Akula Posted June 25, 2009 Report Share Posted June 25, 2009 Building a generic 386-based amp, well actually gonna build a couple because they're so cheap and to check out what works well. My question is, does it matter what type of 386? Through farnell I see the LM386-N1, N3, and N4. The only difference I can see is the power rating... I have the N1 in a ruby circuit, and its not particularly loud, so perhaps the N3 with double the power would work? Cheers, Akula Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 26, 2009 Report Share Posted June 26, 2009 I have heard reported that different manufactures 386's or any chips are different in sound quality including outpt, but they are what they are and limited at least in part for the amount of power they have to work with...running them from batteries they can be limited by the current that they can draw from them. Something that I have seen done with op amps usually, and I have done this with LM386's is to literally stack them on top of each other. If you think about it, the pins are identical so the signals in and out and power and such will work across both chips...but I can't say that you get any amazingly different results from the single chip. There are other ways to apply the chip or multiple lm386 circuits as well...you could use two complete circuits to run two speakers and get 'twice' the "power" for instance...but you do need the power on hand to run the things, batteries do tend to run down pretty quick and sharing the load from one battery is probably not going to make for good results. Probably a good tip though is to use a chip socket so that you can easily swap out different 386's and see for yourself on an identical circuit if there is a difference to your ears and what works well. pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akula Posted June 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2009 I'm planning to run this from a wall wart, so the battery limit isnt really an issue. I'll have to check out running chips on top of each other, and multiple chips going to multiple speakers. And yeah you're right about using a chip socket... 386's are cheap as, er, chips. I may as well buy a couple of N1's because I know they work, and an N3 and N4 as well, just to try out. Thanks for the advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.