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A COMPLETE GUIDE TO FOLLOW
US
DESIGN AND BUILD A
HI-FI LM3886
AMPLIFIER
Posted by Circuit Basics | DIY Electronics | 133

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project here.
The LM3886 is one of the most highly
regarded audio chip amplifiers in the DIY
community. The reason for its popularity is
due to its very low distortion, minimal
external components, and low cost. With the
right layout and component selection, you
can build an excellent sounding Hi-Fi audio
amplifier that will rival high-end amps
retailing for several thousand dollars or
more.

In this tutorial, I’ll go step by step

through the amplifier design process as I
build a 40 Watt stereo amplifier using the
LM3886. I’ll explain what each part of the
circuit does, and show you how to
calculate the right component values
with examples from the amplifier I’m
building. I’ll also show you how to layout the
PCB and wire the amplifier in an enclosure
for minimal noise and hum.

My amplifier is based off of the same circuit

provided in the datasheet, with all of the
optional stability components included.

BONUS: Download my parts list to see

the components I used to get great
sound quality from this amplifier. I’ve also
included the schematic and Gerber files
for the power supply I used.

I highly recommend reading the datasheet

before building your amplifier. It has all of
the performance specifications, absolute
maximum ratings, schematics, and design
tips:

LM3886 Datasheet

Application note AN-1192 has additional

information that fills in gaps left out of the
datasheet. It also has schematics for bridged
and parallel amplifier circuits:

Overture Application Note AN-1192

It’s also good to have the Overture Design

Guide. This is an Excel spreadsheet that
calculates output power, heat sink size, gain,
and other useful parameters:

Overture Design Guide

Since this is a rather long article, here are

links to the different sections:

Things to Decide Before Starting

Determine the Required Power Supply

Voltage and Power

Required Power Supply Voltage

Find the Peak Output Voltage

Find the Maximum Supply

Voltage Needed by the
Amplifier

Find the Maximum Supply

Voltage Output by a
Transformer

Find the Output Power from

a Transformer’s Voltage
 Rating

Required Transformer Power

Convert the Total Power to a

Transformer VA Rating

Determine the Proper Heat Sink

Size

Find the Maximum Power

Dissipation

Find the Maximum Thermal

Resistance of the Heat Sink

Calculating the Component

Values

Find the Minimum Gain

Required

Setting the Gain

Balancing the Input Bias

Current

Set the Low Frequency Cutoff

at the Amplifier’s Input

Set the Low Frequency Cutoff

at the Feedback Loop

Set the High Frequency

Cutoff at the Amplifier’s Input

Stability Components Rf2 and

Cf

The Zobel Network

The Thiele Network

Making the Inductors

Power Supply Decoupling

 Capacitors

The Mute Circuit

The Final Schematic

Designing the Ground Layout

Designing the PCB Layout

Ordering PCBs

PCB Design Guidelines

Wiring it All Together

Solder and Soldering

Finding a Chassis

Wiring Layout Inside the

Chassis

The Ground Loop Protection

Circuit

How Does it Sound?

You can also check out this video to see a

quick overview of the design process. At the
end I wire up the amp so you can hear what
it sounds like:

LM3886 Hi-Fi Audio Ampli2er D…

THINGS TO DECIDE BEFORE

STARTING
Before starting to design your amplifier, you
should have an idea about how much output
power you want to get out of it. Output
power is what you’ll typically see stated as
the Wattage rating of an amplifier. The
maximum output power of the LM3886 is 68
Watts, but the actual power you get will
depend on your power supply voltage and
speaker impedance.

You’ll also need to know the impedance of

your speakers. You should be able to find
your speaker’s impedance on the back of the
speaker or in the user manual.
Finally, you’ll need to know your input
voltage. This is the output voltage of the
audio source you’ll be amplifying. It may be
in the device’s user manual, but if not, you
can get a rough estimate by playing a 60 Hz
pure sine wave (there are apps that will do
this) at full volume and measuring the AC
voltage between ground and the left or right
channel with a multi-meter.

WARNING: THIS PROJECT INVOLVES

WORKING WITH MAINS SUPPLY VOLTAGES
THAT CAN SERIOUSLY INJURE YOU OR KILL
YOU. BE SURE TO TAKE ALL NECESSARY
SAFETY PRECAUTIONS, AND NEVER WORK
ON A LIVE CIRCUIT!!

DETERMINE THE REQUIRED

POWER SUPPLY VOLTAGE
AND POWER
Let’s start by figuring out how much voltage
and power your amplifier will need from the
power supply. These calculations will tell
you the correct voltage and VA ratings for
the transformer you’ll use to power
your amp. This step is important because if
the transformer’s voltage is too low, the
output power of the amplifier will be less
than what you expected. If the transformer’s
VA rating is too small, the amplifier might
clip or distort the audio at higher volumes.

REQUIRED POWER SUPPLY

VOLTAGE
Before you can find the required power
supply voltage, you need to calculate the
amplifier’s peak output voltage.

FIND THE PEAK OUTPUT VOLTAGE

Peak output voltage (Vopeak) is the
maximum voltage measured across
the amplifier’s speaker terminals. Your
amplifier’s peak output voltage will depend
on your desired output power (Po) and
speaker impedance, according to this
formula:

The amplifier I’m building will be 40

Watts with 6 Ω speakers, so my peak output
voltage is:

FIND THE MAXIMUM SUPPLY

VOLTAGE NEEDED BY THE
AMPLIFIER
Now that you’ve found the peak output
voltage of your amplifier, you can calculate
the maximum supply voltage (Vmax
supply). This is the voltage
the amplifier needs from the power supply
to get the desired output power.

To find the maximum supply voltage,

take the peak output voltage and add the
voltage drop (Vod) of the LM3886 (4 V). Then
factor in your transformer’s regulation and
the variation in your mains voltage.

Regulation is the increase in output voltage

of a transformer when the load isn’t drawing
current (i.e. the amp stops playing music).
Regulation values can usually be found in
the transformer’s datasheet, but if you don’t
know your transformer’s regulation, a safe
value to use is 15%. The regulation of the
transformer I’ll be using is 6%.

Mains voltages can vary up to 10%

depending on your location. It usually peaks
late at night when people are asleep
and drops in the daytime when more people
are awake and drawing current from the
power grid.

Use this formula to calculate the maximum

supply voltage required by your amplifier:

For my 40 Watt amplifier, the maximum

supply voltage it needs is:
So my power supply will need to deliver a
peak voltage of ±30.2 V for my amplifier to
output 40 Watts into 6 Ω speakers. The ±
symbol indicates that the voltage is +30.2 V
on the positive rail and -30.2 V on the
negative rail.

The next step is finding a transformer

voltage rating that can deliver this
maximum supply voltage.

