powered gear or if you need lots of amplifier stages.

Lower Cost – You can get amazing performance for under a $1 with an op amp. You can’t even come
close with discrete designs. In fact, discrete designs often end up significantly compromised to limit their
cost and complexity to reasonable levels. So you end up comparing a highly optimized IC against a
compromised discrete circuit that still costs a lot more and performs worse.

DISCRETE ADVANTAGES: There are a few circumstances where discrete designs generally make sense. One is a
needing output voltages greater than about 8 V RMS. There are some high voltage op amps but the selection is
limited and they’re expensive. And the same is true if you need peak currents much over about 300 mA. There are
some high current op amps, but they can suffer from thermal issues and are also relatively expensive. Driving
speakers, for example, requires both voltages and currents that exceed these ranges. That’s why most high power
amps for speakers are discrete designs. There are also some decent “chip amps” but they’re not strictly op amps.
They also have thermal limitations and are limited to relatively modest power outputs. They also tend to have rather
invasive protection circuitry due to their thermal limitations.

FIRST GRAIN OF TRUTH: There are often grains of truth behind many audiophile myths. But, very often, those
grains no longer apply, or audiophiles apply them in ways that are entirely invalid. The early op amps, like the 741,
were rather substandard for some audio applications. They had poor slew rates and they couldn’t manage much gain
while maintaining bandwidth to 20 Khz--let alone do so with low distortion. They also couldn’t drive much of a load.
That didn’t stop some manufactures from using early op amps in 70’s and 80’s audio gear.

WAX CYLINDERS: Many audiophiles condemn op

amps based on the early examples. By that same logic,
their $10,000 vinyl turntables should also be
condemned because the Edison Wax Cylinder
phonograph was horrible. It could barely reproduce
intelligible human speech let alone do a good job with
music. Obviously, it’s not fair to judge a technology only
by the early examples. But that’s how op amps mostly
got their reputation of shame among audiophiles, and it
stuck. Op amps didn’t offer serious audio performance
at reasonable prices until the 5532 was released
around 1985—almost 20 years after the 741. And it
took several more years for the 5532 to show up in
much consumer gear. (photo: photopedia.com)

SECOND GRAIN OF TRUTH: Some op amps have

been judged in the wrong applications. The Cmoy
headphone amp is just such an example. Typical op
amps are made to drive loads of several thousand
ohms or higher. Even the more powerful ones are often
only rated down to 600 ohms. But that didn’t stop
anyone from using these same op amps to drive headphones in the 16 – 300 ohm range. And, not surprisingly, some
of them audibly complain at their mistreatment. They simply weren’t designed for such a low impedance load. If you
compare overloaded op amp A against overloaded op amp B you may hear some differences in their highly distorted
performance. But that’s only because you’re stepping on their tails and making them screech in pain.

YACA (yet another car analogy): Let’s take a Ferrari and a Lamborghini--both amazing cars with very similar
performance on the road. But instead of driving them on pavement as their manufacture’s intended, let’s hitch them
up to a plow and try to plow some corn fields. Suddenly the two very similar cars behave very differently. The
Lamborghini has all wheel drive and likely does significantly better trying to pull a plow in dirt than the 2 wheel drive
Ferrari. But so what? Who tries to plow a field with a sports car? This is analogous to misusing op amps and judging
their performance based on an application they were never designed for.

MYTH: MOST OP AMPS ARE COMPATIBLE - Op amps

are complex devices. While many have the same pin
configuration making it appear you can simply substitute
one for another, that’s often not the case. They’re
optimized for different input bias values, configurations,
gains, feedback circuits, load impedances, quiescent
currents, speeds/bandwidths, compensation values,
operating voltages, noise trade-offs, etc. But some
audiophiles can’t be bothered by, or don’t understand, all
those details. So they simply swap them out without
changing anything else in the circuit. Many have a
favorite op amp or two they like to use in most everything
without considering if it’s a good match. It’s like the old
quote “when you have only a hammer everything looks like a nail”. But that just doesn’t work for op amps. And, not
surprisingly, some op amps do better than others when you ignore their requirements.  Again, this is a lot like the
Second Grain Of Truth above. If you use a given op amp incorrectly, it may well sound different. But it’s not the op
amp’s fault. The person misusing it is creating the audible differences.

