RE: Audio Power Amplifier Silliness

shabaz — Sat, 30 May 2026 19:49:44 GMT

I probably will never use a LM386 ever again, because the discrete design was compact at 40x40mm, especially compared to the speaker that it usually drives, and would be fast to assemble with SMD resistors and transistors, plus it’s far better quality that the LM386.

Although I don’t have a need for 5W, personally I’d still build it to try out if you did get enough interest to want to continue with it. I’ll think about it more, the only suggestion I currently had is that the design could be a SMD/through-hole hybrid, i.e. resistor and jellybean transistor footprints could be 0805/SOT-23, and the power transistors could be whatever is needed, and then it’s still easy-to-assemble and quick-to-assemble. I suspect it will be compact, since there are not many capacitors.