0:01 hey everybody at Hood old guy highi
0:03 Channel hope everyone's doing well today
0:05 today should be a fun video we're going
0:08 to talk about op apps and lots of them
0:10 so sit back relax and we'll get going on
0:13 this video [Music]
0:32 [Music]
0:34 so today's video is going to be a bit of
0:36 a tech talk sort of video I want to talk
0:38 about opamps obviously and I want to
0:41 talk about you know which opamp I think
0:43 works best in what product or what style
0:46 of product um so we'll do that um in
0:49 just a second but hopefully if you enjoy
0:50 the video you'd be willing to give me a
0:51 like and your subscription so let's get
0:53 started on this well let's talk about
0:55 amplifiers first integrated amplifiers
0:58 and and obviously Standalone amplifiers
1:01 in my mind um spending a lot of money on
1:03 a real high-end op amp for an amplifier
1:06 doesn't yield as big a benefit as I as I
1:09 think it would do in another product so
1:12 what I've got here is the 3E audio A7
1:15 integrated now this is a high-end $300
1:17 class D integrated amplifier it's worth
1:19 putting a couple bucks into good opamps
1:22 on that this is Ema a70
1:27 mono this is a fzy V3
1:31 mono and this is the Duke audio A5 now
1:35 in the fzy V3 and in the Aima
1:38 a70 I'm running right now I'm running at
1:42 a NOS bur Brown Opa 2134 I think this is
1:46 a great chip for an amp like this or an
1:49 amp like this now I've only got I've
1:52 only got uh the stock op amps in the V3
1:54 only because I took it out of the system
1:55 and when I do that I put the stock op
1:58 amps back in uh and then cuz I only have
2:00 a limited number of op amps so if I'm
2:01 going to use the opamp somewhere else I
2:06 do that now on the V70 mon or a70 monos
2:08 I have two of those you'll see another
2:10 one over here in the rack um I did put
2:13 21 34s in there I use these all the time
2:14 and it's not that these aren't a great
2:16 amp this a great little amp it's just
2:17 these happen to be the ones that I have
2:18 a little bit of a preference for
2:21 soundwise and in with good Synergy with
2:23 what I've got so I think the OPA 2134
2:26 works really well in here now here's the
2:31 thing the ti Opa 1656 is the utility
2:34 player of the game these are the the
2:36 Jack of all trades they work well in a
2:38 lot of different circuits so if you
2:41 don't want to do the 20 the 21 34s do
2:45 the OPA 1656 it works great in there um
2:47 and I think you'd be just as happy with
2:50 it the OPA 1656 works great in the F in
2:54 the fzy V3 it worked great in the uh 3
2:59 ea7 now the 3 ea7 is a bit of a high-end
3:03 product so I did run the uh LPA 1656 is
3:05 in it it and it that's what it came with
3:08 and then I did run the SX 52 BS now in
3:11 the hierarchy of things you know the
3:14 basic any 5532 opamps you know they're a
3:16 dime a dozen and they're fine they work
3:19 well um and you know what here tip if
3:22 you buy a product that has a swappable
3:26 opamp option do not swap the opamps
3:29 listen to it for 3 or 4 months seriously
3:31 listen to it for a good period of time
3:33 so you get used to the sound and then
3:35 when you make a change you'll hear that
3:37 change and you'll know whether or not
3:39 that change has value to you or not and
3:41 only change one thing in your system a
3:43 time at a time don't change more than
3:44 one thing because if you change two
3:46 things or three things you'll never know
3:49 what change which change had the effect
3:51 so again one change at a time and stick
3:54 with a stock op amps for literally 4
3:55 months before you change them and that
3:58 way you get used to the sound so in the
3:59 hierarchy of things 5532 is a come
4:01 stocking a lot of these things they work
4:02 really well they sound good there's no
4:04 question about it but you can refine the
4:06 sound you can tailor the sound a little
4:09 bit so again 1656 is the utility player
4:11 jack of all trades works well in almost
4:13 any circuit I've tried it in and you can
4:15 see I got a bunch of those things here
4:18 now the SX 52b this is a discrete opamp
4:19 which means it rather than being on an
