Lm833 chip substitution

[Kipper4]

Has anyone subbed out any lm833 chips with NE5532 iirc
If so which did you like best?

[bluebunny]

Can't say I've ever tried a swap-and-listen test, but I understand they're pretty much the same (identical?) beast under the covers.

[Kipper4]

Thanks Mark

[Jopn]

Good to know they're so similar, I'll try an A/B in one of my pedals tonight that uses a LM833.  NE5532 is roughly half the price of a LM833, so I'll just need to adjust my retirement investment plans around this new found $0.30 in savings!

[alexradium]

ne5532 is good for hifi linear stuff,lm833 has a fatter sound,very good for overdrives that maybe are too scooped or bright,very low noise too.

[ggedamed]

ne5532 is good for hifi linear stuff,lm833 has a fatter sound,very good for overdrives that maybe are too scooped or bright,very low noise too.

Noise (from the datasheet): NE5532 5nV/sqrt(Hz), LM833 4.5nV/sqrt(Hz), TL072 18nV/sqrt(Hz). Noisewise, LM833 and NE5532 are very close. We're talking about stompboxes, so it doesn't matter anyway.

To add to the confusion, here's a nice read from an audiophyle: NwAvGuy: Op Amp Measurements.

[Kipper4]

Intresting stuff thanks for the read.
I think i'll order some NE5532 just for a test. Nothing scientific you understand.
If i cant tell the differance i might as well go with the cheaper option in builds that require these chips in future.(i'm a hobbyist after all)
Thanks guys I appreciate the opinions and responses.

[Paul Marossy]

Looking at the schematics on both datasheet PDFs, they both look like BJT opamps to me. I really doubt anyone could really hear a difference between the two. If you compared it to an FET opamp like a TL072, maybe you might be able to hear something - maybe. Usually I can only see the differences on a scope and if I am hearing something, it's sooooo subtle that I wonder if I really do hear anything. Still not convinced that I ever did in any of my testing... 

[PRR]

LM833  and NE5532 are in fact very different designs; but '833 was designed to work in most '5532 holes and give essentially identical (clean and strong) results.

They both clip "politely", but probably don't clip The-Same. They are intended for 11V signals in +/-18V systems, where they "never" clip. Or only for an instant until the operator pots-down. If you feed 9V and crank 5V signals through, steady, there may be a sonic difference.

Input bias currents are opposite, which may give different results with very large bias resistor.

[Paul Marossy]

They both clip "politely", but probably don't clip The-Same. They are intended for 11V signals in +/-18V systems, where they "never" clip. Or only for an instant until the operator pots-down. If you feed 9V and crank 5V signals through, steady, there may be a sonic difference.

I don't know of any guitars that have a 5V output... 

[~arph]

pedals on the other hand..

[Paul Marossy]

pedals on the other hand..

And if your taking the really hot output of a dirt pedal and putting into another dirt pedal, all you'll get is a whole lot of noise and probably instant uncontrollable feedback as well. Not a realistic scenario if you ask me...

[Kipper4]

Well i'm getting about 1.8v at the output with everything maxed out on the dirt box.

[merlinb]

And if your taking the really hot output of a dirt pedal and putting into another dirt pedal, all you'll get is a whole lot of noise and probably instant uncontrollable feedback as well. Not a realistic scenario if you ask me...

Um... I think you may have ventured into the land of misunderstanding...

[Paul Marossy]

And if your taking the really hot output of a dirt pedal and putting into another dirt pedal, all you'll get is a whole lot of noise and probably instant uncontrollable feedback as well. Not a realistic scenario if you ask me...

Um... I think you may have ventured into the land of misunderstanding...

I guess so because I'm not following how you would ever get an input signal of 5V on the input of a guitar pedal using any kind of guitar. Maybe 2V PTP with some hot active pickups. If a guitar pedal feeding another guitar pedal instead, maybe you might get more than that but to feed a pedal with a continuous 5V as PRR states above, it would have to be freaking loud, and it would overload the input of the next pedal and you would just have a mess. That's how I see it anyway.

[merlinb]

I guess so because I'm not following how you would ever get an input signal of 5V on the input of a guitar pedal using any kind of guitar.

From a guitar, no. But you might have more than one opamp in the same pedal, so the first one could boost the signal to 5V or more. Make sense?

[Pojo]

There are a lot of common situations where an opamp in a pedal is fed a signal that isn't freshly born from the guitar pickups. For example, the last overdrive I made had tubescreamer like opamp stage that followed a fet boosting stage. And what about the 2nd opamp in a tubescreamer that handles the tone control? I would guess that the input of that regularly takes a good pounding! Also stacking overdrives is a pretty common practice (myself included). Then there's all the many many other effects which use opamps.

That said, I don't know how common it is for a signal to hit 5V and stay there for a while. I just wanted to point out that opamps within pedals are exposed to boosted and mangled signals all the time.

[Kipper4]

I see where thats coming from.
Just to clear things up this is a single dual op amp distortion circuit.

[PRR]

> guitars that have a 5V output...  

One of several common distortion topologies takes a, say, 0.1V input and applies a gain of 100 to 500. One popular form limits with diodes, but others let the opamp slam the rails.

Yes of course we don't feed all that to the Champ. Most such distortion boxes have a volume control at the end.

[Paul Marossy]

I guess so because I'm not following how you would ever get an input signal of 5V on the input of a guitar pedal using any kind of guitar.

From a guitar, no. But you might have more than one opamp in the same pedal, so the first one could boost the signal to 5V or more. Make sense?

Yes, that makes sense, but I don't know about getting to a 5V output on a 9V pedal. Is that even possible?

Practically speaking, who would have every single control on their pedal at maximum, and especially the volume/level? Not many people, except for maybe SRV...