I pretty much just want this, in a different enclosure, with a small sub-woofer, for casual listening or portable audio.....
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
A passive mixer (search the forums for "stereo to mono"; there's several threads that cover this) and the bass boost circuit from the LM386 datasheet is the way to go IMO.
On second thought, here's a mixer schematic from a link someone posted recently. You'd only need half of this circuit - use the 2 left inputs and the left output. Leave out the right channel stuff. Your left and right audio will connect to the two left inputs.
On second thought, here's a mixer schematic from a link someone posted recently. You'd only need half of this circuit - use the 2 left inputs and the left output. Leave out the right channel stuff. Your left and right audio will connect to the two left inputs.
My point is, everyone seems so greedy that they try to squeeze the last watt out of every chip. There is such a small difference in price between lots of chips that to try to push any one to it's limits (until you get into high powered/expensive situations) seems like madness.
WHY? They are not easier to implement, and running at full power they heat up and sound degrades. I can't ever advocate pushing some $1 chip to its limits, when some $2 chip, with the time and components to build a whole amp, is a difference trivial in comparison.
Thus I conclude there is no reason to use LM386 except for having some already. It's a dinosaur with no purpose except to save a few dozen cents... which may matter to a mass manufacturer but not much to DIYers.
WHY? They are not easier to implement, and running at full power they heat up and sound degrades. I can't ever advocate pushing some $1 chip to its limits, when some $2 chip, with the time and components to build a whole amp, is a difference trivial in comparison.
Thus I conclude there is no reason to use LM386 except for having some already. It's a dinosaur with no purpose except to save a few dozen cents... which may matter to a mass manufacturer but not much to DIYers.
I don't recall anyone advocating pushing an audio IC to its limits in this thread, so using that to draw conclusions here seems out of place. Maybe the LM386 is a dinosaur, like vacuum tubes, vinyl records, and discrete op amps. But it might be one stepping stone to a homemade Pass Aleph, and so has a purpose.
^ Fair enough but still, today I don't see the reason. Other low power ICs make better use of the voltage or have higher wattage, so the only reason would be having them or a shoestring budget.
For some purposes that is justification enough, but how far can we take that? Already time spend to design and ask, to build, and presumably a lot longer to use the amp.... IMO, there is no place for LM386 today, none, except a way to practice circuits so when it's time to build something you have experience enough to use something better.
In the end, you don't take an IC worth a few dozen cents and determine to use it, you have a need, design a circuit for that need and pick the best chip for the job. It's no different than any other component, do we start out designing a whole amp around having a capacitor or volume knob?
Maybe I am wrong. Any project that fulfills the need, "works", but to put things in perspective I felt it was useful to mention that so many different ICs exist because they serve different, useful purposes... and at this low power, aren't very expensive. I'm not arguing as if anyone has to agree, it's just a different point of view...
For some purposes that is justification enough, but how far can we take that? Already time spend to design and ask, to build, and presumably a lot longer to use the amp.... IMO, there is no place for LM386 today, none, except a way to practice circuits so when it's time to build something you have experience enough to use something better.
In the end, you don't take an IC worth a few dozen cents and determine to use it, you have a need, design a circuit for that need and pick the best chip for the job. It's no different than any other component, do we start out designing a whole amp around having a capacitor or volume knob?
Maybe I am wrong. Any project that fulfills the need, "works", but to put things in perspective I felt it was useful to mention that so many different ICs exist because they serve different, useful purposes... and at this low power, aren't very expensive. I'm not arguing as if anyone has to agree, it's just a different point of view...
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"...[M]ake better use of the voltage or have higher wattage" could be construed as being not unlike the "greed" you mentioned previously. The LM386 is good for a couple hundred low-voltage milliwatts of audio. Same thing it's always been good for. And that's apparently good enough for the OP. Seeking some kind of conformity in the name of diy audio seems to me awfully oxymoronic.
I am seriously doubt the real engineer gonna deal with such kind of a customer/project. Maybe a first-year student
The only reason I am using the LM386 is because it was readily available at Radio Shack and I bought them all, unknowingly at insanely high prices, because I was a complete greenhorn at the time. Now that I have done this sort of thing for a while, I know better and buy elsewhere for more reasonable prices, and that there are so many ChipAmps to choose from. I get that and understand it is a bit whacky to use the one I am using. I happen to have two more LM386 chips and would like to use them in the project I had mentioned, with an idea for implementing a sub-woofer into the works. Also to see if, perhaps, the LM386 can, in fact, be that much of a versatile "dinosaur", as someone had described it. I find it amusing and it gives me a bit of a giggle. Most importantly, to me, it is an invaluable learning experience that will send me to the next level of DIY Audio awesomeness. Thank you, Mr. sofaspud, for the last bit of info, as the mixer circuit is the solution I have decided to go with. My next ChipAmp project will most likely use the LM3886, and then, who knows? I suppose, as I tell my girlfriend, that one Mr. Dino Segovis from hackaweek.com is to blame for my sudden interest in this field. I am sure this forum will be the "classroom" for my interest, and I thank you all once again.
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