NE5532

The NE5532, also sold as SA5532, SE5532 and NG5532 (commonly called just 5532) is a dual monolithic, bipolar, internally compensated operational amplifier (op amp) for audio applications introduced by Signetics in 1979.

The single 5534, as well as the discontinued uncompensated dual 5533, is not fully compensated and is thus unstable at unity gain; the 5534 has lower noise density than the 5532 but is otherwise similar.

[7] The distortion "signature" (that is, the virtual absence of it) of the 5532 is defined largely by the three nested frequency compensation loops wrapped around the second and the third stages.

[11] A typical 5532 operating from ±15 V supply rails retains linearity as long as the input voltages remains within ±13 V range.

[13] The 5532 stands out among audio op amps in having an unusually high absolute maximum supply voltage rating of 44 V (compared to more common 36 V).

[11] A single 0.1 μF high-quality capacitor, connected across the power supply pins and in close proximity to them, is normally sufficient to prevent such oscillations.

[17] Increasing output level to 10 V does not affect performance through most of the audio frequency, except for the octave above 10 kHz where the THD rises to 0.001%.

[19] This form of distortion is most prominent at unity gain, but even there THD remains under 0.002% as long as the source impedance does not exceed 2 kOhm.

[23] The 5534 single operational amplifier is schematically identical to one half the 5532, with marginally different values of the internal compensation capacitors.

In practical applications, particularly large professional audio consoles, these advantages were not as important as was the added complexity, so the single 5534 did not see as much use as the dual 5532.

This is unimportant in audio equipment, where the worst-case, theoretical slew rate at maximum output swing barely exceeds 2 V/μs.

[26] In more demanding applications, stability and high slew rate may be maintained simultaneously with the help of a lead-lag RC network between the 5534 inputs.