OPamps still inferior to discrete circuits?

OPA627 is a burr brown sound.. Exactly in its name a color "Brown" sound... Just kidding but its DARKer than other opamps... might be the ticket for a cheaper way to make a system that is over excited settle down, but with that goes a lot of strong bass and clarity..
I have used discretes vs. op amps and the burr browns the discrete will kill it if implemented correctly... I like Analog devices Top dog the AD843 best out of all single chip op amps, however very hard to find.

Undertow - Burr-Brown is Texas Instruments now. Perhaps sound changed from "Brown" to "Instrumental"?

Kijanki
Exactly :-) The burr browns get good reps on headphones, they do produce a certain ambience thats nice.. But if your looking for a raw out rock power with detailed sound they are a bit laid back in many designs.. Again going discrete in fact will take about 20 times the Space as an op amp and way more parts and cost! A good op amp based unit is fine, some cases might be just as good as with some Digital equipment and headphones, so op amps have their place no doubt, and cost effective for sure, a comprable discrete circuit in general the parts alone can cost 100 times the single chip, and just wont even be physically useable in many designs easily. If you can fit it go for it!

My limited experience with the OPA627 is indeed a bit laid back sound. It sounds clean and "transparent", but altogether it doesn't sound very engaging in the long term. I think a discrete layout (a well designed one of course) would give more harmonic richness/complexity to the sound.

Chris

Chris - It might "give more harmonic richness/complexity" if you already have rest of the system that you are happy with. I need to spend money on speakers.

Audio always has been neglected an there is only a handful of opamps designed specifically for the audio. Even one mentioned by Undertow (AD843) as great sounding wasn't designed for the audio (no mention of it or any THD data) but rather as fast settling amp to use as buffer for A/D converters or peak capture or sample/hold circuits.


I am afraid that such advances like SACD come to us only because they have absolute copy protection and not for the sound.