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Is it possible to get gain of 1000 in a LM324 or OP07 practically? If not why? What gain can an OPAMP provide maximum? Why this restriction?
The datasheet for an opamp shows its voltage gain vs frequency when it has no negative feedback. For a very slow LM324 with a supply that is 10V to 15V the typical gain is 400,000 forom DC to about 2Hz, then the gain drops for higher frequencies. At 1kHz the typical gain is about 250. At about 300kHz the gain is 1 like a piece of wire.
The typical voltage gain for an OP07 opamp is almost 1 million from DC to about 3Hz, 1000 at 1kHz and 1 at 1MHz.
Hi Eric,
It is a well known fact that audioguru would rather use a rock with three wires glued to it than use one of those 'nasty' LM324/358 type op amps
He just doesnt like them. Today's op amps are much better though.
To answer the OP's question, as the LM324 is a quad, 2 or 3 OPA's could be configured to give a gain 0f 1000.
E.
The LM324 is too noisy (hiss) to be an audio amplifier.
The LM324 has crossover distortion which sounds awful.
The LM324 has a very slow slew rate that causes high output level frequencies above 2kHz to be triangle waves which produces severe distortion in audio.
Parts of the world that cannot obtain better opamps can use them in DC circuits or distorted narrow bandwidth AM radios.
The LM358 is a dual opamp version of the LM324 quad. There is (was?) a single version that I have never seen.
The LM324 and LM358 are the first low power opamps so they are distorted and have a narrow bandwidth.
MC33171 single, MC33172 dual and MC33174 quad opamps have exactly the same low power and output voltage levels but do not have crossover distortion and have a bandwidth up to 35kHz which is fine for audio.