I'm trying to do some reverse engineering on the NE5532 schematic, but I can't understand how is designed the current source for the first stage. What I want to analyze now is in yellow on the picture. As I understand, the first differential amplifier is polarized with a Widlar current source(Q1-Q3), but what I'd like to know if someone can figure out:
- The purpose of Q2. Having another widlar source? But why would we need that?
- The purpose of the active load Q4-Q5 and the transistor Q7. Why the reference transistor Q3 isn't just plugged with a resistor directly to VCC to generate the reference current?
- What's the purpose of the branch of the JFET (Q6-Q8)?