CHAPTER 25
Power Supplies
“We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom”.
Stephen Vincent Benet: Litany for Dictatorships, 1935
Opamp Supply Rail Voltages
It has been mentioned several times in the earlier chapters of this book that running opamps at the slightly higher voltage of ±17 V rather than ±15 V gives an increase in headroom and dynamic range of 1.1 dB for virtually no cost and with no reliability penalty. Soundcraft ran all the opamps in their mixing consoles at ±17 V for at least two decades, and opamp failures were almost unknown. This recommendation assumes that the opamps concerned have a maximum supply voltage rating of ±18 V, which is the case for the Texas TL072, the new LM4562, and many other types.
The 5532 is (as usual) ...
