Op-amp ground BS!

This is possibly the last Graham Slee forum blog before the blog is moved to its new home.

This blog is about op-amp ground.



Looking at the above amp circuit published back in the sixties, before the pompous know-all's started their web invasion of supposed knowledge, the circuit shows where the ground is - where the 0 is at the end of the bottom line of the circuit.

As even the most oblivious to circuit design reader will see, the circuit is placed between +V (the top line) and 0.

This next picture is an op-amp schematic:



You can see the same configuration with the circuit placed between power rails.

Now, these days you're told if a designer uses the bottom rail as 0 volts, he's floating the ground...

What an absolute load of drivel!

What the hell is floating about it? It's attached!

In these modern times I'm afraid to say you're fed misinformation by the bucket load, and you're fed it with clever asses taught by equally stupid clever asses who are paid big sums by universities who wouldn't know an electronics engineer from their ass!

Their idea of a proper amp ground is one that is actually floated between power rails to provide op-amp input bias and an output reference. It's about as stiff as jelly (jellow for our US readers), and the proof of the pudding is in the hearing...

So what kind of expert am I? One who ran rings around the highly paid bods at a certain semiconductor manufacturer - and the witness to that is still living.

So what brought on this onslaught? The number of hypocrites out there sl*gging me off on various forums which came to light while I was searching for positive reviews of my Gram Amp 3 Fanfare on the internet. I can only say that if that's what this internet is about, the planet is heading for self destruct!

They're the idiots!

And just how many were put off buying a Fanfare by them? Your loss!




Edited by Graham Slee - 26 Aug 2012 at 2:37pm

I'm an LP Spinner using a Graham Slee Era Gold V, and very happy I am too (wink wink).

Fatmangolf wrote: Thanks as always Graham for making this clear and warning us of the bs posted elsewhere. Please don't let the idiots get to you personally, it is a business matter. I think we all welcome the new technical blog as a way to concentrate your writing. If it will be like your previous postings I think it is more like a design masterclass and I wondered if logged in members could show their appreciation in some way, how do others feel about this?   Jon

And I am of the opinion that anyone who would post: https://www.audioasylum.com/audio/vinyl/messages/118/1180467.html is heading for Fraud.