this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2025
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Electronics

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op amp performance: what factors affect quality? Example case ua741 (bottom) versus NE5532 (top) audio signals, why is NE5532 better, what specific factors contribute to its superiority? (infosec.pub)
submitted 7 months ago by basketugly@lemmy.world to c/electronics@discuss.tchncs.de
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I built two circuits as similarly as possible 1) quad ua741 and dual NE5532. FFT on my Rigol scope showing peaks at 1k and 15k as set/expected (2 channels from Seesil generator are mixed with 1k signal at 80% of 15k signal amplitude) with this I believe I created a tool to do AM with my cheap Seesil generator and can also mix two audio signals.

That said, I have no clue what I am doing. I based my testing procedure off an Elenco radio kit.

So I guess I actually have two questions or areas where I am trying to understand better:

  1. What makes one op-amp better than another? I am talking about the IC itself, I believe. Why is NE5532 better than ua741, I see and hear the difference, now why?

  2. What should I be testing and/or what data should I be collecting to better understand and characterized?

Thank you for your time and consideration. I am 100% self-taught savage from the wilderness and stumbled into your camp, but we are not so different, I promise, just had to walk down different road in life. Thanks again.

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[โ€“] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The difference you're seeing is gain bandwidth product. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gain%E2%80%93bandwidth_product the 741 rolls off at 1MHz and the 5532 rolls off at 10MHz, so it'll go about a decade higher frequency at about the same performance.

If you want the layout difference, in the 741 datasheet look at section 7.2, and on the ne5532, section 8.2, the schematic is different.

On top of that, the 741 was released in 1968, vs 1979 for the 5532. 10 years is huge.

Edit: in case I went too deep: decade in log terms, so if at your gain the 741 degrades at 20khz the 5532 should hit 200khz, all else being equal.

[โ€“] basketugly@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

Thank you, yes I specifically saw a breakdown in my sin wave at ~60 kHz on ua741, and NE5532 got to ~650 kHz before I saw distortion. I thought that was awesome. I will study the layouts as you suggested. Any other advice? Does this also explain the noise floor difference or no?