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Op Amp upgrade

#141
will33 said:
What happened to that one line that used to be on some people's thing that said, " Every time seamonkey posts, somebody buys a tube amp."?
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Do you realize the op-amps are not tubes?

Or are you just trying to stir things up?

You would not be able to build anything equivalent to the op amps mentioned in this thread with tubes. Even the ones that were originally in the the amp. It's not possible.

My only beef in this thread is there is no before and after measurement or recording. That's too bad.

Unless the amp's design was very suspect, I don't believe there would be much of a difference that the average human could hear between the op amps used. People with golden ears is a different story.

The OP is happy, and it only cost a few dollars and he had some fun. Big deal.
 
#142
seamonkey said:
Do you realize the op-amps are not tubes?

Or are you just trying to stir things up?

You would not be able to build anything equivalent to the op amps mentioned in this thread with tubes. Even the ones that were originally in the the amp. It's not possible.

My only beef in this thread is there is no before and after measurement or recording. That's too bad.

Unless the amp's design was very suspect, I don't believe there would be much of a difference that the average human could hear between the op amps used. People with golden ears is a different story.

The OP is happy, and it only cost a few dollars and he had some fun. Big deal.
Click to expand...

The only difference I would've liked to show people is the noise floor. If I get a chance I'll put 2 TL082's back in the the input section of the preamp, record the idle noise, then put the TLE2072's back in and record the idle noise. I would've taken the time to do before and after recordings but I just wanted to got the mods done so I could use them in the few "real life" applications I had coming up. I do regret not doing a b4 and after recording of the AE bypass so other people considering it can hear what it does, but I'm sure other people will do the mod and eventually a b4 and after will get recorded. One other thing I forgot to mention about my personal setup is that I found that by taking the limiter out of the circut (leaving the op amp out of that socket) the noise floor greatly improved as well as the "flat" tone of the amp. I suspect it's because there's something going on with the actual caps or resistors associated with the operation of the limiter circut, but with the limiter all the way off and the op amp in the socket the transformer noise is quite loud and the tone sounds muddier or "rubbery". With the op amp out the noise stops and the tone is very clean. Since I never cared for what the limiter did to the sound anyway I just left it "deactivated".
 
#143
lowfreqgeek said:
I may try some TLEx072s in my Line6 UX2. The TL072s are very noisy with high gain (like the gain required to run a Jensen xfmr-equipped DI) and the power supply is already taxed. The 5V supply means I really need rail-to-rail to have any headroom (OP275 is out...) on the instrument input, and the supply can't give any more juice. I've already done major (really major) upgrades, but it's not there yet.

Doesn't really matter, though, as I have an RME for the "real" work...
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@lowfreqgeek !!! Hi! I realize this is some necroposting but I was wondering if you could elaborate a little on the upgrades you performed on your Line6 UX2. I have this little box and I am interested in squeezing it.

Thanks!
 
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#147
Baddo said:
@lowfreqgeek !!! Hi! I realize this is some necroposting but I was wondering if you could elaborate a little on the upgrades you performed on your Line6 UX2. I have this little box and I am interested in squeezing it.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I wish I could remember. That was a good 6+ years ago that I did the mods, and I shelved the Line6 in favor of the RME Fireface quite a few years ago. In the end, it just wasn't worth any upgrades. The power supply just couldn't handle any better opamps, and the PCB couldn't handle the rework - it's about the thinnest copper that could be used for a consumer electronics device, so it didn't hold up to the heat.

Sorry I'm not able to give you more info. The UX2 was cool at the time, but there are much better options on the market these days.
 
#148
lowfreqgeek said:
I wish I could remember. That was a good 6+ years ago that I did the mods, and I shelved the Line6 in favor of the RME Fireface quite a few years ago. In the end, it just wasn't worth any upgrades. The power supply just couldn't handle any better opamps, and the PCB couldn't handle the rework - it's about the thinnest copper that could be used for a consumer electronics device, so it didn't hold up to the heat.

Sorry I'm not able to give you more info. The UX2 was cool at the time, but there are much better options on the market these days.
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Not a problem. I am using one with my laptop and thought I might do some work on it. Thank you for replying!
 

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