Anyone ever flexed with the DNZ designation of the OP07 (OP07DNZ)?

[Andon]

Howdy! Making a somewhat substantial order from Mouser for a run of pedals and I noticed when looking through their OP07 offerings there's a designation of an OP07DNZ that's more than a dollar cheaper per chip ($1.65 for the DNZ, $2.84/86 for the CP or DP variant). Normally I order the OP07DP, so this of course caught my attention.

Comparing them on Mouser and looking at their datasheets there are a few minor variances such as physical difference in height, input bias, minimum dual supply voltages (4v vs 3v), operating temperature ranges, and obviously manufacturer (the DNZ is made by Analog Devices Inc., the latter two of course by Texas Instruments), but what "really" matters about them when it comes to their usual uses - the slew rates - are pretty darn close! 0.2 V/us for the DNZ compared to 0.3V/us for the CP/DP. I would link directly to the comparison table, but Mouser links don't work that way unfortunately.

So, my question is has anyone used the DNZ chips, and are they reliable enough to purchase in any substantial quantity? Doing so would save some coin, but I'd only be willing to do so if I'm not compromising my builds. I also did some digging through Google and found a scant few mentions of them actually being used in ProCo production, so that's at least promising, right?

Thanks for any insight or input!

[iainpunk]

they will most likely be fine, 9/10 of guitar players wouldn't notice the difference anyways, and non-guitar players even less so.
a lower slew rate means softer/smoother, most of the time, so thats not something to be worried about.

if you are building rats and want to save some cash and some real-estate, you could use a LM358 and replace the transistor buffer with an opamp buffer. the 358 has 0.3v/us and sound great when overdriven.
if you don't mind spending a lot of time and real estate, using the CA3130 for a rat-like circuit could be really really nice, but it needs a whole circuit around it to make it function softly, if you just throw it in the original circuit, it will sound harsh.

cheers, Iain

[Andon]

Just wanted to update that the OP07DNZ works great, so save yourselves that extra buck or more and give the DNZs a try!

[GGBB]

Check the datasheets. "NZ" is AD's suffix for PDIP-8. So an OP07DNZ is an OP07D. Likewise, "P" is TI's suffix for PDIP. So an OP07DP is an OP07D. Same chip, different manufacturer.

[Andon]

Good looking out, thank you! I actually did look at the datasheets to compare specs, but must've just skipped over the suffix descriptions in trying to see any physical or operational differences. Any idea why there would be such a discrepancy in price between the two manufacturers when it seems like so many other op-amps and components are usually pretty similarly/competitively priced?

[GGBB]

Disclaimer: I work for TI. But that doesn't make me any kind of an expert - I'm a software developer in their IT division - I don't know all that much more about IC manufacturing than most of us here although that's probably more than the average human.

Many (most? all?) ICs start out as a company-specific design. Other companies might offer the same IC in order to compete. They are not the same thing - they are just functional equivalents that implement the same specifications. Kind of like pedal clones. Each company creates their own dies and manufactures their wafers according to their own processes and standards. Some manufacturers can do that more economically than others (cost can even vary depending on the plant within the company), but it might have more to do with marketing. It may be that if you are the "copy" you want to price your product below that of the "original" for obvious reasons. I don't know that to be the case here.