4:21 IC chip all the components are are on
4:24 double boards now you'll see in Aller of
4:25 picture this is a dual board so this is
4:27 dual op amp everything we're talking
4:31 about is a dual opamp single op amps are
4:33 only used in special circuits you can
4:35 use them but they have a greatly reduced
4:37 output so you got to turn the volume up
4:39 way high so really not applicable but
4:42 anyway the SX 52 BS I buy these on
4:43 AliExpress I get them for I don't know
4:46 whether they 12 or 14 bucks and I you
4:47 know I know a lot of people have
4:49 trepidation and concern about buying on
4:52 AliExpress I agree I mean I use PayPal
4:54 so I feel like I'm very insulated from
4:57 my identity being stolen or whatever um
4:59 and also too AliExpress has been great I
5:01 ordered a power supply and the vendor
5:03 couldn't deliver and AliExpress refunded
5:05 my money right away so it was really
5:09 good anyway SX 52 BS are above the 1656
5:12 as far as performance and they can work
5:15 good in an amp so stock op amps are good
5:20 1656 are good SX 52 BS are good in amps
5:22 you don't need to go SX 52b I I like I
5:25 said I do like the buron 234s or the
5:29 burron opa2604 in this you can also you
5:33 know what you can use the jrc uh e2s
5:35 that's a good opamp but I just like the
5:39 21 34s or 1656 is so we've talked about
5:43 amplifiers hang on one special uh case
5:46 the Duke AIO A5 this thing is a little
5:48 wonderful little amplifier really really
5:51 nice I have the SX 52 BS in there I was running
5:53 running
5:55 1656 um I'm I was trying a couple of
5:57 different configurations this worked
5:59 really well cuz it's also in the preamp section
6:00 section
6:01 as well as being in the amplifier
6:02 section and this is just a wonderful
6:04 little amplifier so I don't know if I'd
6:07 spend you know for sx5 tobs I'm looking
6:09 at what 30 bucks worth of opamps at $100
6:13 amp that's fine the the OPA 21 34s are
6:15 probably 12 15 bucks um and you only
6:17 need a single one in the monos although
6:21 the V3 monos from uh fzy use two opamps
6:23 that's worth it this one I would put SX
6:26 52 BS in all day long now let's talk
6:29 about preamps and line level sources so
6:33 for preamps like the this fzy P4 which
6:35 is a marvelous little preamp I have the
6:37 stock op amp in there right now again I
6:39 only have a limited number of opamps
6:41 this isn't hasn't been in the system if
6:43 it goes back in the system it will
6:46 definitely get at a bare minimum an SX
6:50 52b probably I'll put
6:54 um probably I'll put a bur in probably a
6:56 V7 classic in this because man that
6:58 sounds really good um you could use a
7:00 3602 from sparkos as well I've done that
7:02 and that works really well so on a
7:03 preamp we were talking about line level
7:06 signals to me now we need to up our game
7:09 with opamps and it's worth considering
7:12 you know maybe a a A40 or $50 opamp um
7:15 for this maybe even a little higher or
7:18 certainly the SX 52 BS at 12 or 14 bucks
7:21 work really really well so that's a good
7:25 combination on preamps it's I you know
7:28 again it's only I think a $100 pre to
7:29 start you know is it worth spending 60
7:31 bucks on the opamp I think it might be
7:33 this elevated the game on this really a
7:36 lot so the f I love this little piece by
7:38 the way now let's talk about Dax to me
7:41 Dax are where opamps play the biggest
7:44 role for sure so for Dax for me it is
7:46 really important because I think the the
7:48 daak is the first link in the chain
7:50 obviously your streaming Source whatever
7:52 that is and you know if you've got a wi
7:53 there's nothing you can do about that if
7:55 you're using something like HQ player or
7:59 Rune or aravana or something like that
8:01 then I mean obviously you've got bit
8:04 perfect playback but then the next Link
8:06 in the chain becomes your deck and to me
8:08 that's where all right we need to pay a
8:10 little bit more attention to what we're
8:12 doing in that so I've got a couple of
8:15 decks here I've got the Duke audio Dack
8:18 q11 which I I really like this deck a
8:20 lot because it's got both an akm chip
