[sci.electronics] Which Op-amp to Use

raoul@eplunix.UUCP (Nico Garcia) (04/24/91)

In article <27075@hydra.gatech.EDU>, gt0869a@prism.gatech.EDU (WATERS,CLYDE GORDON) writes:
> Why use a 741 when a TL072 or Tl074 is almost the same price and is orders
> of magnitude better in noise, bandwidth, etc? You can get 074's for <$1
> around here, at least (quad op-amp- neat for crossovers-LP and HP in 
> one chip)

Because in prototypes they can get fried a lot, and *everybody* has or makes
741's even cheaper. The 074's also take more board space and more power per
chip, don't have Vos compensation circuits, and you can't bypass the power
supplies for each op-amp independently. Being denser, they make prototyping
on a protoboard (which I do a lot) more difficult. (Note: audio doesn't
always use DC so Vos compensation is often not needed, but a bad offset can
reduce your dynamic range considerably and inject serious and unnecessary
clipping.)

Yes, they're great chips, I've used them. But for testing or design,
I try to stick with the simplest part possible, and upgrade only as the
design requires. Makes debugging and fail-safe analysis easier, too.

'Nuff said.
-- 
			Nico Garcia
			Designs by Geniuses for use by Idiots
			eplunix!cirl!raoul@eddie.mit.edu