Looking to upgrade the opamps on my Audigy 2 ZS
Jul 14, 2005 at 6:22 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 22

skiguy411

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I saw somewhere that a couple of people were able to replace the op amps on the Audigy 2 zs and that it made a noticable difference. Has anyone successfully done this? How difficult is it? I'm decent with the soldering iron.

What op amps do you recommend?
 
Jul 14, 2005 at 6:58 PM Post #2 of 22
IIRC Glassman wasn't content with the results until he bypassed the whole output stage and built an entirely new one. If you want to upgrade the existing one, you best replace both the voltage buffering capacitors (important) and the opamps. The opamps better not be too fussy, possibly try 4580s. What to replace the 4556 with is a good question; it would have to be something that can drive fairly low impedance loads.
 
Jul 14, 2005 at 8:52 PM Post #4 of 22
Quote:

What about the 2604s for the opamps?


They are kinda fussy but they will work.
wink.gif
 
Jul 14, 2005 at 11:09 PM Post #9 of 22
Quote:

Fussy as in they tend to oscillate when used in a poorly designed circuit.


Can't you place a low ohm (50ohm or so) resistor in series at the opamp outputs to reduce oscillation?
 
Jul 15, 2005 at 12:17 AM Post #10 of 22
The usual method of eliminating oscillation (and that is the goal - eliminating, not reducing as you say) is to tweak the power supply rails. More often than not involves better power bypassing. Then you need to worry about the supply voltage, and if it still won't work right, look at the gain you're asking the opamp to do, and finally look at the impedance of the load... maybe the opamp just isn't suited for it!

I should add that there is usually ZERO audible benefit to improving power bypassing if the opamp isn't oscillating at all. People here are obsessed with bypassing without really knowing what they're doing. You need to choose a good value, and CERAMIC caps are usually the right choice (preferably C0G) for this, not the metal films usually chosen by the modders here. Metal films sound better in audio cicuits, but power bypassing isn't an audio circuit - you need to look at the needs of the application and choose a cap type and size accordingly.

As far as the original topic here, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's probably not worth the effort of any modding to touch the Audigy.
 
Jul 17, 2005 at 9:21 PM Post #11 of 22
Welp. I tried it and I failed. Everything went great when I replaced the first one. I tested it and all the channels worked fine. So I went on to the second one. Thats where the trouble started. I tested it after replacing the 2nd one and the rear left channel no longer worked. I said meh, I'll come back to it and I went to replace the third one. Now I get a faint static noise in the FL, FR, and RR channels. The RL channel has static, but I can hear the correct sound. I've check all my traces and connectivity. Any tips?
 
Jul 19, 2005 at 4:00 AM Post #13 of 22
To see if i could salvage the card. I tried to remove the op amps for the surround channels and resolder the FL and FR op amps. The results were the correct sound except VERY faint. The only way to here it was the plug them into my speakers and turn the volume all the way.

I might give the ART DI/O a try. This should use the digital out of the Audigy (which I assume is still working) and connect to my headphones.

See my thread here
 

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