8:22 and an ESS chip in it now when you're
8:24 rolling opamps you're only rolling the
8:27 opamps on the akm side because the ESS
8:28 side that's a little chip right there
8:32 has two PA tiopa 1656 is solded to the
8:34 board there's nothing you can do about
8:36 it but for the akm side which is a side
8:39 I only listen to I really like the 3602
8:41 the sparkos 3602 in there they work
8:45 really well I did use U SX 52 BS in it
8:48 for a time and that worked well so the
8:51 the 3602 has worked really well in here
8:54 the SX 52 BS work okay I think the 3602
8:57 are way better better detail akm chips
8:59 have a little bit of a slightly warmer
9:01 SI sound the NS and I'll talk about that
9:03 when we get to this this deck here I
9:31 and that was really really good but now
9:34 I've got a dilemma I've got a $160 DAC
9:37 and I've got $160 worth opamps I you
9:39 know what I'll leave that up to you I'm
9:41 real pleased with it with the 3602 in it
9:43 I thought it sounded really good with
9:46 the SX 52 BS I love this deck and so
9:48 yeah because I have access to all these
9:52 opamps I'll put good opamps in it um
9:53 I've already bought them right so I
9:55 might as well try it this one's probably
9:58 worth upgrading to at least an SX 52b
10:01 maybe a 3602 really nice little deck
10:03 anyway so now here comes the the two
10:05 that are really the ones to me that
10:07 stand out more than anything this is a
10:11 fzy audio zd3 and this is a saber chip
10:14 deck and I am not a saber chip fan and I
10:18 will tell you it came stock with
10:20 ne5532 and it also came with a package
10:23 of three uh jrc
10:27 E2 opamp so uh fzy provided opamps for
10:29 you to swap and by the way if you're if
10:31 you're going to swap opamps get an opamp
10:33 tool I'll put a link there's an Amazon
10:36 affiliate link for the opamp tool to
10:37 pull these out to make it safe so you
10:39 don't damage them because the pins on
10:42 these little things are so delicate it's
10:44 unbelievable so I put in when I
10:48 initially got it I put in uh Opa 16 56s
10:50 and that really elevated it and then I
10:53 put in SX 52 BS now here's the thing
10:56 with this deck it has a single opamp for
10:58 the single-ended output and two opamps
10:59 for the balanced out put so that's
11:02 pretty common if you're only going to
11:03 use single-ended you only need to
11:05 replace the one opap you don't need to
11:07 do both if you're only going to do
11:09 balance you only need to replace the two
11:11 you don't need to replace the other one
11:14 I use this both both uh balanced and
11:16 single Ed at the same time cuz I go
11:20 balanced out into my uh X Doo ta20 plus
11:23 headphone amp and then I run the line
11:26 level out into it as well and then from
11:28 this as a preamp it only goes line level
11:31 RCA out to the two iima a70
11:34 amps putting this the OPA 1656 is this
11:36 is a saber deck again I'm not a fan of
11:39 saber decks they have this glare saber
11:40 glare and you've heard me refer to it a
11:44 million times the 1656 were better than
11:48 the n55 32s and the jrc o2s without
11:51 question I did try just quick cuz I had
11:53 them the OPA
11:57 234s not bad not as good as the
12:00 1656 then I went to the SX50 2bs and
12:02 again it was an incremental Improvement
12:05 not bad pretty livable um gets a little
12:07 crowded on the balance side with those
12:10 opamps so then I got the Bens and
12:12 initially I put in or excuse me I got
12:14 sparkos and I put in
12:17 3602 really elevated to game but again
12:19 this is an ESS chip deck and I think it
12:21 has a little digital Edge to it and I
12:24 think sparkos hop amps are super clean
12:26 and really detailed and they ride the
12:29 warm side of cool for sound for me and I
12:31 think with the ESS deck and the sparkos
12:33 it was a little too much energy little
12:36 too much glare for me a little bit it
12:37 was good it was better than the original
12:40 opamps but it was just had that little
12:43 bit of a I don't know an edge to it I
12:46 put in the ver the Bon V7 vivids and
12:48 again the edge was still there much
12:49 better but the edge was still there I
