[sclemmons]

Not sure I follow this but it sounds exciting. Can one of you guys explain it to me? Is this a new op amp or what?

http://www.stereophile.com/news/062104ti/

On June 10, the technology giant announced a new high-performance headphone driver with specifications that make it ideal for use with high-resolution sources such as DVD-Audio or SACD. The TPA6120A2 has astounding specifications, with dynamic range and signal-to-noise ratio that exceed 120dB. Equally astounding is the chip's slew rate (ability to respond to signal changes) of 1300V/µs. Combined with the TPA6120A2's current-feedback architecture, these specs give the chip "exceptional dynamics, detail and harmonic accuracy," according to TI marketing manager Eric Droge ("drog-ee"), in a phone conversation June 16.

 

[violeta88]

This looks like one of TI's "headphone amp on a chip" designs (the clue is that it comes in TI's PowerPad package, instead of a normal 8-pin SOIC or DIP-8 package (which two channel opamps usually come on).

EDIT: Since I've never heard one of TI's headphone amp chip designs (at least not that I know of) I have no clue whether or not it's actually good or not (Stereophile tends to hype things up if they get free samples

). If it's any good, it sounds pretty interesting though.

 

[Welly Wu]

So, does this mean that it is an op-amp that will become a part of the PCB of newer electronic devices in the hopes of boosting headphone out performance without the addition of a an external and dedicated headphone amplifier? In other words, is this the "answer" to replace the ultra cheap op-amps used in PCDPs, some source components with a headphone jack, and portable MP3 players?

 

[violeta88]

I have a feeling we'll never be able to get rid of those $0.10 opamps in audio equipment. The day I'm waiting for is when the AD8620 becomes a $0.10 opamp (which will probably happen when Hell freezes over

).

EDIT: Based on it's 1KU price, it looks like it's something that would be used as a cheap headphone out in a $1000-$5000 Home DVD/CD player or maybe in a home preamp in the same price range. Since it's minimum power supply requirement is 10V, you won't see this puppy in an iPod or any other mass-produced portable audio/video device.

2ND EDIT: Here's the page with more info on the chip in question: http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folder...tpa6120a2.html

 

[Welly Wu]

Damn...it looks like this Ti chip won't work in my Emmeline HR-2, right? Oh well...

 

[violeta88]

I have a feeling you wouldn't want to put a $1 or so chip in your Emmeline anyways

 

[00940]

http://www5.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=74525

Old news and actually it could sound good according to Kevin Gilmore :

Quote:

Why build it. Sounds great and is sjosae tiny. I mean really tiny. High end? For high impedance phones, sound is amazing for such a little squirt. Low impedance phones, seriously lacking. Yes it certainly sounds better than the opamp/buffer solution.

 

[amb]

Yeah, this chip is "relatively" old news now, and has been mentioned in various threads on both head-fi and headwize.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Welly Wu Damn...it looks like this Ti chip won't work in my Emmeline HR-2, right? Oh well...

Sorry, this is a application-specific chip and not an op amp. It's in a special package with pin-out that is not compatible with regular op amps. It also requires a somewhat unique mounting to allow it to be cooled properly.

-Ti