The Opamp thread - Page 289

Anyone have any recommendations for where to get soic to dip adapters? I've seen the cimarron stuff, but surely there's cheaper than that somewhere. I'm looking for some single to single soic-to-dip8 as well as some 2xsoic to dip8 dual.

Any particular vendors on ebay that are good for that?

diyinhk, tube_buyer, u-barn, and audjade_chn

sorch-audio, hifiic, hifi-szjxic, and jk_parts look good but I haven't tried out their stuff.

I like iBasso's best for being compact, very sturdy, and with relatively even-length traces, but they only sell single adapters.  The fleabay adapters are all taller and better suited for adding extra caps and what not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armaegis 

Anyone have any recommendations for where to get soic to dip adapters? I've seen the cimarron stuff, but surely there's cheaper than that somewhere. I'm looking for some single to single soic-to-dip8 as well as some 2xsoic to dip8 dual.

An SO8 to DIP adapter from Cimarron is $3.  Aren't we shaving the savings a little thin?  Use two of those with a $3 single-to-dual DIP adapter and you have your 2nd request for a grand total of $9.

A buck here, a buck there, one or two dozen adapters later and it starts to add up.

It's better to have single-to-dual DIP8 adapters only for DIP8 chips.  Two soic8 single chips should go on a 2x-soic8-to-dual-dip8 adapter instead and not soic-to-dip adapters + single dip-to-dual-dip adapters as tomb suggests. The latter is just an unnecessary mess of extra adapters/sockets.

Cimarron's adapters are like Practical Devices', too flimsy in my opinion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Max 

It's better to have single-to-dual DIP8 adapters only for DIP8 chips.  Two soic8 single chips should go on a 2x-soic8-to-dual-dip8 adapter instead and not soic-to-dip adapters + single dip-to-dual-dip adapters as tomb suggests. The latter is just an unnecessary mess of extra adapters/sockets.

 

Cimarron's adapters are like Practical Devices', too flimsy in my opinion.

It's better to not have adapters at all.  Cimarron Brown Dogs were sold by Tangent for years and I've had them in portable PIMETAs for about 5 years without a hitch.

Unavoidable with SOIC chips and equipment with socketed opamps unless you are willing to solder the opamps directly to the PCB and not roll opamps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Max 

diyinhk, tube_buyer, u-barn, and audjade_chn

 

sorch-audio, hifiic, hifi-szjxic, and jk_parts look good but I haven't tried out their stuff.

 

I like iBasso's best for being compact, very sturdy, and with relatively even-length traces, but they only sell single adapters.  The fleabay adapters are all taller and better suited for adding extra caps and what not.

There's also this seller who's always kept on saying that his adapters were far more technically advanced than the browndogs: http://www.ebay.com/itm/230797790202

Facts are that $3 a pop for a browndog is outrageous when you can easily guess that he buys them for 10 cts or so. It should also be noted that their pins aren't even soldered onto the adapter for $3, they're only assembled together with a more than likely very poor actual contact surface. The guy has/had a niche, and he prolly was one of the first to sell this kind of adapters....that are mostly meant to be used by bored rollers ^^

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcx 

the overwhelming majority of "recommendations" here ignore/don't mention the circuit application, or even the power supply Voltages - and even within a category of a specific audio circuit type the engineer can make differing decisions on circuit details that affect op amp choice

I believe most everyone here is well aware that opamps aren't friggin leggos but we're children at heart and it just feels good to solder chips with cryptic model numbers read in audiophool discussion threads, install them as if these were leggo bricks and seek any SQ change 

But yeah, rolling opamps is bound to fail........only very experienced technicians with an oscilloscope and the know-how have any actual use for swappable opamps sockets.

I believe most everyone here has tried all the most expensive opamps by rolling them blindly, and found out later on that well implemented cheaper opamps would provide a far less colored and much more enjoyable experience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpudHarris 

I have just been reintroduced to an oldie but goodie... AD743JN !
What do you guys think? I have had these for a while although discontinued about 7 years ago. Ryuzoh from MST (Fi-Quest amp fame) recommended I try them in my Fi-Q and I have to say I'm a little shell shocked at how great they sound, the best OpAmp I have tried in the Fi-Q so far (and I'm a roller).....
Anyone care to give them a go again? Type this product into Farnell and it spits back ADA-4627 as a comparable replacement, I'm looking at you Mad Max
Unfortunately they are current eaters so not brilliant for portable use as they kill run times. My Fi-Q never leaves the house now as it is one of my favourite home amps for the HE-6.

I've heard read good things about AD743 around the forums, but I only have AD744 (ceramic dip and plastic dip), which is quite nice if not for the less than excellent noise floor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry 

 

I believe most everyone here is well aware that opamps aren't friggin leggos but we're children at heart and it just feels good to solder chips with cryptic model numbers read in audiophool discussion threads, install them as if these were leggo bricks and seek any SQ change 

 

But yeah, rolling opamps is bound to fail........only very experienced technicians with an oscilloscope and the know-how have any actual use for swappable opamps sockets.

 

I believe most everyone here has tried all the most expensive opamps by rolling them blindly, and found out later on that well implemented cheaper opamps would provide a far less colored and much more enjoyable experience.

Can't believe what I'm reading and this is coming from you leeperry , correct me if I'm wrong but you used to be one of (along with that majikal guy from Poland who got banned) head-fi's most prolific opamp roller. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Max 

Unavoidable with SOIC chips and equipment with socketed opamps unless you are willing to solder the opamps directly to the PCB and not roll opamps.

Right.  I forgot for a minute that this is the DIY section.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DefQon 

Can't believe what I'm reading and this is coming from you leeperry , correct me if I'm wrong but you used to be one of (along with that majikal guy from Poland who got banned) head-fi's most prolific opamp roller. 

Majkel is still very much around and yes his opamp thread was the major bait to blind rolling for me 

The only diff is that he's an EE so he can make sure that these little cranky things are happy, I cannot.

Well, blind rolling opamps is mad fun as everyone will agree on this point but I've come to realize(like many others as well) that you can't magically improve everything without caring about the surrounding circuit. I recently played smart by installing an army of AD797B's in the Asus Essence One, but very rarely I would get wooshing sounds that are rather easy to pin down to oscillation.

You can prolly roll "unity gain stable" chips such as OPA2132 and so as these are notoriously very "sociable" but to me the big culprit is dual opamps that always sound extremely colored IME, and even TI acknowledged the problem: http://www.ti.com/product/opa1642

Which means that all the chips that don't have this feature clearly stated in their datasheet share the same circuit ^^

But luckily design engineers are starting to realize that, and even Creative Labs internal soundcards now use two single opamps in their buffering output stage: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/sound_blaster_x_fi_titanium_hd_review,11.html

I guess people are right, with a strong motivation and a used oscilloscope anyone could learn the opamp's 101 but do I have time/care that much? I also used to make electronic music like a decade ago, but when I listen to "Boards of Canada" or "Ed Rush & Optical" I realize that I will never make such good music and that any further attempt will be a waste of my precious time.

There are EE's who are specialized in making great sounding gear, that's a job in its own right you know and I'm not presumptuous enough to think that I can magically improve everything by buying the most expensive opamps(ADA4627-1B, OPA627SM or whatever) and installing them like leggo bricks as a magic bullet to audiophoolism