I don't know squat about Op-Amp chips, but this is an interesting and revealing article. Excerpts:
A 1971 Op-Amp Embarrassed Every Premium Chip in a Blind Phono Stage Shootout By Colin Toh Updated on March 14, 2026
DIYers kept coming back to the thread months later with the same verdict.
https://www.headphonesty.com/2026/03/vintage-op-amp-embarrassed-modern-phono-chips/
... In March 2024, someone on the DIYAudio forum sanded the part numbers off seven op-amps, painted them different colors, and mailed them to a four-person listening panel. The panel scored all nine chips through a Pearl 3 phonostage.
Their top pick, at 8.2 out of 10, turned out to be the MC1458. It’s a dual uA741 from 1971. It costs $0.57 at DigiKey. The $49 Muses02 it outscored costs roughly 86 times more. ....
.... Boydk called it “a revelation” that the oldest and slowest chip had taken the top spot. 6L6 was less charitable. Maybe the objectively poorest-performing chip was simply making the biggest subjective difference, he suggested, and the panel had mistaken “lots of difference” for “good.” ...
... Builder after builder landed on budget options instead. Whether the blind test planted the idea or they reached the same conclusion independently, the direction was the same. The community had quietly moved away from premium op-amps.
One blind test with four listeners didn’t settle the op-amp debate. But it did expose the uncomfortable gap between what audiophiles measure, what they hear, and what they’re willing to pay for the difference."
https://www.headphonesty.com/2026/03/vintage-op-amp-embarrassed-modern-phono-chips/