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General Category => General Radio Discussion => Topic started by: ChrisSmolinski on April 11, 2014, 1533 UTC

Title: Fake audiophile opamps: OPA627 (AD744?!)
Post by: ChrisSmolinski on April 11, 2014, 1533 UTC

Quote

Walking around ebay I noticed insanely cheap OPA627's. It's rather old, popular and high-quality opamps, often used in audiophile gear. Manufacturer (Texas Instruments / Burr Brown) sells them 16-80$ each (depending on package & options) while on ebay it's cost was 2.7$, shipping included.

Obviously, something fishy was going on. I ordered one, and for comparison - older one in metal can package, apparently desoldered from some equipment. Let's see if there is any difference.

Full article here:

http://zeptobars.ru/en/read/OPA627-AD744-real-vs-fake-china-ebay (http://zeptobars.ru/en/read/OPA627-AD744-real-vs-fake-china-ebay)

Title: Re: Fake audiophile opamps: OPA627 (AD744?!)
Post by: redhat on April 11, 2014, 1832 UTC

A company I know of was for a while buying in bulk Chinese power fets in an effort to help keep their costs down.  After a year of warranty returns, they decided to have a legit part and a Chinese part X-rayed.  The dies in the competing devices weren't even the same size.  They lost their ass on that one ;)

+-RH