Beresford 7520 op amps upgrades?

[Jez1983]

Hi
i recently purchased a TC 7520 (i love it!) and have read many forums about upgrading the op amps to LM4562NA. I just want to do some basic upgrades to my dac (as i have no idea about soldering or more complex upgrades)

Can someone please just confirm for me that these are the best op amps u can buy, i dont care how much they cost i just want the best possible sound and am i right that i would need 2 of them, one for the fixed line, one for the variable line?

Also what would be a good power supply upgrade?
ive seen one on ebay that is by fedelity audio and its over the £200 mark, absolutley ridiculous considering the dac was £155!

Any help is much appreciated!!

[Gazjam]

Hi Jez,
Welcome to AOS!

Having been down the road your on, trying out different opamps etc...I'd recommend the best opamp to be...no opamp!

Have a look at the "passive mod revealed" thread, where it is shown that the whole opamp board can be removed (easy to do) and replaced by inserting two capacitors in the socket holes where the opamp board fitted.

Much better sound than any opamp swapping can do, only snag is you lose headphone functionality.
If you NEED headphones, Stan Beresfords "Gator" board (a replacement for the opamp board) gives the same upgrade but keeps headphone functionality.

Regarding power supplies look no further than the "Going linear with the Caiman" thread..
The recommended psu by Stan is ALL you need to make your Dac sing...

Hope this helps!
Gaz

[Jez1983]

thanks for the reply.

Have had a read of all those threads.
would love to do the passive mod, sounds very interesting but i have no idea how to solder or fit a 47uF non-polarized capacitor, I would need a complete dummies/beginners guide if i wanted to do that.
Guess all i can do is swap the op amps for the LM4562NA ones

[leo]

You can try the passive out mod without soldering :) its a case of unplugging the audioboard and plugging in a couple of capacitors into part of an onboard socket on the dacs front panel. Theres pics somewhere showing how

[leo]

Heres one kindly posted by Andrew, look at it closely and read the text underneath http://theartofsound.net/forum/showpost.php?p=135736&postcount=117

You loose some output gain going passive as well as loosing the headphone output, if this doesn't suit your setup Stan sells a discrete board which is a nice alternative

[Jez1983]

thanks for the reply. I dont really want to lose the headphone out so ive just emailed stan to ask him if he can help

[Paul]

Hi Jez

I can definitly say that Stan will give you the same info He gave Me.

Gator Board plus AD826 with a Caiman PSU, a very very good upgrade for around £60, and easy to do , certainly brings the 7520 out of it's shell so to speak!

I have a spare LM4562NA if your interested as mine are now redundant.

Cheers
Paul