Eiron wrote:
Serge Auckland wrote:

My two turntables both had 741s in the RIAA equaliser, which I
replaced with TL071s, only because I couldn't stand the idea of 741s.
The TL071 is a direct plug-in replacement and the equalisers have
their ICs on sockets, so the replacement was easy. I didn't even have
to solder anything. I suppose the distortion of the TL071-equipped
equaliser could be lower than before (I didn't measure a before and
after) but any reduction would be swamped by the inherent distortion
of vinyl and the cartridge. I certainly haven't noticed any
improvement, I just feel better not having 741s in the signal path.

Were the 741's used for high-level equalisation or as the input-devices?
My phono stage has an LM301, but only as a buffer after the long-tailed
pair and current mirror, and still sounds good. I don't see any reason
to replace it.

Both. In the EMT 948, the Equaliser has three stages, all with 741s. The
first stage is the equaliser proper, stage 2 is the active rumble filter
and stage 3 is an active low-pass filter at 25kHz. The signal is then
passed to a balanced line driver with a 741 input buffer, an LM301
driver and gin adjust stage and a push-pull output driver with a
balanced output transformer.

In the AEG, the first gain and equalisation stage is a TDA2310, then
followed by two 741s as an active rumble filter with a further 741 as a
gain adjustment stage. The signal then passes to a line driver stage
with a 741 as input buffer and LM378 as output driver again driving a
balancing transformer.

In both cases I have by-passed the rumble filter.

S.