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Why is the 741 op amp still produced?
schmitt trigger:
--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on September 19, 2020, 01:46:53 am ---The 741 is one of those products that established a standard in its category. It is like the 6L6
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And let’s not forget that ubiquitous double triode, the 12AX7/ ECC83.
NiHaoMike:
I haven't seen a 741 "in the wild" in a very long time, but I did see lots of 4580s and whatnot on sound cards until digital became the norm.
I suspect a lot of "classic" opamps like the 741 and LM386 are still used in music production specifically for their less than perfect audio qualities.
--- Quote from: Kleinstein on September 19, 2020, 09:51:30 pm ---There are plenty of OP versions that are not really needed any more: e.g. TL082 if there are TL072 (tighter noise specs) at essentially the same price and sometimes even cheaper.
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That was once done to sell the parts that fail to qualify as the superior version, but nowadays with much more mature processes, I suspect most of the "inferior" parts are simply remarked to meet demand.
--- Quote from: schmitt trigger on September 20, 2020, 03:48:20 pm ---And let’s not forget that ubiquitous double triode, the 12AX7/ ECC83.
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We can thank the audiophiles for that. Of course, they're not really after better audio quality when they use tubes, they're after making it sound like the way they remembered it back in the day.
David Hess:
--- Quote from: Circlotron on September 18, 2020, 10:49:46 pm ---The 741 might have been a big deal in its day, but things have moved on. Nowadays we have a zillion different op amps to choose from, ranging from similar to vastly improved performance.
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How many of those parts have a maximum supply voltage of 44 volts and a maximum differential input voltage of 30 volts? These things make the 741 easy to use at higher supply voltages.
There are parts with those characteristics which are significant improvements over the 741, but they are several times more expensive, and even they are 30+ years old.
Things are even worse when you consider the equally old 301A which supports external compensation and clamping unlike anything modern.
David Hess:
--- Quote from: floobydust on September 19, 2020, 08:55:57 pm ---Why is a LM358 $0.15 but a better part over 10x the cost? Do they have more gold-pressed latinum inside?
An op-amp that has true competition has a reasonable price. Multiple-sourced 741, 358, 4558 is also why they are still alive.
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The 358/324 were optimized from the start for small die size which is why dual and quad parts were even possible. Improved replacements for them like the LT1013/LT1014 are optimized for performance and are huge in comparison.
julian1:
What I find odd, is that there are >8000 op-amp variations available, all trying to exploit vanishingly small and segmented market niches. But it's really hard to find common matched npn/pnp pairs (on the same substrate) in order to implement current mirrors, long tail pairs, differential amps - which are the building blocks of analog circuits and those op-amps. I only know a couple of inexpensive parts bcm846 bcm857, unless I completely fail at parameterized search.
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