FIND THE MAXIMUM SUPPLY

VOLTAGE OUTPUT BY A
TRANSFORMER
Keep in mind that a transformer’s voltage
rating only tells you it’s AC voltage output.
The DC voltage will be higher after the
bridge rectifier diodes on your power supply
convert the AC voltage to DC.

To find the maximum DC supply voltage

output by a transformer and power supply,
take the transformer’s AC voltage rating and
factor in a 1.41 increase in voltage from the
rectifier diodes, the 10% mains supply
variation, and the transformer’s regulation:

I tried the above calculation with a

transformer rated at 18 V AC to see if it could
supply the 30.2 V maximum supply voltage
needed by my amplifier. With an 18 V
transformer, I would get a maximum supply
voltage of:

29.6 V is pretty close to the 30.2 V maximum

supply voltage needed by my amplifier, but
let’s calculate exactly how much output
power I’d get with this transformer.

FIND THE OUTPUT POWER

FROM A TRANSFORMER’S
VOLTAGE RATING
To calculate the output power you’ll get
from a particular transformer’s voltage
rating, use this formula:
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Using the maximum supply voltage I
calculated for an 18 V transformer (29.6 V),
the output power I’ll get is:

38.2 Watts of output power is pretty close to

my goal of 40 Watts, so an 18 V transformer
will work fine.

REQUIRED
TRANSFORMER POWER
Now let’s find a minimum VA rating for the
transformer that will power your amplifier.

First you’ll need to calculate the total

power (Psupply) required by the amplifier.
Total power depends on the maximum
supply voltage output by the power supply,
the amplifier’s peak output voltage, and the
speaker impedance. The formula to use is:
I’ve already calculated the maximum supply
voltage of an 18 V transformer (29.6 V), and
the peak output voltage of my amplifier (21.9
V). The total quiescent power supply current
(QPSC) is given in the LM3886’s datasheet as
85 mA.

So my 18 V transformer needs to supply the

amplifier with at least:

The total power can now be used to find a

minimum VA rating for your transformer.

CONVERT THE TOTAL POWER TO

A TRANSFORMER VA RATING
To convert the total power to a transformer
VA rating, a general rule of thumb is to
multiply it by a factor of 1.5:

This is the VA required for each channel, so

for a stereo amplifier powered by a single
transformer, just double it:
Finding a transformer with a VA of 222 will
be hard, but you can round-up to the next
closest value and use a 250 VA
transformer or larger.

DETERMINE THE
PROPER HEAT SINK SIZE
The LM3886 needs a heat sink large enough
to dissipate the heat it generates or it will
quickly become damaged. The minimum
size of the heat sink can be found by
calculating its maximum thermal resistance
(in °C/W).

First though, you’ll need to

know your LM3886’s maximum power
dissipation (Pdmax), and the thermal
resistances in the path heat takes from the
chip die to the ambient air.

FIND THE MAXIMUM POWER

DISSIPATION
The maximum power dissipation is the limit
at which the LM3886’s internal SPiKe
circuitry is enabled. Sound quality is severely
compromised when the SPiKe circuitry is
enabled, so to prevent this we need a heat
sink with a thermal resistance low enough to
dissipate the maximum power dissipated by
the LM3886. Pdmax depends on the
maximum supply voltage of your power
supply and your speaker impedance:
The maximum supply voltage output
from my power supply is ±29.6 V, and I’ll be
driving 6 Ω speakers, so my Pdmax is:

So my heat sink needs to be able

to dissipate 29.6 Watts of power to prevent
activation of the SPiKe protection circuit.

FIND THE MAXIMUM THERMAL

RESISTANCE OF THE HEAT
SINK
There are three resistances to heat flow away
from the LM3886:

θjc: The thermal resistance from the

chip’s junction (the die) to the case.

θcs: The thermal resistance of the gap

between the chip case and the heat sink.

θsa: The thermal resistance from the

heat sink to the ambient air.

More power will be dissipated when any of

the thermal resistances in the path to
ambient air are lowered. θjc is a property of
the plastic case enclosing the die, so we
can’t do anything to lower that.

θcs can be lowered by using a thermal paste

between the chip and the heat sink. Thermal
paste has a thermal resistance of around 0.2
°C/W, but the exact value of the type you use
should be available from the manufacturer.

The most effective way to reduce the total

thermal resistance is by lowering θsa with a
more efficient heat sink. Heat sinks with a
lower θsa are better at dissipating heat.

The heat sink will dissipate the peak power

produced by the amplifier (Pdmax) if its
thermal resistance (θsa) is less than or equal
to the value calculated with this formula:

The LM3886 is manufactured in two different

packages, the LM3886T and the LM3886TF.
The LM3886T has a metal flange on the back
of the case, and the LM3886TF is all plastic.
The plastic case of the LM3886TF gives it a
higher θcs:

LM3886T: θcs = 1 °C/W

LM3886TF: θcs = 2 °C/W

Tjmax is the maximum junction

temperature, or the temperature at the
chip’s die above which the thermal
shutdown circuitry is enabled. The datasheet
gives a value for Tjmax of 150 °C.

Tamb is the ambient temperature in °C that

the amplifier will be operated at. A typical
value for Tamb is room temperature (25 °C).
So the maximum thermal resistance (θsa) of
the heat sink for my amplifier with a
Pdmax of 29.6 W is:

So I’ll need a heat sink rated at less than or

equal to 2.1 °C/W to ensure it can dissipate
the maximum power produced by the
LM3886.

Here’s one channel of my amplifier attached

to a properly sized heat sink:

CALCULATING THE
COMPONENT VALUES
Now that you’ve calculated the power supply
and heat sink requirements, the next step
is to find values for the components in the
amplifier circuit. I’ll be using the schematic
below. It’s basically the same as the one in
the datasheet, but with the optional stability
components included:

Note: The components are labeled as they

appear in the datasheet.

Here’s a diagram of the LM3886’s pin layout

for your reference:

FIND THE MINIMUM GAIN

REQUIRED
The gain can be set to any value above the
LM3886’s minimum of 10 Vo/Vi, but in
order to get your desired output power,
it needs to be above a certain minimum
value. The minimum gain setting of your
amplifier will depend on your input voltage,
speaker impedance, and output power
according to the formula:

I plan on using an iPhone as the audio

source for my amplifier, which has an output
voltage of 1 V. The output power I’ll get with
my transformer and power supply is 38.2 W,
and the impedance of my speakers is 6 Ω. So
my minimum gain is:

So I’ll need to set the gain to at least 15.1

Vo/Vi if I want 38.2 Watts output power into
6 Ω speakers with a 1 V input voltage.

