Mod your Beresford 7520

[Gazjam]

Speaking of the NE5532P....

Someone in the thread mentioned the OP2132 with the NE5532P in the HPA socket as making his system sound the "best balanced" he'd heard.

Got curious (as I do) and tried it yesterday. OP1232 in Line Out, NE5532P in HPA.

Very very good actually - smoother but better projected vocals than with the 2132 in HPA. Also, the speakers seem to shift more air than they did before at lower volumes?
A bit more gutsy sounding.
Good stuff, going to keep em in for a wee while, let my ears get used to the "improvement"

Jerry, recommend you try it, see what you think?

Gary.

[Covenant]

Blimey the 5532? Was that the one in the original 7520? I want elusive exotica me.

[leo]

Don't be too quick to judge the old 5532 it may not be the quietest , fastest highest bandwidth etc but it can drive loads well , actually not a bad little performer if used within its limits

I'm finding the Philips 5532AN sounds quite different to the TI 5532P

[Gazjam]

Blimey the 5532? Was that the one in the original 7520? I want elusive exotica me.

I'm telling you Jerry - give it a try, might surprise you.
Perhaps theres a LITTLE less bass depth, but the improvements elsewhere mean you might not even care.

Theres some alchemy going on with the Dac and these opamps...Who'd have thunk the HPA would affect the Line out so much?

Just a random thought....would the Dac work on Line out if there wasn't an OpAmp in the Headphone socket?
I'm thinking that as the sound is so dependant on whats in the other socket....what would it be like when there is NO other OpAmp to affect it?
(Assuming it works in the first place?)

Could try it, but I've dismantled my Dac so ofter recently I want a rest!

[lovejoy]

You hit the nail on the head there Gaz, there's definitely some alchemy going on here, possibly black magic even.

Just been trying your recommendations after receiving some 2132 op-amps in the post yesterday.

My first impressions of the 2132 are very good. Beautifully lush midrange, vocals are gorgeous and projected right out in front of you and a lovely sweet and smooth treble.. But oh, that bass.. It's overpowering and it's ruining everything else...

Then I remembered that I still had the MLC5/6 mod in from a few weeks back, i.e. replaced MLC5/6 with 100nf/33KOhm resistor pair which was done to augment the bass on the 4562 (I still have a 4562 in the headphone socket at this point by the way). So I took the cap/resistor out of the circuit and things were a little better in the bass, but also it seemed to lose some of the lushness in the midrange too.

So, onto Gaz's recommendation, I put the 5532 into the headphone op-amp socket and sure enough, the bass is back under control and there's still that lovely three dimensionality and projection of vocals into the room. However... The first thing I noticed was that piano now sounds metallic, things are a lot brighter and the whole thing sounds somewhat more 'digital' to my ears.

Next up, I took out the 5532 and put in a 2107. I ordered a couple of 2107s for the 7520 pre-Wolfson DAC and didn't get on with it at all, but decided that it was worth a try as so many things had changed since.. Well, I'm rather glad I did as it's coming out as current favourite...

Now I am trying to decide which chip is best in which socket... With the 2132 in the line out and the 2107 in the headphone, it retains that soundstage you can walk around, well projected vocals and deep but well controlled bass, but is still a little bright, but swap the chips around and treble becomes much sweeter, bass is still bang on (possibly even slightly better) but the three dimensionality is lost and it's more of a wall of sound - sounds almost like a piece of Naim kit in fact.

One thing is for sure though, the 2132 stays. If there was a way of curtailing the bass with the 4562 in the headphone socket then I think that would be the best of all worlds, but the 2107, for now is a very good compromise.

[lovejoy]

..Ah yes, before I forget, to answer your question Gaz.

Yes, you can run without an op-amp in the headphone socket. Try taking your 5532 out and see what you think. I thought it sounded better than with the 5532 in, but I've suddenly grown quite partial to a spot of late night headphone listening after discovering recently just how good the headphone amp in the Caiman is.

[Covenant]

Great stuff chaps-I will try the 5532 in the HPA tonight (if I can find it). One thing I really like and would hate to lose is that expansive soundstage that the 2132 creates. The 2107 sounds interesting. I may order one.

[Gazjam]

Cheers Rich.

Yeah its a bit of a minefield this opamp malarky - what makes it worse (probably) is that they are probably system dependant too!

Didn't pick up from your first post....
Has your 7520 been fitted with the Wolfsen Dac chip?

If so, your Dacs the same as mine and your observations are even more interesting to me.

I'll try taking out the HPA Amp, see how I like that.
I do agree though, the 2132 is the best I've tried in the Line Out socket.

Soundstage is pretty amazing.

[Alexxus]

Just an update on my side, maybe someone finds it interesting. I eventually replaced the DAC chip with the Wolfson (great improvement, btw). The DAC sounds better than ever, it has moved up a class, I'd say.

Still using the 4562 on the HPA and until today the 4032 on the line out. Very much to my taste, the sound on the speakers. Very detailed, very precise. The lows though not quite plentiful, are controlled, the highs very much to my liking, can't detect any sibilance at all, but then again my Spendors are not exactly aggressive speakers, either.

Today I tried the AD826 on the line out. Not very pleased with the initial findings. The highs seem a touch more refined, but also more recessed than with the 4032, while the mids are sometimes better, most times worse (as in muddier) than with the 4032. I'm not quite sure what to think, I'll give it a bit more time see if anything changes, but to me it seemed the instruments were a lot better separated with the 4032, some pieces, particularly heavily populated music, now sound a bit muddy, it's like the sounds are bleeding into each other, if I'm making any sense here.

Haven't tried getting back to 4562 on the line-out yet. Can someone please remind me what the MLC5/6 mod was supposed to do, apart from better bass? I seem to recall the mod was recommended for both op-amps 4562, is that correct?

Sometimes I do wonder why I'm faffing about with the DAC so much, once I found the sound I like. The answer I give myself is that I do it because some of the changes have brought a degree of improvement I would not have thought possible, so I keep hoping the wonder will happen once again. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. But still, for the extra money, the improvement is nothing short of amazing from the stock product, which in itself is quite a remarkable piece of kit.

[StanleyB]

Is anyone saving up to buy a new amp or set of speakers since buying a Caiman?

The opamp I prefer to use is the NE5532FE, which was also fitted as stock item to the legendary Philips CD960 and Marantz CD94 CD players. They are ceramic chips, compared to the more common can or plastic cased opamps. They seem to match my system quite well.