Can someone clear this opamp "burn in" question

[Quaddy]

i have just recieved my XiN SMIII v6, and have thrown in a 227 opamp i had out of a cmoy and replaced the OPA2134 it came with.

now i searched this forum for talk of the SM3 with other opamps, and there is plenty of mention of people saying they are or have been burning in the new opamp with whatever version chip.

please correct me if i am wrong, which i probably am...

i thought the amp itself, namely the caps - needed the burn in. not the actual opamps themselves, i thought that if you swapped an opamp out for another one, the sound would be the same straight away as it was ever gonna get with that particular opamp.

people who have had their sm3's for a while, talk of changing this chip and them giving it 20 hours or any ammount of hours they mention and they noticed a better result after that burn in.

someone please put me out of my knowledge vacuum, as i thought i knew this as stated above.

in other words, to summarize and make my inane ramblings more clearer, lets for the sake of argument say i had a supermacro3 amp, or any rollable amp, that had had 500 hours of use with its stock opamp.

that amp would be classed as burnt in.

so then i decide to order a new opamp of a different version. the new opamp isnt gonna require additional burn in to settle is it?

t.y

 

[003]

Capacitors are burned in within seconds of first being powered.

Solid state does not burn in (that goes for cables as well).

Tubes do burn in, for maybe 20 hours total. After that, you're not doing anything but draining their life.

 

[Quaddy]

could you just put that in my terms, a little less advanced

is the xin supermacro capacitor based?

 

[Gradofan2]

Isn't the OPA2134 a dual channel opamp - while the OPA227 is a single channel opamp???

If so... are they interchangeable?

I thought you had to swap a single channel with single channel, and dual channel with dual channel opamps.

So... to you'd have to replace a 2134 with a 2227, or 2107, or whatever - provided they had the same / similar specs.

 

[Quaddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gradofan2 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Isn't the OPA2134 a dual channel opamp - while the OPA227 is a single channel opamp??? If so... are they interchangeable? I thought you had to swap a single channel with single channel, and dual channel with dual channel opamps. So... to you'd have to replace a 2134 with a 2227, or 2107, or whatever - provided they had the same / similar specs.

my bad, the opamp i have swapped it for is the OPA2227 i left of the '2' - sry for the confusion

tut tut @ quaddy

 

[Chri5peed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 003 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Solid state does not burn in (that goes for cables as well).

I do not understand why that is such a hard concept to get. Whether burn-in affects anything greatly is where any debate lies.



To answer the OP, I put OBCA-some chip or another in my SMIII V3 and used it a lot. I noticed no burn-in taking place.

 

[FallenAngel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 003 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Capacitors are burned in within seconds of first being powered. Solid state does not burn in (that goes for cables as well). Tubes do burn in, for maybe 20 hours total. After that, you're not doing anything but draining their life.

That is really questionable, I personally would completely disagree as I noticed dramatic differences with burn-in in the many AlienDACs, amps and cables I have built.

As for it being necessary, I almost never bother to specifically burn equipment in, just use it, it's not like you won't burn it in by listening and who likes to wait?

 

[gritzcolin]

I used to not buy the burn in stuff until I got my C&C box v2, with my 580's when I first started listening to it the bass seemed very distant almost non existent, after about a week it began to liven up. So i personally buy into the burn in notion.

 

[majkel]

Interchanging OPA2134 with OPA2227 means you swapped a mediocre sounding op-amp for a horribly sounding op-amp.

OPA2228, the 2227's faster brother sounds ages better but you have to satisfy it's minimum stable gain of 5.

 

[FallenAngel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by majkel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Interchanging OPA2134 with OPA2227 means you swapped a mediocre sounding op-amp for a horribly sounding op-amp. OPA2228, the 2227's faster brother sounds ages better but you have to satisfy it's minimum stable gain of 5.

Lol, that's pretty cute.

I think the SuperMacro III runs off 9.6V (8 1.2V AA batteries), so you can throw in a nicer opamp in there like the AD8066 (I really like this one in a buffered design).

 

[Chri5peed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallenAngel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Lol, that's pretty cute. I think the SuperMacro III runs off 9.6V (8 1.2V AA batteries), so you can throw in a nicer opamp in there like the AD8066 (I really like this one in a buffered design).

Add another A, 8 X AAAs. Xin said it was a toss-up, them or less AAs. I think 8 AAAs was a good choice. Its a lot of power in a small area.

 

[Quaddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by majkel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Interchanging OPA2134 with OPA2227 means you swapped a mediocre sounding op-amp for a horribly sounding op-amp.

wow - i always thought the 2227 was an upgrade. i will just have to trust my ears on that one.

 

[tomb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallenAngel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Quote: Originally Posted by 003 Capacitors are burned in within seconds of first being powered. Solid state does not burn in (that goes for cables as well). Tubes do burn in, for maybe 20 hours total. After that, you're not doing anything but draining their life. That is really questionable, I personally would completely disagree as I noticed dramatic differences with burn-in in the many AlienDACs, amps and cables I have built. As for it being necessary, I almost never bother to specifically burn equipment in, just use it, it's not like you won't burn it in by listening and who likes to wait?

Agreed - to a certain extent. My problem, though, is with those times that are quoted. I've seen new tubes take a lot longer than that - old tubes, too. In the case of old tubes, it's almost entirely dependent on the amount of gas infiltration that's taken place into the tube. It may take several days to getter out the gas.

As for caps, in my experience it seems to be proportional to the size of the caps. Film caps and very small electrolytics - yeah, it could be some seconds/few minutes. Big caps - like 1000uF, etc. - maybe several hours to a dozen or more. There are quotes about Black Gates needing up to 200hrs.