Choosing the right chip amp for home theater.

[wikityler]

I'm planning on building a home theater from components. I already have the DD decoder/optical switch/preamp, as well as speakers (which will need to be replaced eventually). What I want to do now is build six chip amps to power each channel. The number of variations is making it very hard to pick one, so I was hoping some of you can point me in the right direction.

Power is not important, because I live in a townhouse.

The speakers I have are all low-end and rage from 3-8 ohms each, but when I have more money I will replace them with something decent.

I'm on a tightish budget, so I won't be using the best components out there when it comes to caps, cables, etc.

I'd rather not have to design my own PCB. I have many times before, but only on digital circuits which are very forgiving. I'd rather have a layout provided, or be able to buy premade boards if they're cheap.

What are your suggestions?
Thanks!

[MJL21193]

As I have recently found out here:
Active filter plus LM3886 - one board
the LM3886 will give fantastic results.
If your organizational and soldering skills are up to it, you can mount these on the heatsink and wire the components directly to the leads point to point without a circuit board.
They are cheap (around $6 each) and require few other components.

[-_nando-_]

I would use LM1875 for satelites, LM3886 for center channel, and TDA7293 for SUB ! It would be great !

[wikityler]

I've looked at the LM1875's and they seem to be about right for the budget. What ever I use it will have to be the same for every channel to simplify building and to reduce the number of excess parts ordered. Do the LM1875's provide the same sound quality as the LM3886's?

[AndrewT]

What I want to do now is build six chip amps to power each channel.

Hi,
do you mean six chipamps to power the 5.1channels?
or do you mean six chipamps per channel (=31chipamps for 5.1channels).

[-_nando-_]

Originally posted by wikityler
I've looked at the LM1875's and they seem to be about right for the budget. What ever I use it will have to be the same for every channel to simplify building and to reduce the number of excess parts ordered. Do the LM1875's provide the same sound quality as the LM3886's?

Yes. Althought it have less slew rate, it's sound is very pleasant and smooth. It's very cheap, and you can build one in 5 minutes wiring it P2P, try and listen to. I like more LM1875 than LM3886. There's no need for a feedback capacitor to the ground to have a very low DC-Offset, which the LM3886 needs.