12:52 put in the V7 Classics and holy moly
12:54 this quickly became one of my go-to
12:56 decks it actually lives on my sound
12:59 solver rack on my desktop all the time
13:01 it sounds wonderful it's a first saber
13:04 deck I really really like the sound of
13:06 and I attribute that specifically to the
13:09 Bon V7 classic opamps they have this
13:12 really warm and very smooth but still
13:14 very detailed Sonic character to them
13:16 just wonderful sounding now everybody's
13:18 going to go well if there's a sound
13:19 different you ought to be able to
13:23 measure it all right I measure
13:26 CAD I measure CAD in furlongs and total
13:29 harmonic Distortion in feet so so I know
13:31 what my ears tell me and that's what I
13:33 trust so measurements people keep your
13:35 comments to yourself I know what I I
13:37 know what I hear and I know what my
13:39 viewers tell me when they comment about
13:40 what they hear when they change stuff
13:43 like this I really like the V7 Classics
13:47 in this remarkable elevated this thing a
13:49 ton now granted that's an expensive uh
13:51 combination of opamps but again if
13:52 you're only doing single-ended you only
13:54 need to do one um if you're doing
13:56 balance you got to do two if you do it
13:58 like I do I cuz I got three I can put
14:00 three in um I don't know that I would
14:01 buy three for this I'd probably just buy
14:03 one and use the single-ended 90% of the
14:06 time but man alive did that make a
14:08 difference on this and really really made
14:09 made
14:12 this again the best sounding saber dck
14:14 for under 500 bucks I've ever heard no
14:16 question about it really really good so
14:19 now we come to the bigan and the bigan
14:22 is the jelli j2s
14:25 ak4499 this bad boy was great out of the
14:29 box with the stock 156 the stock 16 56
14:33 is in it I ran it with the sparkos 32s
14:36 for a long time that's 3602 right there
14:38 I'll put pictures all this stuff next to
14:40 me on the on the screen and I ran it
14:42 that way for a really long time now
14:44 generally this sits in my system and it
14:47 only runs single-ended so I had a single
14:50 3602 in there and then the option came
14:53 that I could run the big and these
14:57 things are giant the big sparkos SS
15:01 2509 dual dip fully assembled dual
15:03 Channel opamps these things are
15:06 magnificent now it fits in there it
15:07 won't fit in the balance there's just no
15:09 room I put it on the single-ended side
15:11 and I had 3602 on the balanced side cuz
15:13 I do do balanced out on this
15:16 occasionally the it sounded great it
15:18 really sounded good it was much better
15:21 than the sx32 602 in the single-ended
15:24 side no question 2590 was amazing but
15:27 the issue I had was the Dack was running
15:30 warm warmer than normal and I do know
15:32 that Gino redesigned the j3 which is
15:34 virtually identical to this as far as
15:36 Sonic characteristic and and the deck
15:38 and the and all of the other stuff he
15:40 did upgrade the power supply for the
15:42 board to be able to supply all of the
15:44 voltage and current that these big
15:47 monsters need cuz it can on the j3 you
15:49 can run three of these things and the J2
15:51 just has a standard power supply
15:53 obviously he can accommodate we can accommodate
15:55 accommodate
15:59 332s but not the 2509 I just felt
16:01 uncomfortable cuz it was running warm
16:03 then I put the Bon V7 Classics in first
16:06 Go Round And that sounded really good
16:09 about On a par with the 26
16:12 2509 maybe a little warmer a
16:15 little slightly smoother a little more
16:17 friendly sound for my ear anyway but
16:20 then but a little again akm chips are a
16:22 little bit warm beautifully warm don't
16:23 get me wrong but a little bit warm on
16:26 their own and the sparkl are a little
16:28 bit analytical they're great they're
16:32 wonderful for that but I put the Bon V7
16:35 vivids in and now this is a combination
16:38 of I think the analytical side of the
16:42 sparos and the warm side of the Bon V
16:44 Vivid Classics the V7 Classics excuse me
16:48 not vivid the V7 Classics the V7 vivids
16:52 elevated this deck I mean a whole
