Hi guys!
I'd like to know your memories or your opinions about two vintage amp chips:
the TDA2020 and its little brother, the TDA2010.
I'm a newbie, but I'm very interested on the history of the electronics evolution.
The only thing I know about them is that these amp chips has been the pioneers of the first hi-fi "powerfull" integrated circuits (for that time, of course!).
What about their sound? are/were they decent "perfomers"?
Please, let me know your experiences or your opinions about these pioneers!
Thank you very much!
Best regards!
I'd like to know your memories or your opinions about two vintage amp chips:
the TDA2020 and its little brother, the TDA2010.
I'm a newbie, but I'm very interested on the history of the electronics evolution.
The only thing I know about them is that these amp chips has been the pioneers of the first hi-fi "powerfull" integrated circuits (for that time, of course!).
What about their sound? are/were they decent "perfomers"?
Please, let me know your experiences or your opinions about these pioneers!
Thank you very much!
Best regards!
in my youth the tda2020 was one of the first poweramps i had built.
there was an elektor article "20 watt ic verstärker".......
i made this amp with a regulated single supply (2n3055+bd139+z-diode etc.).
fiddling around with the heatsink on top side of the tda2020 was a little bit of effort.......
it sounded astonishingly well. after some time i gave it away to a friend and he had it for a long time.
the tda 2020 was also available as a kit from rim electronics/münchen......
also there were some tda2020 schematics in electronic books.....
there was an elektor article "20 watt ic verstärker".......
i made this amp with a regulated single supply (2n3055+bd139+z-diode etc.).
fiddling around with the heatsink on top side of the tda2020 was a little bit of effort.......
it sounded astonishingly well. after some time i gave it away to a friend and he had it for a long time.
the tda 2020 was also available as a kit from rim electronics/münchen......
also there were some tda2020 schematics in electronic books.....
Hi, i guess, the TDA2010 is the Abraham of the TDA20x0 line, the last model being the TDA2050, all having the TO-220-with-five-legs-package. My first work with them was a stereo TDA2030 amp. I killed a chip before i had it working. At first i did not like its sound too much, blaming the modern way of cheapness, until i understood to properly ground the loads (at chips, where negative feedback works, not at supply). This teached me to be wary of things, which sound good despite being drenched in blood. Anyway the TDA20x0 is a KISS minimalist, fine.
> your memories ..about ..TDA2020/TDA2010
"I met her on the quay in Font-Romeu, high in the Pyrénées. We sipped absinthe from tiny cups and watched the barges roll past. She let me call her Tda. Shyly, she let me lead her into my 1959 Sprite. She loved Beethoven and McCarthy, but said Bach and Lennon depressed her bias. She thrilled doing 150 on the Sola de la Calma. She said the high-revving generator engorged her diffusions. Tda pulled me into the Sprite's roomy rear seat. Her pins gently poked my tingling fingers. I felt her pulsating heat. 'Tda, my joy, Tda!' I cried in thermal runaway.
"But the Sprite's Lucas electrics were not kind to Tda's health. After singing Mimì's last aria, my friend Schaunard discovered that Tda had died. I wept as I cut her tiny legs out of the board. I brushed her small yet strong corpse onto the floor, with all the other chips I have loved and lost."
Bah. It's a chip, a part, a tool. I have memories of a Craftsman wrench, a Chevy tensioner, and I admit I "remember" some old power chips. But "memories" worth sharing??
This book, readily available well under $20, covers much more than audio, but is (largely) by the team which developed SGS/Thompson's power chips. Much about the compromises and cleverness needed to integrate power with precision.
Power Integrated Circuits, Paolo Antongnetti
544 pages, Mcgraw-Hill, 1986, ISBN-10: 0070021295
Sadly (O, Tda!) my copy is so oil-contaminated that I don't want to look at it. (Don't blame the Sprite, the seller sold it that way.)
Duncan has some pertinent comments on IC power audio.
"The disincentives of IC power amplifiers..,..like all ICs, if they misbehave or sub-perform in any way, likely not discovered until 1000s have been bought, and sent out in amplifiers, there is usually nothing the maker or user or anyone can do about it."
High Performance Audio Power Amplifiers, Ben Duncan
1996/1997, Newnes, ISBN 0 7506 2629 1
section 4.4.2, "IC power"
"I met her on the quay in Font-Romeu, high in the Pyrénées. We sipped absinthe from tiny cups and watched the barges roll past. She let me call her Tda. Shyly, she let me lead her into my 1959 Sprite. She loved Beethoven and McCarthy, but said Bach and Lennon depressed her bias. She thrilled doing 150 on the Sola de la Calma. She said the high-revving generator engorged her diffusions. Tda pulled me into the Sprite's roomy rear seat. Her pins gently poked my tingling fingers. I felt her pulsating heat. 'Tda, my joy, Tda!' I cried in thermal runaway.
"But the Sprite's Lucas electrics were not kind to Tda's health. After singing Mimì's last aria, my friend Schaunard discovered that Tda had died. I wept as I cut her tiny legs out of the board. I brushed her small yet strong corpse onto the floor, with all the other chips I have loved and lost."
Bah. It's a chip, a part, a tool. I have memories of a Craftsman wrench, a Chevy tensioner, and I admit I "remember" some old power chips. But "memories" worth sharing??
This book, readily available well under $20, covers much more than audio, but is (largely) by the team which developed SGS/Thompson's power chips. Much about the compromises and cleverness needed to integrate power with precision.
Power Integrated Circuits, Paolo Antongnetti
544 pages, Mcgraw-Hill, 1986, ISBN-10: 0070021295
Sadly (O, Tda!) my copy is so oil-contaminated that I don't want to look at it. (Don't blame the Sprite, the seller sold it that way.)
Duncan has some pertinent comments on IC power audio.
"The disincentives of IC power amplifiers..,..like all ICs, if they misbehave or sub-perform in any way, likely not discovered until 1000s have been bought, and sent out in amplifiers, there is usually nothing the maker or user or anyone can do about it."
High Performance Audio Power Amplifiers, Ben Duncan
1996/1997, Newnes, ISBN 0 7506 2629 1
section 4.4.2, "IC power"
Actually, the TDA1010 came in a single-in-line 9-pin package. The TDA2020, a 14-pin quad-in-line package.
The TDA2020 was the chip that made me fully aware of the thermal limitations of putting a 20 watt class AB amplifier in a 14-pin DIL chip, and trying to get all that heat out of the chip through just a few square millimetres of contact area. In my experience, TDA2020 amps were wonderful, until they suddenly died and became silent for ever. Which always happened, usually within weeks of first firing them up. They were the most unreliable audio amps I'd ever encountered, up to that time.
Sound? When they were working, there was no "sound" to the TDA2020 unless you clipped it or used too-small capacitors, because distortion levels were pretty much below the ability of the human ear to detect them.
-Gnobuddy
they where prety good chips when they where introduced, and the later 2050 and 2052 offered far more power, but had verry simular sound.
given a bit of care they still sound quite acceptible to my ears.
quite durable chips to be honest, but heatsinking is an issue if you want power from them.
the grungy sound mentioned gives it a quite unique sound, i actually like that distorsion. bass can be obtained if you play a bit with the feedback network.
given a bit of care they still sound quite acceptible to my ears.
quite durable chips to be honest, but heatsinking is an issue if you want power from them.
the grungy sound mentioned gives it a quite unique sound, i actually like that distorsion. bass can be obtained if you play a bit with the feedback network.
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