Nuts and Volts - March 2015

Unless you're specifically building an audio amplifier, most of the time it's easier to just go with a drop-in solution so you can focus on the rest of project. There's quite a few modules on the market, with all the components assembled and ready to provide that much-needed boost in power to your project's audio output. Just supply an audio signal and go!

Parts Express provided a selection of low to mid power amplifier modules to evaluate for this article, which are perfect for including in a larger design (Photo 1). These three modules are available at Parts-Express.com, and all run from a 12V DC power supply. There’s a Diodes

Sound is important! If it's working well, it fades into the background, but noisy (or quiet) audio can spoil nearly any project that's supposed to make sounds. From custom boomboxes to special effects and robotics, what good is your project if nobody can hear it? It's easy to throw in an LM386 while working on the bench, but to take your project out of the lab you're going to need more than the little chip's one watt or so of output power.