16:55 another level maybe two levels I would
16:57 put this on a par with any of the decks
16:59 I've tested in and around you know $800
17:02 maybe $900 and Le or less maybe up to
17:04 1,000 bucks except there's going to be
17:06 one exception at $1,000 and you'll see
17:07 that review in a little bit and you guys
17:09 who know me will know what I'm talking
17:12 about this thing sounds amazing I've
17:16 been listening to it a ton I would say
17:21 that it gets probably 90 or 95% of the
17:24 way to the to a stock Daisy it's really
17:27 remarkable this just sounds so good
17:31 these Bon V7 vivids elevated this thing
17:33 to just another level now yes I do use
17:35 it with a linear power supply um and
17:37 that does make a big difference but
17:40 these op amps it was like oh my goodness
17:41 I put them in and with it literally
17:44 within a I I actually I put them in I
17:46 plugged it in and I just let it run on
17:48 for I probably 24 hours I don't know if
17:50 you need to burn an opamps or not I just
17:52 figured I'd do it anyway anyway after
17:53 that I came down and I was listening to
17:56 them and I had this plugged into um the
18:00 Evo 150 and the electro comp ec6 ECI 6dx
18:05 Mark I and then into the uh uh Advanced
18:08 Paris a12 classic um which is my new
18:11 reference amp anyway God almighty this
18:14 thing sounded good just amazing oh my
18:16 goodness well worth the extra money
18:18 again if you're only doing single-ended
18:19 you only need to replace one if you're
18:21 only doing balance you need to replace
18:22 two if you're going to do all you know
18:24 balance and single-ended do them all but
18:25 again most people are just running
18:28 single-ended it is absolutely worth the
18:30 price of mission to get that V7 either
18:32 the classic or the Vivid for me the
18:34 Vivid was the one that just it was magic
18:36 it was magic
18:39 so that's I think everything I need to
18:40 say about that and again there I've got
18:43 a million different op amps you know
18:45 I've got all kinds of any 55 32s cuz
18:46 they're stocking a lot of things I've
18:49 got a lot of bur Brown uh the NOS bur
18:53 Brown 234s and the NOS bur Brown opa2604
18:57 I've got 259s I've got the single uh
19:00 2509s I've got the sing Le chip version
19:02 of these which looks this is a dual chip
19:04 let me pull it apart I've got the single
19:06 version of the chip I've got eight of
19:09 those in the Daisy DA um and that's
19:10 marvelous now let's talk about that real
19:13 quick the daisy uses single channel
19:15 opamp so these little buron v5s I have
19:18 are single channel opamp the v7s all the
19:20 other ones here you'll see it's got
19:23 there's two boards to it there the sx32
19:25 3602 there's two little boards to it
19:28 I'll insert pictures they're dual opamps
19:29 and that's everything we talking about
19:30 almost everything we talk about is going
19:33 to be a dual opamp single op amps are
19:35 rare rare they can be used but they have
19:37 a much lower voltage output so they
19:38 don't provide as much gain so you'd have
19:41 to turn your volume up a lot on whatever
19:43 it is you're listening to um to get the
19:45 right to get enough voltage out of it
19:46 but they they can sound wonderful now
19:49 the daisy uses single but it uses eight
19:52 of them it's two DAC chips one per
19:55 Channel and you've got four opamps per
19:59 channel so a pair is working lit opamps
20:00 are working as a pair and the other two
20:02 are working as a pair and so forth and
20:04 so on to get the right voltage output
20:07 but so everything we talk about is dual
20:09 channel opamps so there are singles but
20:11 don't get those 90% of what we're
20:12 talking about it won't work in and then
20:14 I have these things and I got these on
20:16 AliExpress and they looked really
20:19 interesting on the on the web page and
20:20 then I got them and they don't fit in
20:23 anything they're just huge they really
20:27 I'm going to try it in the in the uh uh
20:29 j2s but the problem is when I put it in
20:31 the case won't go on it's so tall anyway
20:32 so that's going to be fun to play with
