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DIY is a route to great sonics & is cost effective. However, the source must be of best quality too. Vinyl is a no brainer for the most part, but CD players & FM tuners are an issue.
I find if a device has an op-amp in it, substandard performance will result. I never got around this issue with replacement op-amps either.
After owning many tuners I settled on a Scott L112B. Outperforms any op-amp based tuner I owned for excellent audio performance with a natural sound. All tuners I owned were upgraded with a superior power supply and high quality coupling capacitors. Even though the Scott tuner is solid state, it has a good multiplexer and outperforms tube type tuners I owned in the past in stereo mode. I also am modifying a Scott 312C with a tube output section.
As for my modded Magnavox CDB 582 CD player with a TDA1541A chip, it falls short compared to vinyl playback.
Have you found the same op-amp issue as I?
Follow Ups:
Yes,
I use a Joe R. modded CD Player. The DAC is differenetial voltage output which is used to drive a Nickel Core Audio Tranny directly. That is the entire analog section - just a tranny. It gives some (but not all) of that lovely "organic" analog sound you get from Vinyl. Best CD Player I've ever owned. Oh! it also has the Terra Firma Clock mod.
Cheers,
Ian
I gave up on opamp output a long time ago. Upgrade after upgrade - latest and greatest.... Then I joined the "Dac of the month" club.:-) Still not close enough for enjoyment. DIYOCD'd a USB DAC/mac mini combo. The best yet.
That said, each time I bring the vinyl system up a notch, I feel the need to do the same to the USB DAC which runs I/V conversion. It never quite gets there. I've toyed with the idea of adding a Lundahl, but haven't done that yet.
I wouldn't exactly call vinyl a no brainer. When fine tuning the RIAA EQ. it can be frustrating - add a CCS and everything changes - the short version (sorry for digressing).
Neff
I have the Monica with a 12B4 output stage.
No opamps in there anywhere.
I have found that the better the clocks
in the transport and DAC the better I like it.
I had a premium clock installed in
my brother's CAL CL-10 years ago.
My brother didn't hear much difference
but I did BIG time.
So it might be just something unique to me.
My Octal Cornet still blows it away
but other tube phonos I tried were
quite similar except for the bass.
Bass from vinyl is just unbeatable.
The 2 radio stations that had IMO good music
changed format so I no longer listen to radio.
My favorite tuner was an old Carver FM tuner.
I never had a tube tuner so I can't relate.
DanL
It's the output stage in most LSI opamps that make the things awful. To be integrated on the same chip the output topology has to be Class AB or B and never Class A or it would dissipate heat like gangbusters and crater the whole circuit. Also it's difficult to make a pnp complementary transistor that has the same low collector to base capacitance as the npn above it. They of course improved from generation to generation but they still can't compete with a discreet, tightly matched, burned in component opamp. We have learned much about input stage topology and cc source and sink topology in opamp design. They just don't have the headroom compared to a tube circuit. But it's quick and dirty and cheap. Ray
"The gift of imagination is a gift of the Gods imparted to a few who receive innumerable kicks in the a$$ their entire life." Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret)
"To be integrated on the same chip the output topology has to be Class AB or B and never Class A "
Maybe - but with the addition of a simple pull down resistor you can force the output section of many devices into class A. And the chips survive just fine as long as they are operated in specs and properly heat sinked.
Along the lines of what Jim said, check Sheldon Stokes headphone amp out. I have one and like the man says, it doesn't sound like "sand". Sheldon forced good quality opamps to sink a bit of current. It works! :> D
Eli D.
Jim is eminently correct. The BB OPA604/2604 is a perfect example, can be used in many well respected tuners, and has no issues running in Class A with an appropriate heat sink. I've got a couple of tuners that have been running 5+ years with no hint of problems.
HA
Yes, class A- done that, been there. Better, but no thanks.
Discrete components for audio gain, if done correctly, sound was better than 8-pin dip op-amps.
Erno Borbely did some amazing things with transistors, his discrete op-amps are/were awesome.
Many mods exist for replacing the output stage of CD players with tubes or discrete components.
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