I'm putting together a "cheat sheet" of op amp comparisons, based on those frequently offered for sale cheaply on Amazon & ebay, intending to cover most common (ie non-specialist) applications.
The choice of op ampls is HUGE so I need to narrow the range.
I've started by restricting it to devices offered in DIP packages, mainly 8 pin, and mainly dual op amps.
So far I have the following list, and I've worked through data sheets extracting what I consider to be the most important features:
If anyone has REASONED suggestions of other op amps or characteristics to add I'll be pleased to consider adding them to the list.
Extracting specs from data sheets can be tricky as devices may come in different grades or specify characteristics in different ways, so you'ld always need to refer back to the data sheet once you made your choice.
I like what you're doing but personally I stick to electronics suppliers/distributors. And most op-amps are "cheap" so to me it's not worth the risk of buying rejects on eBay.
I'm not sure how to find out what op-amps are the most popular... I Googled "What's the most popular op-amp" and I got a few "top 10" lists so if you haven't done that already, try it. You might want to check what SparkFun & Adafruit sell because they cater to hobbyists.
I was going to suggest Jameco but it looks like they sell a selection of almost 100. I've been buying from Jameco for a LONG TIME, from the mail-order and phone-order days before the Internet! And if they don't have what I'm looking for it's Digikey or Mouser. (But Digikey & Mouser sell "everything" and I doubt they'd share their sales records.) And, I've bought a couple of things from SparkFun and Adafruit.
...I may have bought an Arduino from Amazon once. It would have been a real Arduino sold by Amazon, not a clone and not from a 3rd-party seller. I've never bought a "chip" or resistors/capacitors or anything like that from Amazon. I've never bought anything on eBay.
It depends on what you want to do , there are op amps for all sorts of applications, hi frequency , very low offset , low noise and so on , so making list is not easy ....
If you think about the sort of projects you want , then probably 4 or so different types would satisfy you .
I use suppliers for most stuff , often as cheap as eBay, and reliable quality ( even resistors on eBay are often out of tolerance).
If you go to somewhere like RS Components you can generate comparison charts by using the compare option
Really, it depends a lot where you live. I can mail order from the big suppliers in the US, and pay 5-10 times as much for the shipping as for the parts, because they refuse to use the USPS - only courier services that create inflationary expenses at the border (including, the galling service tax on the mandatory brokerage service). Or, I can order from my proven supply houses in China, wait a bit longer but pay 50%-90% less, with free or negligible postage. If you don't live in the continental U.S.A., it's just not the same choice. There are no walk in counters left that I know of, in the big cities here in Canada... the only places left are hobby electronics outlets.
So, it's been many years since I ordered anything from the big supply houses. I've always got clean, authentic parts from my trusted Asian supplier but I do understand that you have to be careful.
Some misconceptions here: I Started by googling top ten lists but I found they repeated the same ones over and over (in the same list, but different versions)
like this one, that seems to think only the 358 and 741 exist;
that listed parts that were obsolete in 1970. (uA709 ?)
WHy did I refer to Amazon and ebay?
Because ..
the suppliers have evolved their selling to mainly offer parts that are in high demand.
no minimum order quantity
no inflated prices for postage
keen prices
As I'm now very much a "hobbyist" I dont have access to main suppliers, have no use for bulk orders, and price IS a concern - while I could tolerate the odd reject. However, buying from Amazon / ebay I have not had any bad parts as yet.
I've just ordered 5 * TLV2462 for a project - from ebay - cost inc p&p £2.50.
From RS Components - cost £17.50
and shipping to the UK from the US? Cheaper to fly over and bring 'em back!
Why buy opamps on eBay or Amazon, most are fakes nowadays... Absolutely not worth the risk.
For low noise at low source impedance the AD797 is very strong contender.
There are some rail-to-rail audio spec opamps around now but I never remember the
part numbers!
For 5V use the AD8656 has a good combination of low noise, high precision, high drive capability
and good bandwidth / low distortion, and is properly rail-to-rail.
For 5V use you have to be careful of "rail-to-rail" in the headlines of the datasheet as its common
to see rail-to-rail on the outputs only, and even then that might only be able to drive 10k or
higher to utilize.
The LM358 is poor in several ways, its not rail-to-rail, its power bandwidth is shockingly low (not
enough for audio for instance), and the output drive is very asymmetric. Some of the MCP
devices are worthy replacements (tend to be 5V, rail-to-rail, low power (and thus low bandwidth
of course).
NE5532 is still a good workhorse for audio, but as with any bipolar opamp watch out for
the bias current increasing the offset voltage.
MarkT:
Why buy opamps on eBay or Amazon, most are fakes nowadays... Absolutely not worth the risk.
I thought I explained that. For many people, it's a necessity. The only time I've ever been burned, was with pulls that were advertised as new parts. I fought and got a refund for that one. I found a really good supplier in Hong Kong that has a huge inventory of clean, genuine parts so I always look there first. Their prices are not the lowest, I think if you search for the absolute rock bottom lowest price your chances of getting a fake are greatly increased. Some of those suppliers do the online sales as a side line, they also supply big companies and so they actually implement ISO9000 and so on...
I think op amps must be victims of progress, too, as they tend more and more to be integrated into the IC's instead of being discretes. Also especially in DIP packages which are basically obsolete. I got a lot of mileage from the TL08x series, they are as common as the TL07x.