SETTING THE GAIN

The gain of the LM3886 can be set by
changing the values of resistors Ri and
Rf1. These resistors form a voltage divider
that determines the voltage at the inverting
input (pin 9) of the LM3886:
Setting the gain too high might cause
distortion. Setting it too low might make
your amplifier too quiet. A good gain setting
that’s not too high to cause distortion, but
not too low to give you a good range of
volume is around 27 to 30 db.

The gain is calculated with this formula:

This gives you the voltage gain (Vo/Vi), or the

factor of amplification. To convert voltage
gain to decibels (db) gain, use this formula:

Higher value resistors create more Johnson-

Nyquist noise, so it’s best to find an Rf1 /
Ri ratio that provides your target gain with
low resistor values.

I decided on a gain of around 27 db (22.4

Vo/Vi) for my amplifier. To keep
the resistances low, I started out by setting Ri
to 1 kΩ. Then I rearranged the gain formula
to solve for Rf1 with a gain of 22.4 Vo/Vi:
I’m going to use Vishay-Dale PTF series
metal film resistors throughout my amplifier,
but the closest value I could find was 20 kΩ.
But using a 20 kΩ resistor for Rf1 would
make the gain:

Which is close enough to 27 db, and above

the 15.1 Vo/Vi minimum gain required for my
desired output power, input voltage, and
speaker impedance.

If you’re building a stereo amplifier, you want

Ri and Rf1 to have close resistance
tolerances. If these resistors vary much
between the two channels, the gains will be
different and one channel will be louder than
the other. Metal film resistors with a
tolerance of 0.1% or less are ideal.

BALANCING THE INPUT BIAS

CURRENT
After setting the gain, the next step is to
balance the input bias currents by choosing
values for Rin and Rb:
If the currents at the non-inverting input (pin
9) and the inverting input (pin 10) are
different, a voltage will develop between
them. This difference in voltage will
be amplified as noise.

The inverting input sees the resistance of

Rf1 and the non-inverting input sees the
resistance of Rin and Rb in series. You
already found a value for Rf1 when you set
the gain of the amplifier. The values of Rin
and Rb are chosen so together they equal
the value of Rf1. This will make the current at
the non-inverting input equal to the
current at the inverting input. To find values
of Rin and Rb for a particular Rf1, use this
formula:

I used the value given in the datasheet

for Rb (1 kΩ). So with Rf1 at 20 kΩ, the value of
Rin that balances the input bias current for
my amplifier is:
You’ll probably be able to find a 19 kΩ resistor
available with the type of resistors you’re
using, but 20 kΩ is the closest value I could
find with Vishay-Dale PTF resistors so I’ll have
to settle with that.

SET THE LOW FREQUENCY

CUTOFF AT THE AMPLIFIER’S
INPUT
Cin is in series with the non-inverting input.
It’s main function is to block any DC present
in the audio source, while allowing AC (the
audio signal) to pass. DC in the audio source
needs to be blocked or it will be amplified
along with the audio signal and create a
high DC offset at the speakers. This distorts
the audio, which we don’t want for obvious
reasons.

In addition to the DC blocking function,

Cin and the input resistor (Rin) form a high
pass RC filter that sets the low end of the
amplifier’s bandwidth at the non-inverting
input:
This filter’s cutoff frequency (also known as
the -3db point or corner frequency) is the
frequency at which the filter starts to work.
In a high pass filter, frequencies below the
cutoff frequency will be attenuated (muted).
In a low pass filter, all frequencies above the
cutoff frequency will be muted. We’ll use
combinations of low pass and high pass
filters to set the amplifier’s bandwidth and
improve stability.

The cutoff frequency (Fc) of this filter can be

found with the equation:

The equation can be rearranged to find

a value of Cin for a particular Fc:

You found the value for Rin when

you balanced the input bias currents, so all
you need now is to choose a cutoff
frequency. The lower limit of human hearing
is 20 Hz, so the Fc should be well below that
to prevent attenuation of bass frequencies.
Lower than 2 to 4 Hz is ideal.

I tend to listen to music with lots of bass, so I

decided on a fairly low Fc for my amplifier. I
started with 1.5 Hz, but you can use higher or
lower values if you want. Just be sure to stay
well below 20 Hz or the bass will be weak.

With an Fc of 1.5 Hz, the value of my

Cin needs to be:

A 5.3 µF capacitor will be hard to find, but a

close value that’s fairly common is 4.7 µF.
The Fc with a 4.7 µF capacitor would be:

An Fc of 1.69 Hz is pretty close to my desired

1.5 Hz, so a 4.7 µF capacitor should be good.

Since Cin is directly in the path of the audio

input signal, the type of capacitor used will
have an influence on sound quality.
Electrolytics, ceramics, and tantalum
capacitors should be avoided. A good quality
polypropylene metal film, or even better a
polypropylene metal film in oil capacitor will
sound best here.

SET THE LOW FREQUENCY

CUTOFF AT THE FEEDBACK
LOOP
A second high pass filter exists in the
feedback loop with Ri and Ci:

The cutoff frequency of this filter should be 3

to 5 times lower than the Fc of the Cin\
Rin high pass filter at the input. If the Fc of
this filter is higher than the input filter, the
amplifier will pass low frequencies to the
feedback loop that it can’t handle. This will
create a voltage across Ci and cause DC
voltage to appear at the inverting input,
which will be amplified and cause distortion.
Therefore, the input filter (Cin and Rin)
should determine the lower bandwidth
frequency of the amplifier, not the feedback
loop filter (Ci and Ri).

The input filter defines the low end of

the bandwidth, but Ci still has an effect on
the bass response. With smaller values of Ci,
the bass will be softer and have less punch,
but with larger values of Ci, the bass will be
tighter and have more impact.

The formula below will give you a starting

point for the value of Ci:
I already found values for Rin, Cin, Rb, and Ri,
so the value of my Ci should be greater than:

Rounding up to the next

common capacitance value gives 220 µF.
Lets see what the cutoff frequency would
be with that. We can use the Fc equation
with Ri and Ci:

Now I’ll check to see if 0.72 Hz is 3 to 5 times

lower than the 1.69 Hz Fc of my input filter:

It’s 2.3 times lower. Lets try some larger

values for Ci to see if we can’t do better than
that. Repeating the Fc calculation for a 330
µF capacitor gives 0.48 Hz.

3.5 times lower is okay, but I might be able to

do even better with a 470 µF capacitor.
Repeating the calculations again with
a 470 µF capacitor gives an Fc of 0.34 Hz.

A 470 µF capacitor will set the Fc of

my feedback loop filter to 4.9 times lower
than the Fc of my input filter. This is great, so
I’ll use a 470 µF capacitor for Ci.

