CHAPTER 18 Power Supply Design "We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom." Stephen Vincent Benet: Litany for Dictatorships, 1935 18.1 Opamp Supply Rail Voltages Running opamps at ±17 V rather than ±15 V gives an increase in headroom and dynamic range of 1.1 dB for virtually no cost and with no reliability penalty. This assumes that the opamps concerned have a maximum supply voltage rating of ±18 V, which is the case for the old Texas TL072, the new LM4562, and many other types. The 5532 is (as usual) in a class of its own. Both the Texas and Fairchild versions of the NE5532 have an Absolute Maximum power supply voltage rating of ±22 V (though Texas also gives a "recommended supply voltage" of ±15 V), but I have never met any attempt to make use of this capability. The 5532 runs pretty warm on ±17 V when it is simply