20:34 and I'll let you know what I think of
20:37 those all right to
20:41 recap um on amplifiers I don't know that
20:43 you need to spend a ton I would do Opa
20:46 1656 if it come stock with 55 32s again
20:48 listen to it for 3 or 4 months before
20:51 you want before you consider changing if
20:54 you want to change Opa 1656 is Jack of
20:56 all trades Works in every one of these
21:00 circuits um so that I I would recommend
21:03 that I like the 1656 I like the bur
21:06 Brown NOS 21 34s those are my choices
21:09 you can do SX 52 BS again they're so
21:11 inexpensive so the cost of admission is
21:13 really low try these everywhere they
21:15 actually work pretty well and I'll put
21:16 some links into AliExpress I have no
21:18 affiliation with them I'll put a link
21:20 into the guy on eBay I use to get the 21
21:22 34s that's a good you're going to pay a
21:23 little bit more for those than you will
21:26 for the SX 52 BS and then I've got a guy
21:29 on eBay that I get the OPA 60 56 is 2
21:30 and again I have no affiliation but I'll
21:33 link so on amplifiers unless it's
21:37 something really high-end like the 3E A7
21:41 just go with a 1656 or an SX 52b and
21:43 you'll be golden when we get to preamps
21:45 and again we're dealing with low-level
21:47 voltage signals it is worth up in game
21:49 on this I would definitely consider a
21:53 1656 an SX 52b even a
21:58 3602 uh on this or a bon V V5 the Dual
22:01 Channel Bon V5 would be great in this
22:03 that would sound wonderful so on preamps
22:05 on and on the little Duke amp this
22:07 thing's so special again I like the SX
22:10 52b inet on Dax now spend your money on
22:12 the Dack absolutely it's worth spending
22:16 money on now is it worth spending 160
22:20 bucks uh for opamps on a deck that cost
22:23 160 bucks I don't know if it is um I
22:25 have them around so I get to play with
22:27 them this sounds really good with the SX
22:30 with the SS 3602 in it and it sounds
22:32 really good with the other ones I'm just
22:49 362sxe
22:52 game amazingly so anyway that's the low
22:54 down on
22:56 opamps that's everything I want to talk
22:57 about I know I'm going to get a lot of
22:59 comments um
23:00 you know if you like the video please
23:01 give me a like and a subscribe your
23:03 subscription and your view really counts
23:05 a lot um it's helped me make contact
23:07 with a lot of Manufacturers are willing
23:09 willing to send me some amazing stuff
23:10 and I'm looking at a bunch of amazing
23:12 stuff in the studio you'll see those
23:14 reviews soon um and thank you thank you
23:17 thank you um please comment let me know
23:17 what you think all this your
23:19 measurements guys I you know what
23:21 keyboard Warriors go after it if you
23:23 want to um remember that my comment
23:25 section is not a
23:28 democracy I have last say on that stuff
23:30 so if you get nasty you're gone anyway I
23:32 know what I hear and that's what I trust
23:36 and I am a a a completely subjective
23:38 reviewer I'm not going to measure I
23:39 don't care about measurements that's
23:41 enough said about that so please comment
23:42 let me know what you think where are you
23:43 at what do you want to do are you
23:47 looking at these op amps if secret here
23:49 if you consider buying a sparkos op amp
23:51 go to their website and buy there
23:54 because they always have 15% off coupon
23:56 anyway so that's opamps like subscribe
24:00 comment uh check out the community post
24:01 playlist in the video description there
24:03 are some affiliate links in the video
24:04 description I have no affiliate links
24:07 for in the opamp stuff so that's fine um
24:09 there will be a link in the video you'll
24:11 see it up here somewhere to my DAC
24:14 playlist which just covers all the dacks
24:15 that's everything I've rambled on long
24:20 enough man alive can I talk or what yeah
24:22 anyway I'm at Homewood this is the old
24:24 guy high-fi Channel and it's now your
24:26 duty to get out your toolkit all your
24:28 opamps make a mess on your desk get
24:31 confused as to what goes no it isn't sit
24:32 back relax listen to some beautiful
24:34 music and enjoy the balance of your day