Ci is also in the audio signal path, so a good

quality capacitor should be used. The
capacitance will probably be too high to use
polypropylene, so you’ll likely have to use an
electrolytic. However, there are good quality
audio grade electrolytics like the Elna Silmic
II or Nichicon KZ series which shouldn’t
adversely affect the sound quality.

SET THE HIGH FREQUENCY

CUTOFF AT THE AMPLIFIER’S
INPUT
Rb and Cc form a low pass RC filter that sets
the upper limit of the amplifier’s bandwidth
at the non-inverting input:

In the datasheet, Cc is shown connected

between the non-inverting input and the
inverting input. In that configuration,
Cc filters radio frequency and
electromagnetic interference picked up by
the input wires. Unfortunately, it
also increases the chance for oscillation. A
better way is to connect Cc from the non-
inverting input to ground as shown in the
image above. That way Cc still filters radio
frequencies, but it also acts as a low pass
filter that will set the upper limit of the
amplifier’s bandwidth.

The Fc of this filter should be set well below

the lowest radio broadcast frequency in your
area, and well above the 20 kHz upper limit
of human hearing. Broadcast radio
frequencies in the USA are:

FM: 87.5 to 108 MHz

AM: 535 to 1605 kHz

I chose to start with an Fc of about 250 kHz.

It’s well below the lowest AM broadcast
frequency (535 kHz), so radio frequencies
and most electromagnetic interference
should be filtered out. It’s also well above the
upper 20 kHz frequency of human hearing,
so higher audio frequencies won’t be
attenuated.

To find a value for Cc that gives an Fc of 250

kHz, I’ll just rearrange the cutoff frequency
formula:

Since 636 pF is not a common value, I’ll

round up to 680 pF. With a 680 pF capacitor,
the Fc becomes:

So a 680 pF capacitor will set the upper

cutoff frequency to 234 kHz, which is close
enough to my desired Fc of 250 kHz. Cc is
also in the signal path, so a good
quality capacitor should be used. The best
dielectric types for audio capacitors in the
picofarad range are silver mica or
polystyrene.

STABILITY COMPONENTS RF2

AND CF
Rf2 and Cf dampen resonance in the
feedback loop and enhance stability:

Rf1, Rf2, and Cf form a low pass filter in the

feedback loop, but as you can see from the
formula in the datasheet, calculating the Fc
of this filter is quite complicated:

The best way to determine values for Rf2 and

Cf is with circuit simulation software such as
LTSpice. That’s beyond the scope of this
article though, so I’m just going to use the
values given in the datasheet.

But if you want to experiment, decreasing

the value of Cf will raise the upper Fc of the
bandwidth, and increasing the value will
lower it.

THE ZOBEL NETWORK

Csn and Rsn form a Zobel network at the
amplifier’s output:

The Zobel network is used to prevent

oscillations caused by inductive loads. It also
prevents radio frequencies picked up by the
speaker wires from getting back into the
amplifier’s inverting input via the feedback
loop.

At high frequencies, the impedance of Csn is

very low, so high frequency current is
shorted to ground. Rsn limits the high
frequency current so there isn’t a direct
short to ground, which could exceed the
current limit of the LM3886. Therefore,
smaller values of Rsn make the Zobel
network more efficient at filtering radio
frequencies, but it also increases the cutoff
frequency, which in turn reduces it’s
effectiveness.

The datasheet gives a value of 2.7 Ω for Rsn,

and a value of 100 nF for Csn. This
makes the Fc:

589 kHz is fairly high, especially since the

lowest frequency of AM radio broadcast
is 535 kHz. In order to bring this down to a
more reasonable level, I decided on using
4.7 Ω for Rsn and 220 nF for Csn, which
lowers the Fc down to 154 kHz:

154 kHz is well above the 20 kHz limit of

human hearing, and well below any radio
frequencies the speaker wires might pick up.

Since Rsn will need to shunt high currents to

ground if the amplifier oscillates, the power
rating should be at least 1 Watt. Csn should
have low ESR and low ESL, with a voltage
rating greater than the rail to rail swing of
output voltage. To minimize inductance,
locate the Zobel network close to the output
pin (pin 4) and keep the traces short.

THE THIELE NETWORK

While the Zobel network reduces oscillations
caused by inductive loads, the Thiele
network reduces oscillations caused by
capacitive loads, usually due to long speaker
cables. It also prevents radio
frequencies picked up by the speaker wires
from getting back into the amplifier’s
inverting input through the feedback loop.

Inductors have a low impedance to low

frequency current and a high impedance to
high frequency current. Audio signals are
relatively low frequency, so they will flow
through the inductor uninhibited. High
frequency oscillation current will be
impeded by the inductor and be forced to
flow through the resistor, which will dampen
it.

The datasheet recommends a 10 Ω, 5 Watt

resistor in parallel with a 0.7 µH inductor. In a
stereo amplifier, there will be one Thiele
network per channel. They should be located
away from the amplifier’s input circuitry to
prevent interference from the magnetic
fields generated by the inductor. A good
location is near the speaker output
terminals, separated a bit or at 90° angles to
each other to prevent magnetic field
coupling between them.

MAKING THE INDUCTORS

The inductors for the Thiele network are wire

wound air core types, made by wrapping
enamel coated wire (magnet wire) around a
cylindrical object. Since the inductor will be
carrying the full output current of the
amplifier, the wire should be heavy gauge. 12
to 18 AWG would be good. Use this Single-
Layer Air Coil Calculator to find out how
many turns you need for a particular wire
diameter and coil diameter.

Or you can calculate the inductance yourself

with this formula:

I used 14 AWG magnet wire in my build since

it’s thick and easy to find. The diameter of 14
AWG is 1.62814 mm. I planned on using a
screwdriver shaft with a diameter of 11 mm to
form the coil. Entering this information into
the inductance calculator, I found I’d need
about 12 wraps to get a 0.7 µH inductor.

POWER SUPPLY DECOUPLING

CAPACITORS

The LM3886 has one negative power supply

pin (pin 4) and two positive power supply
pins (pins 1 and 5). The negative supply
pin needs it’s own set of decoupling
capacitors and the positive supply pins share
a separate set of decoupling capacitors.

The large decoupling capacitors provide a

lasting source of reserve current when the
low frequency output of the amplifier is
high. Larger values will improve the bass
response. Typical values are between 470 µF
and 2200 µF.

The medium value decoupling capacitors

supply extra current for mid-frequency
output. These should be somewhere
between 10 µF and 220 µF.
The small value decoupling capacitors
provide current very quickly to help the
amplifier output higher audio frequencies.
They also filter noise and radio
frequency interference in the power supply.

The decoupling capacitors also compensate

for the parasitic inductance and
resistance of the power supply wires and
traces leading to the the chip’s power pins.
Inductance and resistance inhibit the flow of
current, which increases with longer wires
and traces. Since the power supply is
relatively far away from the chip, inductance
and resistance are a problem. To maximize
current flow to the chip, the decoupling
capacitors should be placed as close as
possible to the chip’s power pins.

