NE5532: NE5532 problem?

Hi Renno,

Welcome to e2e.
We would need more information to determine if NE5532 is possibly failing.
NE5532P and NE5532PE4 can be replaced by each other. It only changes in Quality and environmental data:

Based on the marking (N5532) I think you're using SO or SOIC package. You can consult the device marking from Product Folder > Order Now > Device Marking

Best regards,
-Ivan Salazar
Applications Engineer - Low Power Audio & Actuators

Hi

The unit has one single ended output + balanced output for headphones (one output works at a time).

If the unit is cold (on PC startup) then the sound is fine. Until the unit gets hot everything is fine. Once it is hot then at I can hear some cracking/popping from the headphones.

After that the balanced output has no sound at all (I am using 600Ohm headphones, which can be hard to drive) and the single ended out put has only one channel (I think left one) and it is almost completely silent aswell.The unit has a gain switch, which seems to be working, but the amplification is still almost non existant.

Here is some pictures of the internals of the AMP/DAC unit (onedrive link), based on that I identified two separate N5532 units:

1drv.ms/.../s!AtcEnxaQwuaEhaMK9xa30nhP--vHVw

So the NE5532PE4 is the better quality of the two or which one should I prefer ?

Renno

I have tried following headphones

1. vintage 600ohm AKG K240 Sextette with RSA/Kobiconn terminated balanced cable

2. 600ohm AKG K240 Studio Monitors with 6.3mm > 3.5mm single ended cable (both of those headphones are extremely hard to drive)

3. Some low independence Pioneer headphones which are easy to drive even from PC directly

4. In ear headphones , easy to drive

If the problem occures then switching between headphones and outputs does not affect anything it seems.

Yesturday I tried again and it seems that it is not always that it happens when the unit runs hot. It was pretty normal temp and still had the problem.

Yes, should be 2 NE5532 units with one channel each.

Hi Renno,

I have also the AKG K 240 DF Studio Monitor with 600R and drive it by a NE5532 all the time. There's no problem at all.

But after looking at the photos showing the PCBs I must say that I find the soldering quality very poor. I think you have a soldering problem. Either there's bad soldering junction somewhere on the PCBs or something was overheated.

Kai

Jep, I know it drives them fine when it works.

The soldering could also be a problem that for sure. What else could overheat in there, oamp is the first thing that comes to mind...

I tested now with USB tester between PC and the device and here is what I found out. Tested with two PCs with win10 to be sure. Both cases resulted in similar behavior. 

When starting up PC and the unit it shows stable 4,95V and 0,4 A. When the sound pops and disappears the USB tester shows 0,53 A.