The KillerDAC Audio forum

Hi Tuyen

Yes, I have been through soo many opamps in the last 35 years, it's not funny.  the NE5532 and 34 types are littered everywhere due to low cost and I have been replacing them for many a year.  I was shocked when I decided to open my expensive SACD player to find them in the output stage, actually, I was as annoyed as all hell as the unit in question was supposedly upgraded at great cost (another scam for some RF shielding paint which had been brushed on by the looks of a 4 year old).

No doubt there will be many saying that drop in replacements will not always work, and indeed in some cases, oscillation will occur due to poor power supply and feedback arrangements  .

I have now gone over to the dark side  and can whole heartedly recommend the Sparkos range of devices.  I use their regulators too as it provides a much darker background (read better signal to noise ratio) which allows the finer detail through with greater ease and less smear.  Their opamps breath a whole new life into the results similar in going from a 1000 dollar amp to a 5000 dollar amp or more and whilst not cheap, they do enable the lifting of the overall sound by around 20 to 25% in my ratings, thus they have my full recommendation.

You will find more sound stage depth and width, oh and height too, easier to hear into sound with better everything as far as I am concerned and represents the finest there currently is.  Big claim, but I have now used these devices in several different pieces of equipment and every time it has been a grin inducing result at modest cost.

IMO they rate higher than the Burson range which can be a brighter enhanced treble detail and I have all of theirs to directly compare too along with the original Sun and Earth range from the originators of discrete opamps.  AD 845's are not too bad and cheap.
V

Just a couple of  comments  re bypassing . I dont   recomend bypassing in signal path unless its bypassing  electrolytics  such as the back  to back type in many  early cd players like the Marantz  cd 94 etc ,and its not perfect but still an improvement over the inferior electrolytic  on their own . , but you HAVE   to use a .01 uf  .  It may be only one decimal  point  but will make the difference from  being great to crap .    .Miflex dont make a .01 uf unfortunately  . In fact i did try their .02 uf cap as a bypass  and that didn't sound right either .Thats how  critical  it can be .  Secondly , many cheaper film caps can be a bit bright compared to a jupiter copper foil  for example  and could  tilt the  the upper frequencies up a bit . 
    Where bypassing works ,  is with electrolytics in power supplies . Only use a .01 uf  copper foil like Duelund  or  Jupiter ..  they have come down in price now  so no one needs to use an inferior .01 uf cap . 
    If you are using  a decent output  cap  no need to bypass in my opinion.  . My vsf caps in the 94 mk2  are not bypassed .

I removed the Miflex copper caps I had by passing the Andyn's, turns out the by pass was smearing the sound, over all much better with just the Andyn copper caps without them.

Kicking myself for putting them across the Andyn caps, sound is so much better without them 

Now, I wonder if Duelund's new JDM range being released will be more like the Cast or the VSF's, hope someone here reports after trying them 

I have lots of toys for sale, i will list them

This sort of post will just push up the price of the Leak even higher I only got one Stereo 20 and I still want another one (or two!).

Nice Yamamura IC, I need another pair for my bedroom system, you selling? 

This is not a leak stereo 20 straight from an uninformed techs hand, it is a full on, cost no object amp, with a wise choice of parts and the best valves, not the standard rebuilt leaks from the net or eBay. .