MYTH: OP AMP UPGRADES ARE USUALLY WORTHWHILE -

The forums are full of posts from people who buy some perfectly
nice piece of audio gear, open it up, discover the manufacture
used a “cheap 5532” op amp, and they promptly pop in
something much more expensive and exotic to “improve the
sound”. These are usually people who lack the test equipment to
have any idea if their op amp swaps help, hurt, or are just a
waste of money. They simply use their ears, in highly biased
sighted listening, and draw all sorts of erroneous conclusions. I
know of op amp swaps causing potentially harmful oscillation.
Someone might hear ultrasonic artifacts from the oscillation as
“newfound detail” when, in reality, they have unwittingly created
a radio transmitter. And this isn’t as rare as you might think
because of the “faster is better” mentality. (photo: photozou.jp)

YACA: Some of the car magazines have done objective tests of tire upgrades, shock upgrades, oversized wheels,
etc. When they compare say a stock BMW to the same car with one or more of the “upgrades”, the factory set up
usually posts the best overall performance, lap times, etc. While those massive 20 inch rims with ultra low profile
tires might look cool they often perform worse than what the car came with. That’s because the manufactures,
especially for performance-oriented cars, optimize the tires and suspension carefully. They understand all the trade
offs better than anyone. And the same is often true with op amps and audio gear. In their attempt to “upgrade” the
owner is often messing up a carefully engineered design and making it worse.

MYTH: GEAR COMES WITH LOUSY OP AMPS – Believe it or not, you can usually trust the bigger manufactures of
audio gear to use an op amp that’s up to getting the job done. Why? Because for one thing such op amps are
surprisingly inexpensive. So there’s little reason for a manufacture not to use an ideal op amp. For another they likely
have $50,000+ worth of test instrumentation and can precisely measure differences between op amps. They also
designed the circuit the op amp is in, so they better know what requirements matter most. But it seems a lot of
audiophiles only see an inexpensive op amp on a circuit board that needs replacing. They may not understand the
rest of the circuit, have any way to know if they’re creating new problems, etc.

OP AMP STABILITY: Stability is critical for proper op amp operation.

The gear makers tend to specify relatively stable op amps with sane
bandwidths. So they don’t have to take many precautions in their circuits
to keep such op amps happy. But when Joe Audiophile whips out his
soldering iron and replaces the factory op amp with some high strung
exotic part, what happens? The new part often requires much more
attention to PC board layout, better power supply decoupling, different
compensation, perhaps a more stable power supply, etc. In other words,
without updating the rest of design (perhaps including even the PC
board), the op amp may be at least somewhat unstable or otherwise
unhappy. And because most instability is at ultrasonic or RF frequencies,
the person doing the swap may not even know they just took a giant step
backwards. Even RMAA can’t “see” ultrasonic and RF problems.

THE EASY LIFE: Most op amps in audio gear are not used in stressful
ways. Many are simply buffers which means they don’t even have any
voltage gain. And even in something like a headphone amp, the gains
are relatively modest. And modern audio op amps are virtually never stressed for slew rate. This means the
theoretical advantages of many expensive parts are completely useless in these “easy” audio applications. It’s like
upgrading your lawnmower with a 400 horsepower V8 when the original 5 horsepower engine cuts the grass just
fine.

THE WRONG LIFE: A lot of expensive op amps, including many favored by certain audiophiles, are optimized for
entirely different applications—like precise DC performance, video use, etc. Using these for audio is like trying to
plow a field with a Ferrari or drive a race car to work. The Ferrari’s main assets are useless in a corn field. For
example, the OPA690 op amp used in the AMB Mini3 was never designed for audio use and has relatively horrible
audio performance. If you stray too far from what the op amp is designed for it may well sound worse than a much
cheaper part designed for audio use—like the 5532.

FOLLOW THE CHAIN: If you follow most music up the

signal chain you’ll almost always find it’s already been
through dozens, or sometimes even hundreds of op
amps. Those big giant mixing consoles you see in the
recording studios? Yup, most are filled with hundreds
of op amps. Same story for the EQ, compressors,
vocal processors, mic preamps, A/D converters, and
much more. And do you think they’re all $10 Analog
Devices or Burr Brown parts? Nope. They’re mostly
inexpensive 5532s in the better gear, and even
cheaper parts in the less expensive stuff. Sure music is
increasingly produced in the digital domain, but I’ll bet
before your music ever touches your headphone gear
it’s already been through at least several inexpensive op amps. (photo credit Dennis AB) (photo: photopedia.com)

COMMON SENSE: If much of our most loved music has already been through dozens or hundreds of cheap op
amps, is it reasonable to think that one more such op amp is going to make much difference? It’s not and that’s
largely because op amps, properly used, are audibly transparent—i.e. you can’t tell they’re even there.