Capacitors with lower equivalent series

resistance (ESR) and lower equivalent series
inductance (ESL) are the best types to use
here.

Research by Tom Christiansen shows that a

4.7 µF ceramic X7R capacitor in parallel with
a 22 µF electrolytic and 1000 µF electrolytic
has significantly better performance than
the paralleled 100 nF, 10 µF, and 470 µF
capacitors recommended in the datasheet.
That is what I’ll be using in my amplifier.

THE MUTE CIRCUIT

Rm, Cm, and D1 form the mute circuit:
When the current flowing out of the mute
pin (pin 8) is less than 0.5 mA, the amplifier’s
output is muted, and when the current is
greater than 0.5 mA, the output is un-muted.

To un-mute the amplifier, we need to find

a value for Rm so that the current allowed to
flow out of pin 8 is greater than 0.5 mA. That
can be found with this formula:

For my amplifier running on a ±29.6 V supply

voltage,

So, my Rm will need to be less than 54 kΩ for

the current at pin 8 to be greater than 0.5
mA.

Rm and Cm create a time constant that

slowly decreases the current at the mute pin
when power to the amplifier is shut off, and
slowly increases the current when the amp
is turned on. The 16 V Zener diode (D1) blocks
current flowing out of pin 8 until the diode’s
breakdown voltage (16 V) has been reached.
This produces a soft start/stop effect that
gradually increases or decreases the volume
instead of abruptly cutting it.

The time it takes the current to ramp up

and down can be adjusted by changing the
values of Rm or Cm according to the formula
for the RC time constant:

For example, if I want a one second long soft

start, I could arbitrarily set Rm to 10 kΩ, then
find a value for Cm:

So setting Rm to 10 kΩ, and Cm to 100 µF will

give me a one second long soft start.

THE FINAL SCHEMATIC

Now that we’ve seen how to calculate the
component values, we can start designing
the PCB layout and wiring scheme. If you
don’t want do all of the calculations we
did above, you can use the values I used.
Here’s the final schematic:
Note: The component labels match the
labels on the PCB layout provided below.
Click on the image to edit the schematic or
change component values.

DESIGNING THE GROUND

LAYOUT
The ground layout of your amplifier has a
major effect on sound quality. With a
properly designed grounding layout, the
amplifier’s output will be completely silent
when the source is connected and no music
is playing. With a poorly designed ground
layout, the amplifier can produce a very
noticeable hum or buzzing sound.

The key to a good grounding layout is to

keep low current grounds separate
from high current grounds. Low current
grounds are the ground feeds to the input
circuitry and feedback loop. High current
grounds are the ground feeds to the power
supply decoupling capacitors, the Zobel
network, and the speakers. High currents
flowing through the low current ground
conductors will create a DC voltage that
can show up at the amplifier’s input and
get amplified as noise.

To separate the low current grounds from

the high current grounds, we will create
several ground networks:

Audio input ground: Ground for the audio

input cable

Signal ground: Ground for the input

circuitry – Rin, Cc, and Ri/Ci

Speaker ground: Ground for the speakers

Power ground: Ground for the power

supply decoupling capacitors, Zobel
network, mute capacitor, and the ground
pin of the LM3886

These grounds should connect only once at

a set of terminals called the main system
ground. The main system ground is located
as close as possible the reservoir capacitors
on the power supply. The main system
ground will connect to the mains earth wire
via a ground loop protection circuit
(explained later), and the amplifier chassis.
The individual ground networks are
connected to the main system ground so
that higher current grounds are closer to the
reservoir capacitors. The diagram below
shows how to order the ground connections:

The speaker grounds and audio input

grounds are routed directly from their
terminals on the chassis to the main system
ground.

DESIGNING THE PCB

LAYOUT
PCB design also has a major influence on
the performance of your amplifier. Below I’ll
discuss the guidelines I used to design this
PCB layout. The PCB is for a single channel,
so for a stereo amplifier, you’ll need to build
two boards:

Note: The components on the PCB layout

match the schematic above. You can click
on the image above to edit the PCB layout,
change the component footprints, and
order PCB’s.

The PCB was designed

with EasyEDA’s online design software.
EasyEDA is a full suite schematic and PCB
design software/manufacturing service that’s
free to use and offers great prices on custom
PCB manufacturing.

ORDERING PCBS
If you click on the “Fabrication Output”
button in EasyEDA’s PCB editor, you’ll be
taken to a page where you can order the
PCB. You’ll be able to choose the copper
thickness, PCB thickness, color, and order
quantity:

I ordered 5 boards for $17.10 USD and they

were delivered in about 10 days. The finished
boards look great. All of the traces and
printing came out very clean and precise,
and there were no defects on any of the
boards. Here’s one of the PCBs:
PCB DESIGN GUIDELINES
High currents flowing through the power
supply and output traces will
create magnetic fields that can generate
currents in the feedback loop and input
traces if they’re routed parallel to each other.
This can distort the input signal, so it’s best
to keep them far apart or route them at 90°
angles. Placing their PCB terminals on
opposite sides of the board will make it
easier to keep them separate when you
route the traces.

Any space between traces of the same

circuit will create a loop that can transmit or
receive electromagnetic fields. The traces for
the power supply feeds and power ground
should be routed close together to reduce
the loop area. Likewise, the audio input and
signal traces should be routed close to each
other. An easy way to minimize the loop area
is to use ground planes on the bottom layer
of the PCB, which I’ve done in this layout.

The power ground and signal ground are the

only ground networks on the PCB. Each one
has its own electrically isolated ground plane
on the bottom layer. Since the power ground
carries high currents and the signal ground
carries low currents, they’re kept separate
until they connect at the main system
ground. On the top layer of the PCB, the
power supply, output, and Zobel network
traces are routed over the power ground
plane. The input and feedback loop traces
are routed over the signal ground plane. The
traces for the power supply feeds were made
very wide to minimize the resistance and
inductance.

The feedback loop should be kept as short as

possible to reduce the loop area. I
trimmed the leads of the feedback resistor
(Rf1) and soldered it directly to pins 9 and 3
to keep the loop area as small as possible:
Inductance inhibits the flow of current and
creates resonance with a capacitor that’s in
series. Since inductance increases with trace
length, it’s best to keep all traces as short as
possible. This is especially important for the
power supply decoupling capacitors,
feedback loop, input circuitry, and Zobel
network. Keep the components for these
circuits right up against the chip’s pins so
the traces will be short.

We have more tips and tricks on designing

PCBs in our How to Make a Custom
PCB article, so check that out if you’re
interested.

