TDA2030A vs LM1875?

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No way for the 'life like' or the 'musical' adjectives :mad:
Those are 5 legs power Op Amps and perform well for what they
are designed .
Don't think to ask to them any musical qualities , as they reach the level
of a normal audition only in saturation.
I guess ' life -like' is being used as they might have been attached to some fullrange speakers ( typical from Tv sets ) to prove that fullrange sweetness is achieved with low parts number , compact packages and ... short cables .
The 100 W BTL with 2*tda2030A plus 2*BD249/2*BD250 allows more
headroom to be used , thou . :eek::p:rolleyes:
 
No way for the 'life like' or the 'musical' adjectives :mad:

:D That was subjective comparison between both cheap amps. LM overture series are better of course (I have tried all of them). But indeed, the TDA2030 has that dynamics that can make them musical or life-like (so many fakes out there). It is like listening to a simple Linn topology amplifier.

From all TDA chip amps, only TDA2030 I have never seen the equivalent schematic. Ever wondered why? The good sounding (unique harmonics spectrum) OPA2134 equivalent schematic is also never published as far as I know.

Don't think to ask to them any musical qualities , as they reach the level
of a normal audition only in saturation.

My current favorite chip amp is TDA2009. Oh, and I have 4" drivers that can be driven directly from a handphone :D

The 100 W BTL with 2*tda2030A plus 2*BD249/2*BD250 allows more headroom to be used , thou . :eek::p:rolleyes:

Remind me of some car audio guys where SPL is to them more important than sound quality (THD). I have never interested in BTL. If I want more watts I use different amp (discrete if necessary) :p
 
'musical' it don't mean nothing !
Maybe ' euphonical' or ' not-musical' that may reveal soft or heavy aberrations.
But Musical is a whole , as it comprehends the Source , the Processing and the
Room ( or ...Ambient ). Moreover , it must be proven by whom who has the Authority to give such judgement .
But maybe I'm too heavy :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
For a 5 legged piece of plastic ...Yes ! It's musical !

My favourite IC power amp today is ....LA 4451 !!!
I ( think that I ) prefer OCC amps , as they add a little soft natural bounce
to the bass region ...but that's another story , as the loudspeaker ( and his
little constrained room as a system behind ) reacts ...it's his nature :eek:
 
I guess it depends on your luck (to get a chip with optimum measured spec). I have more than 10 of each chip, and have tried many possibilities with each chip. And TDA2030A is better than LM1875. Yes, 2030A is very life-like or musical.

You have tried many possibilities? Which ones did you prefer?

Did you try a vero board? Did you hear any white noise or find ways to get dead silent speakers when there's no music playing?
 
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supposedly lm 1875 has less distorsion, and can be quite safely used in same configuration as gainclones.
If one would set up the tda 20xx like that, it can work, but higher chanse of oscillation.
The difference in distorsion is.. well technicaly could be significant in some applications, but i em not so sure that majority would be able to tell the difference.
THD goes into the skys with tda 2030 just a bit over 10w output power.
fr lm 1875 this limit is around 20 watts.

On the otherhand one can choose tda 2050
this ic is verry close in specs.
but, even so it has higher distorsion, and uses 10V less maximum supply voltage.

Actualy out of the 3 chips, tda 2030 , lm 1875 (both mentioned by original author), and tda 2050 (my mentioned chip), i would say that..

lm 1875 is technicaly better than all. Here, price is allso way higher.
tda 2050 is more affordable, if power demand is less than 20 watts i would not think its worth to get lm 1875
tda 2030 cheapest, and it gets You just what You pay for. a cheap power opamp to drive some speakers.

If you can afford, get the lm 1875.
if.. You are not so wealthy and wanna save every cent, go for the 2050.
if.. you do not have any special needs, just want some cheapoo pc speakers or experimenting, tda 2030 is a verry good chip.
 
You have tried many possibilities? Which ones did you prefer?

Actually I don't go overboard for something that I think has no chance to sound special. But those 2 amps are very common here that I can easily get a ready made one. And I also like to stock PCBs for unknown reason :D I have hundreds of amplifiers also for unknown reason :D

Did you try a vero board? Did you hear any white noise or find ways to get dead silent speakers when there's no music playing?

I don't do veroboard as I'm good with PTP, which always sound better than using PCB.

Trying to get hum free, silent speaker, etc. was history to me. I'm quite experienced with this hobby and have no problem with that kind of thing. I did the super high slew rate Stochino amp PTP (you can check the complexity of the circuit, compared to any chip amp).

BTW, I always read datasheets, but my experience is not simply looking at the numbers on the datasheet. THD numbers are meaningful only when compared with similar amps of the same topology. For example, you can add current mirror etc to an LTP to get lower THD but it can only degrade the subjective sound quality.

I have heard many Sanyo LA44 series chips so I know that LA4451 can sound very musical indeed. But from its lower power version I found that they are quite fatiguing.
 
I have the LM1875 and TDA2050 on two separate identical boards . Same gain and all identical parts . Power is on board and only trafo is outside. I can switch the boards in a minute as all connectors for trafo , speakers and input are plug in types.
The LM1875 is slightly better to my ears. The difference is not huge ! Bass appears a bit more taut in the 1875. The TDA2050 is much cheaper and good enough actually , for most applications ! If cost is no problem , use the LM1875.
I remember making a pie chart of the cost of components of the fully assembled pcb. The chip cost was well under 10% of the cost of the full amp. So you wouldn't really be 'saving' much by using the 2030 or 2050.
You can use the chip without capacitors at the input if your source is dc decoupled. Sounds far better this way. I did remove the NFB cap also. Can't remember what happened. I will pull out the boards and try all this again as my CD source has changed since I did all those tests a few years ago. Might sound even better !:)
Bottom line.......These are great chips for the price you pay and they DO sound good !
 
LM1875 vs. TDA2050. The 2050 will give you a couple watts more output at a given supply voltage before clipping. It has a higher rated peak current which may help keep you out of trouble with difficult loads. Taking the input and output signals and differentiating, they both virtually null the signal meaning they are adding nothing audible in my tests.

Back in the day, National was often criticized for coming up with copies of the foreign designs. SGS had the TDA2002 and National came up with the LM383, not to be out done, SGS introduced the TDA2003 with better specs. Google the "LM383 story" where the National designer discusses the LM383 design and issues to overcome. He has great respect for the designers over at SGS.

I don't know if the LM1875 and TDA20X0 went down the same way, but the 2050 appeared a few years after the 2040, 2030A, LM1875. They started pushing the stupid music power method as well. Looking at the graphs is the best way to read the distortion ratings. Hopefully they didn't use the sample PC board to spec the IC as it was not that good of layout.
 
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