TRANSPARENCY: If op amps really have a “sound”, as many audiophiles suggest, it would follow when you add op
amps to the signal path the sound should change. Two guys named Meyer and Moran conducted a very interesting
rigorous study. They played high resolution SACDs on a high end system and sometimes inserted an extra A/D and
and D/A into the signal path to “down convert” the high resolution audio to CD quality (16/44) audio. After 500+ trials
lasting more than a year, using audiophiles, recording engineers, and students as listeners, they found nobody could
tell when the extra A/D and D/A was in the signal path. On top of demonstrating the supposed benefits of SACD are
highly questionable they also managed to demonstrate that A/D and D/A converters can be audibly transparent as
well. And, as you may have guessed, both the A/D and D/A add several op amps to the signal path. But nobody
could tell they were even there. There have been many more blind tests that also demonstrate different op amps
(and much more) indeed sound so much alike even audiophiles can’t hear the difference. See the Matrix audio test
for another example.

SIGHTED LISTENING: So early op amps sometimes sounded bad and if you misuse an op amp you can make them
sound different. But what about all the decent op amps in proper designs? Why do so many claim they sound
different? The answer is they use sighted listening. Our brain filters what we hear using other knowledge—like which
op amp you’re listening to. It’s an involuntary response that even the most skilled listener cannot “turn off”. Check out
this short BBC video on the McGurk Effect for an example of how our brain influences what we hear. And if you find
that interesting, there’s a lot more in my Subjective vs Objective Debate article. Basically when someone “upgrades”
an op amp they’re often expecting to hear a difference based on the manufacture’s claims, other (similarly biased)
subjective listening tests they’ve read about, audiophile myths, etc. So their brain serves up the expected difference
much like in the video linked above. But if they let someone else swap the op amps, and they don’t know which is
which, the differences always seem to disappear unless there’s another problem. And such problems can be
revealed with proper measurements. So if two different op amps both measure reasonably well in a given piece of
gear, the evidence strongly suggests they will impossible to tell apart in blind listening tests.

MYTH: FASTER IS BETTER - An often cited reason for expensive op amps, or upgrades, is to get more speed.
Sadly, it seems those making these claims don’t understand how “speed” applies to audio. As can be demonstrated
with some simple math (and has been verified by Doug Self and many others), any op amp with a slew rate of 3
V/uS or greater is fast enough for nearly any audio application on the planet. And op amps like the 5532 can easily
have bandwidths out to 200+ Khz in most applications which results in negligible phase shift or “delays” in the audio
band. Using an op amp rated for 20 V/uS or even faster is just asking for other problems and it probably performs
worse in other ways (i.e. more noise and distortion). This will be discussed more in the next article.

OP AMP ROLLING: Swapping op amps out, often

using a socket so they’re easy to switch, is known as
“op amp rolling”. Countless words have been written
describing one op amp as having more “depth”,
another as having a “blacker background”, etc. The
Tangent headphone amp site has a typical list of
subjective comments. As explained above, sometimes
the differences might be real because some of the op
amps are seriously unhappy in that particular
configuration. But, more often, it’s just the usual
sighted listening bias described above. If the swaps are
done blind, and they’re using suitable op amps
operated correctly, the alleged differences seem to
always disappear.

DISCRETE OP AMPS: There’s another tiny grain of

truth here. There are some very expensive discrete op amps that were designed specifically to outperform IC op
amps in very specific ways. Their highly specialized benefits, to my knowledge, don’t offer any real world advantages
in typical audio use. And audiophiles seem to favor much less rigorously designed discrete replacements for IC op
amps. These discrete substitutes typically lack any sort of valid test data to demonstrate their real performance. So
how does anyone know they outperform ICs? They mostly use Sighted Listening which is completely invalid (see
above). Audio-GD discrete op amps were tested by Samuel Groner using an Audio Precision analyzer and the
results were horrible. See The Discrete Is Better Myth.

OP AMP MEASUREMENTS: To try and keep my articles to a more digestible size, I’m splitting this into two parts.
This article has covered the history, applications, and myths. The next article will cover the more technical aspects
including op amp parameters (what matters on a datasheet for audio) and some actual measurements using my
dScope audio analyzer and a number of op amps that were evaluated for the O2 Headphone Amp.