WIRING IT ALL TOGETHER

The LM3886 is a Hi-Fi chip amp, so I used
high quality audio grade components for my
amplifier:
The total cost came to about $118 for
both channels, not including the chassis,
power supply, and wiring parts. You can
build it for a lot less with cheaper
components if you’re on a budget, just be
sure to change the component footprints in
the PCB layout.

SOLDER AND SOLDERING

Before soldering the components to the
PCB, use a piece of fine grit sandpaper to
remove any oxidation from the component
leads. This will give you a stronger solder
joint and better electrical conductivity.

To hold individual components in place

while soldering, use a putty like Sticky-Tac on
the top side of the PCB. Start soldering the
smallest components first, and work
your way up to the larger components.

Try to avoid the standard 60/40 tin lead

solder and use a 63/37 eutectic solder
instead. 60/40 solder has a wide melting
range, and when it’s at the lower end of
the range it becomes pasty. If the
component moves in the pasty phase, it
can create a cold solder joint. The smaller
melting range of eutectic solder makes the
solder set faster and gives a better electrical
connection.

Here’s one channel of my amplifier after I

soldered the components:

FINDING A CHASSIS
You’ll need an enclosure to keep the PCBs
and wires contained and to mount the input,
output, and power connectors. Metal
enclosures are the best type because they
shield the amplifier from interference
caused by fluorescent lights, radios, and cell
phones. Unfortunately it can be hard to find
a chassis that fits everything and looks nice
too. After a lot of searching, I found a
company called Hi-Fi 2000 that
manufactures some really nice
metal enclosures. Their website is in Italian,
but it can be translated to English. I
ordered their 330×280 mm Galaxy model
with a 10 mm black anodized aluminum
front panel and it looks great:

They also do custom drilling and printing, so

I had them customize the back panel:

Before you order a chassis, do a test layout of

the transformer, power supply, amplifier
PCBs, and heat sinks. Then measure
the overall dimensions to make sure the
enclosure will fit everything.

WIRING LAYOUT INSIDE THE

CHASSIS
After the PCBs have been assembled and
you have a chassis, it’s time to wire
everything together. The wiring layout is just
as important as the PCB layout and
grounding layout. Use the diagram below as
a guide for wiring the various parts together:

Click on the image to view a larger version.

The goal with wiring is to reduce or eliminate

electromagnetic interference between high
current and low current wires. The audio
input wires and signal ground wires are the
most sensitive to interference
from surrounding magnetic fields.

The power supply wires, speaker output

wires, transformer, rectifier diodes, and AC
mains wires are a major source of magnetic
fields. To reduce interference, keep the audio
input and signal ground wires away from
these parts or run them at 90° angles if
separating them is unavoidable. If you orient
the input side of the amplifier PCBs near the
input terminals on the chassis, the wires
can be kept short and away from sources of
interference.

Any space between the wires of the same

circuit will create a loop that can transmit or
receive electromagnetic fields. To minimize
the loop area, the following sets of wires
should be twisted together tightly:

Hot and neutral AC mains wires from the

input terminal to the transformer

AC zero and secondary voltage wires from

the transformer to the power supply

V+, V-, and power ground wires from the

power supply to each amplifier PCB

Speaker output and speaker ground wires

from the amplifier PCB/main system
ground to the chassis terminals

Audio input and input ground wires from

the input terminals to the amplifier PCBs

Three power supply wires (V+, V-, and power

ground) connect the power supply’s DC
output to each amplifier PCB. These wires
should be thick, as short as possible, and
twisted together tightly. I used 14 AWG, but
anything larger than 18 AWG should be fine.

Only low currents flow through the input

wires and signal ground wires, so they don’t
need to be heavy gauge. I used solid core 22
AWG, which works well because it can be
twisted into a tight coil.

Audio input cables running from the source

to the amplifier chassis can pick up
interference. If this becomes a problem, you
can install a 1 nF capacitor between each
input terminal ground and the chassis to
filter it.

The mains earth wire should be secured

directly to the chassis with a bolt and ring
terminal. I’d also use a lock nut or lock
washer to prevent it from getting loose. All
metal parts of the amplifier (like the heat
sinks) should be electrically connected to the
chassis to provide a path to earth for any
mains voltages that could contact them in
the event of a fault.

The main system ground connects to the

ground protection circuit (discussed below),
which then connects to the chassis. The
ground protection circuit can connect to the
chassis at the bolt where the mains earth
wire is connected to the chassis, or at a
separate location.

The two Thiele networks are located close to

the speaker output terminals. To prevent
interference between the inductors, they
should be spaced apart or oriented at 90°
angles to each other.

Here’s how I installed everything inside

my chassis. The right channel PCB is
mounted upside down so that the input side
of the board is close to the RCA and 3.5 mm
input terminals. In this arrangement, the
heat sinks provide some shielding from the
Thiele networks and the AC wires leading to
the transformer:

Click on the image to view a larger version.

THE GROUND LOOP

PROTECTION CIRCUIT

GROUND LOOP PROTECTION CIRCUITS MAY

BE ILLEGAL IN SOME AREAS. PLEASE
CHECK YOUR LOCAL ELECTRICAL CODE OR
CONSULT AN ELECTRICIAN BEFORE
INSTALLING THIS…

When you connect a powered audio source

to your amplifier, magnetic fields from the
source’s transformer and power supply wires
can be coupled into the ground wires of the
audio input cables. This is know as a ground
loop, and it can create hum in your
amplifier’s output.

A ground loop protection circuit will break

the ground loop current:

Under normal operating conditions, low

voltage ground loop currents flow through
the resistor (R1) to earth (the chassis). The
resistor reduces this current and breaks the
ground loop. If a high current fault occurs,
the fault current can flow through the diode
bridge to earth. Note that the chassis
MUST be electrically connected to the mains
earth wire to prevent mains voltages on the
metal chassis in the event of a fault. The
capacitor is there to filter any radio
frequencies picked up by the chassis.

If a ground loop protection circuit is used, all

input and output terminals must be
electrically isolated from the chassis.
Otherwise, the ground loop protection
circuit will be bypassed entirely by the
input/output ground wires that connect to
the main system ground.

The ground loop protection circuit can be

hard wired, but it’s a little neater to mount
the components on a PCB. The “PSU 0V”
terminal connects to the main system
ground. The “Chassis” terminal connects to
the chassis:

Click on the image to edit the layout,

change component footprints, and order
the PCB.

HOW DOES IT SOUND?

The amplifier I built sounds incredibly good.
It’s the best amp I’ve ever owned by far. The
bass is very deep and clean. You can really
feel it. The highs are clear, but not harsh at
all. I can hear details in songs that I never
knew were there. Trust me, if you build an
amp with the LM3886 you will not be
disappointed. It definitely lives up to it’s
reputation as a Hi-Fi amplifier. The video at
the beginning of the post will give you an
idea of what it sounds like.

