NXP NE5532/NE5534 - did they ever make them?

[magic]

I recently saw NXP-branded 5532s and 5534s for sale at some shady corners of the Internet.
I was absolutely sure they must be fakes, because NXP was spun off in 2006 and I've heard Philips discontinued those parts around 2000.

However, just to be sure, I ran a search and found people in several threads at diyaudio mentioning "NXP 5532" as if it's a real thnig and nobody seems to be scolding them for that

So, they are all guaranteed fakes, right?

[SiliconWizard]

Not necessarily fake, unless they are marked NXP on their packages.

Most likely they are just old stock Philips components, sold as "NXP". Just like you can fin myriads of eBay sales on old HP instrumentation labeled as "Agilent". It's just to attract "young" buyers who wouldn't happen to know the original manufacturer's name (or know they were making this kind of product), a very frequent practice on those sites. Many young engineers may not even know that Philips used to make ICs. I hate this kind of deceptive practices, but they are quite common.

Now if the chips are indeed marked "NXP" on their packages, they are fake, but I'd be willing to think they are just in the above case.

[magic]

Yes, I'm talking NXP stamped on the package. This logo below looks quite shoddy but I've seen better ones.

I can't find the exact year Philips discontinued them, but everywhere I read about it it's Philips discontinuing them rather than NXP.

[nctnico]

The transition from Philips to NXP took place in januari 2006. NXP doesn't even have a datasheet on their website for the NE5532. But why don't you buy the NE5532 made by Texas Instruments? These are still active.

[magic]

At the risk of adding fuel to audiophoolery and the cult of ancient NOS:
Multiple actually serious people from audio industry said TI are detectably worse in THD performance then just about everybody else.

Which gave me the idea to sample some NOS parts and see it. I avoided those NXP because I believe these are fraudulent markings and I wouldn't even know what's inside without cracking them open.

And yes, I couldn't locate a datasheet either.

[Cnoob]

https://cpc.farnell.com/search?st=NE5532

TI ones

[SiliconWizard]

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/op-amps/3705786/
Marked as discontinued, under the NXP brand, but the referenced datasheets are indeed Philips ones.

Also on Arrow: https://www.arrow.com/en/products/ne5532n602/nxp-semiconductors
The linked datasheet is also a Philips one.

Absolutely no clue about the chips marking when they were still sold. Kinda doubt it was ever NXP. I guess one way of checking is to buy a couple. Even without cracking them open: fake chips often have very cheap/lousy markings: just rubbing them with some alcohol may erase them, which gives a hint.

[magic]

Okay, I finally managed to find something official on NXP website.
https://www.nxp.com/wcm_documents/products/eol/dn51_a.pdf

NE5532x: Type number fully withdrawn. No last time buy possible. No possibility of further Philips manufacture due to CAEN fire.

Caen fire appears to refer to a literal fire at their wafer fab in Caen, France, in December 2003.
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1195587

LONDON — The European Commission has authorized the transfer of 33 million euro (about $43 million) in state aid to Philips Semiconductors, for use at its facility at Caen, France, where a wafer fab was damaged by fire on 12 Dec. 2003.

So I guess NXP never had a chance to make those chips. But it was only 2 years before the spinoff.

Even without cracking them open: fake chips often have very cheap/lousy markings: just rubbing them with some alcohol may erase them, which gives a hint.

Yes, but it doesn't tell you what they really are and I was already pretty sure they are "rebranded" parts without rubbing them

And by the way, fake markings are often done quite decently and aren't erased by alcohol or acetone. Only the truly bottom of the barrel fakes may be so obvious.

[nctnico]

Absolutely no clue about the chips marking when they were still sold. Kinda doubt it was ever NXP. I guess one way of checking is to buy a couple. Even without cracking them open: fake chips often have very cheap/lousy markings: just rubbing them with some alcohol may erase them, which gives a hint.

Not always. For example: the fake FTDI FT232 chips look better compared to the originals.

@magic: good find about the fire! I found it weird that Philips discontinued such a popular chip but losing their legacy product factory seems like a good enough reason.

[David Hess]

At the risk of adding fuel to audiophoolery and the cult of ancient NOS:
Multiple actually serious people from audio industry said TI are detectably worse in THD performance then just about everybody else.

The nominally same integrated circuit made by different manufacturers can have significant differences not covered by the specifications so I would not say that it is impossible for TI's NE5532/NE5534 to have higher distortion.

Which gave me the idea to sample some NOS parts and see it. I avoided those NXP because I believe these are fraudulent markings and I wouldn't even know what's inside without cracking them open.

It would be useful to depackage the ICs anyway to see exactly what is inside.  Sometimes a single large company, like TI, will end up producing multiple implementations originally designed by others of the same part.