OP AMP Capabilities in Supporting 24 bit bandwidth

Hi
You seem to have locked on a bit of information presented for those digital engineers that have a problem in the analogue realm. Looking at the full spec sheet for the 797 you will find Slew Rate and two listings. 1 for "12.5 volts per microsecond" and one for "Settling Time to 0.0015%--10 volt step --800 nanoseconds" The 0.0015% is the precent value of the LSB for a 16 bit DAC, hence the 16 bit settling time. Analogue folks would have simply divided 1 microsecond by 12.5 volts and multiplied that by 10 and found that 800 nanoseconds was the time that the 797 required to respond to a 10 volt step. Now the difference between a 16 bit audio system and a 24 bit system is dynamic range NOT frequency responce, that depends upon the sampling rate. The full power bandwidth of the 797 at a gain of 10 is 8 MHz, much more than sufficient for any audio system. Back to dynamic range. A standard CD as a maximium dynamic range of 96 db, 6 db per bit, a 24 bit system then should have a dynamic range of 144 db but due to noise limites of the recording and playback loops you will find that the best units specify a range of 110 to 115 db. The 120db noise limit of the 797 exceeds those values by a fair margine and will add no audible noise to any system on the market.
Thanks.......Con

I completely agree with cornelius. 24 bits is a dynamic range issue, not bandwith. The 797 was designed before 24 bit digital audio existed as a regular format, which explains the published information from Analog Devices (and the ELAD spec's). I suspect you may be asking about sampling rate - 96kHz or 192kHz which are also non issues with the 797. It's bandwith exceeds the requirements of 192kHz sample rate by many times.
On a more subjective note, I've had a chance to use an ELAD and it is completely transparent. If you want minimalist, it's a good pick.

I checked out this preamp, and find that it has only 6dB gain, with a switch option for unity gain. It is easy to get distortionless ("transparent") performance from a low or unity gain amp. The trick is to do it with about 30 dB or more gain. I guess you could call this item a "straight wire without gain".

Thank you all, your responses are giving me the most confidence in the ELAD unit. Iam going ahead with the purchase.

Re Eldartford's "30dB or more gain". 30dB of gain is the job of a power amp, not a preamp.
Let's do the math. Most CD players are capable of 1 volt rms output. Most amplifiers have an input sensitivity where 1 to 2 volts rms input will drive them to full output or beyond (and if your speakers are reasonably sensitive, that's gonna blow your head off). So if we put an additional 30dB of gain between your CD player and power amp that means we'll have 31.6 volts rms at the input of your power amp with 1V rms from your CD player. Do you smell smoke?
On another note, if it's so easy to get distortionless performance from a unity gain amp as suggested above, I don't understand why so many people have so much to say about simpler items - like connectors, wire, resistors, capacitors solder, pots, and op-amps. Oops! just built a pre-amp...