This should about cover most of what you’ll

need to build an excellent sounding Hi-Fi
amplifier with the LM3886. Due to the
length of this post, I decided not to cover the
power supply in detail, but I may do so in the
future.

If you’re interested in building other

amplifiers, we also have a tutorial on making
a 25 Watt amplifier with the TDA2050, and
making 10 Watt stereo and bridged
amplifiers with the TDA2003 as well.

Thanks for reading… If you have any

questions on this build, be sure to leave it in
the comments below and we’ll try to answer
it. And be sure to like, share, and subscribe if
you found this helpful! Talk to you next time…

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133 COMMENTS

Jeffery Lockmiller on November 7, 2016 at 5:52 pm

I use the LM3886 on my biamped mains. A single chip
for each tweeter and a parallel pair for the woofers.
This setup drives them quite well.

REPLY

desoto on December 5, 2018 at 1:24 am

Hi Georg. I am interested in buying two amplifier
plates and one power supply. I am asking for
information by email [email protected]

REPLY

Aakash on July 25, 2019 at 9:13 am

Can u provide me circuit diagram of parallel pair
chip ?? What output power will it give
Thnx..

REPLY
Pero on November 8, 2016 at 1:59 pm

Hey, great job! thanks for sharing. Cant wait to see

post on power supply!

REPLY

Mustafa Kamal on November 17, 2016 at 11:42 am

Great post and well explained. If possible please post

on Power Supply, Speaker Protection, Soft Start and

Pre-Amp.
Thanks…………..

REPLY

Brian Stover on January 28, 2017 at 11:34 pm

Love the post. Great detail and explanations of the
individual aspects of the circuit. I also really like how
you supplied the calculations for determining the size
of the components. As others have stated, I’d love to
see a followup on the power supply. If not a full post
cover it, could you at a minimum post a link to the
pcb?

Thanks!

REPLY

marco on January 29, 2017 at 3:22 pm

Great job, very well explained. Thanks

REPLY

George Riad on February 3, 2017 at 5:33 pm

I enjoyed every moment of the explanation, Great
work and thank you for sharing

REPLY

Vince on February 7, 2017 at 11:10 am

everything were very well explained. thanks for
sharing.

REPLY

Asok Sen on February 7, 2017 at 6:04 pm

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation,
I”m searching for the same.

REPLY

alejandro on February 10, 2017 at 3:19 pm

Great project; thank you for sharing. The LM3886 is an
excellent component and you explained “who to do
better”.

REPLY

Enrico on February 14, 2017 at 10:09 pm

Thank you for sharing this.
Shouldn’t you also consider the voltage drop on the
rectifier diodes, when you calculate the maximum
voltage required by the amplifier?
thanks.

REPLY

jOHN DAVIS on January 31, 2018 at 5:31 pm

I was wondering the same thing. I think this is an

omission in the article. Depending on the rectifier
 and diodes used, this should be anywhere from
1.1V – 1.4V subtracted from the transformer output
voltage.

REPLY

Wil on March 4, 2017 at 7:04 am

Thank you for this really great article.
Do you think you could post the exhaustive list,
brandd and referenced of the components ?

thanks.

REPLY

Gerontius on April 5, 2017 at 3:33 am

Nice work! I wish I had had this guide years ago
when I first tried building an LM3886 amp. I
second the request for component details, such as
the voltages of the caps that can’t be read, if
possible.

REPLY

Martin Arh on March 6, 2017 at 2:37 pm

Thanks. The best article ever. I learn a lot, specially
about grounding.

REPLY

Victor H Faucheret on March 27, 2017 at 10:28 am

The best post I’ve ever seen on LM3886.

Congratulations! A complete schematic, as well as
components values for the power supply will be
greatly appreciated, Thank you so much in advance.

REPLY
Luis Peña on March 30, 2017 at 5:05 am
Thanks for the explanation. I have a question though,
if you said your amp will need +-30V, why would a
+-18V transformer be enough?

REPLY

Circuit Basics on April 1, 2017 at 2:47 am

The transformer only outputs AC, so the 18V rating
is AC voltage. The amp needs about +-30V DC
though. When you convert the transformer’s AC
voltage to DC on the power supply, the voltage
actually increases to about 25V due to the bridge
rectifier.

REPLY

Patrick on December 21, 2017 at 5:17 pm

Great article! Would it be possible to provide
the PS schematic or the gerber files for the
PCB board?

Thanks

REPLY

cd on March 31, 2017 at 11:43 am

Would be awesome to have links to getting the
chosen audio components too.

REPLY

Robert L. Pendergast N5JYW on April 3, 2017 at 12:38 pm

Beautiful job. Congratulations and thanks for the
details.

REPLY

Bob Pendergast on April 3, 2017 at 12:40 pm

Top quality work.

REPLY

Pietro Di Zinno on April 3, 2017 at 1:33 pm

True nice complete job! (y)

REPLY

naresh on April 4, 2017 at 5:17 am

Thank you for sharing this documented design guide

for LM3886.

A request .Could you also consider doing a solid state

discrete power amp with dual dc power supply.

A pre-amp with tone controls would be also be a

welcome.

There are many circuits on the net but again they do

not explain any design aspects completely.

REPLY

Aus_Roh on April 8, 2017 at 7:38 am

A very nice explanation. A lot of effort obviously went
into this. Many thanks! Many thanks too for the
fantastic links.

You seem to know what you are doing as well as

having a lot of experience. Thus, I was wondering if
you could state the specifications of your amp,
(distortion and noise characteristics) so it can be
compared to other LM3886 designs, so see if one
needs to improve anything.

Also, I would try to slide the capacitors away from the

heatsink more on the PCB design so that the modules
would have a longer life in many years time before
breakdowns.

How come you amp isn’t picking up hum or the local

AM radio station when its not in a shielded box?

Crazy input capacitor!

REPLY

françois on April 17, 2017 at 12:16 am

Great post!!!!
Thanks.
Just a question: if I want to use a volume control, how
should I set the input resistor to limit dc offset due to
input bias current?

REPLY

Victor Faucheret on April 22, 2017 at 5:20 am

thank you so much for your posting of the parts list as
well as the power supply schematic and values!!

REPLY

Sascha on April 25, 2017 at 7:02 am

Thanks a lot for sharing this wonderful job. I will
definetly try a build on my own.
Sascha

REPLY

Phil on May 12, 2017 at 5:34 am

Awesome writeup, many thanks! Quick question, I’m
making these amplifiers to work in my car, so I will be
using a 12V-30V DC transformer to power it. Should I
still include a ground loop protection circuit or is it not
needed for this approach?

REPLY

ed linssen on May 23, 2017 at 9:19 pm

no comment, just want to follow this very nice thread!

REPLY

Darren on May 25, 2017 at 6:40 pm

I don’t know if I am misreading your schematic but it
appears that your board silkscreen is mislabeled. The
two silver mica capacitors (47pF and 680pF) appear to
be reversed in your pictures. the footprint size of the
components appears to be reversed if C2 sets the high
frequency roll off of the amplifier then this would be
the 680pF capacitor (the lager of the two) this is
reflected in the picture of your components laid out
with labels.
As C13 is used to stabilize the amplifier I would just like
confirmation that the parts list and silkscreen are
correct. Thank you.

REPLY

ed linssen on May 28, 2017 at 8:50 pm

Hi Darren,

I see that on the photograph of the parts family, the

names of the two mica C’s are reversed.. The 680 is in
fact the smaller-, the 47pF is the bigger one!
So the silkscreen is correct….
Success with the build,
Ed

REPLY

José Luiz fonseca on May 28, 2017 at 11:43 pm

Hi, friend,

I´ve got the PCB but when I started to put the

components , I didn´t find the holes for R4. Did you
forget it?
I have a transformer that feeds 22V at 7A.. I can use it,
no?

REPLY

ed linssen on May 29, 2017 at 9:17 am

Hi José,
You are supposed to place R4 (20 Ohm) between pins
3 and 9 directly ON the chip.
Good luck,
Ed

REPLY

Konig Heniker on May 31, 2017 at 10:01 pm

Best tutorial you’ve ever made and one of the best

available online. I hope you’ll make more of those
overly detailed explanations, amazing knowledge
source.
 REPLY

Evan on June 2, 2017 at 3:08 pm

First off – thank you for the great tutorial and the
breakdown of each step. As an electrical engineering
student, I love getting the chance to truly understand
the process of creating the design.

Second, I’m trying to design the amp to go with a pair

of Bose Interaudio 4000 speakers, which have a rating

of 10-100W and 4-8 ohms. Since they do not have a

specific value, but instead a range, should I make the
calculations using the higher values, as a worst case
scenario or sorts?

Thanks for the help!

REPLY

Liwei Sheng on June 7, 2017 at 4:55 pm

Wow, best guide about building LM3886 amplifier. I
would not call this basics. There are many deep
understandings beneath the guide. I like the way you
treat ground connections. But I think three wire
transformer output should also do just fine. I would
like a kit to same the time to order them. I do not care
particular brands of capacitors or any other
components as long as their specs meet
requirements.

REPLY

dimitris on June 10, 2017 at 7:38 am

Excellent post! I would like to ask some questions.
Firstly , if we want a volume control for this amplifier,
how we will achieve it?
Second is there any need for preamp as my audio
source would be a laptop or a smatphone.

REPLY

govie on June 19, 2018 at 8:37 am

Although your question is a year old, I will answer it
with my assumptions so far after searching online
with the same questions in mind. Maybe it helps
other people with similar questions. Please double

check the information below, as I do not have alot

of knowledge about electronics yet (I am a
newbie).

If you look up page 7 in the LM1036 document

below, you will find a schematic for
tone/bass/treble/volume controls for stereo
amplifiers. You can add an input selector knob (if
you want more inputs) on the same controls-pcb
and then mount the pcb parallel to where your
control knobs should be. Most of the time the
controls pcb will be mounted parallel towards the
front of the amplifier. Most designs have
extensionrods are used between the pcb and the
controlknobs at the front, to obtain a better
internal layout. You do not want wires going from
the back to the front of the amplifier and back
again, so power components and pcb’s in the front
half of the amplifier and signal pcb’s and
components in the back is optimal imho. My
assumption is that how more “stuff” you add
between the signal-input and amplified output
circuit, the more distortion you could get (seems
logical). Simply adding “some controls” could
decrease/alter the sound quality output, or not. If
you want to add controls to your amplifier, design
your controlscircuit of similar high quality as the
(munford) components and circuit designs used.
 http://www.learnabout-
electronics.org/Downloads/lm1036-
Tone%20control%20IC.pdf

Imho not adding controls is a good idea if you

already have a control on your sound producing
devices connected to this amplifier. I.e. for your
computer you can simply download some
freeware controlssoftware to alter the input signal
of your amplier. This because having 2 control

options is redundant, this way the amplifier can

provide the highest soundquality possible
(because it has less parts to distort/alter the signal).
But if you still want controls-knobs like I do, then
researching in which way a controlscircuit is less
likely to decrease/alter the soundquality could be
the way to go from here. Like, I am going to try to
design a controlscircuit for this diy amplifier
project, that I can add later on in the case as an
upgrade, before I start building this diy amplifier
project for real.

Hopefully my reply helps, if not… whatever. ;-)

REPLY

ıBRAHIM DILEK on July 9, 2017 at 11:11 am

Hello , this is a real complete guide for building a high
quality amplifier. However I am almost a new
graduate of Electrical Engineer and not sure if I can
handle the processes. Anyone has any idea on how to
be qualified in order to build this amplifier without
major mistakes ? Thank you in advance.

REPLY

Raf on July 16, 2017 at 12:32 pm

Hello Circuit Basics. I really enjoyed reading this
awesome guide! I would like to know if there is a way
to buy the power supply PCB instead of making it
from scratch. Thank you.

REPLY

Robert on July 21, 2017 at 9:09 am

Hi, I really enjoyed reading this ! I don’t have the

patience to start this project can you advise me on

where to find a really good lm3886 assembled board.
also have an 8 ohm load and looking for Lm board
with at least 80w/ channel.

Thanks again,
Rob nyc

REPLY

nheco on July 22, 2017 at 4:37 pm

Congratulations for the excellent post!
I assembled the circuit exactly like the one in the
guide, with the following changes in the PSU: 24-0-24
250 VA transformer and 4x 10000 uf 50V, having +
-32.8 volts dc. In the rest everything is equal to the
circuit. The sound is fantastic, however I can not reach
it but the power is far from expected. What could be
wrong?
Can you help please.
Thank you.
Nheco

REPLY

Simon Jones on August 2, 2017 at 4:11 pm

Thank you for your excellent work on this guide. I
think you’ve completed the most comprehensive and
understandable post on this subject. I can’t thank you
enough.

REPLY

Chris on August 5, 2017 at 2:38 pm

Hi! This is _really_ a fantastic guide for a newbie like
myself. I would also like to see a follow up post with

details on the power supply. And I have a few

questions:

Is there any reason why the input capacitor C1 has

such a huge voltage rating well above the theoretical
maximum of 60.4V from the positive to the negative
rail of the power supply? Or is it just because the part
is only manufactured like that by Mundorf?

If the latter: Are there any benefits (audio signal

quality or other reason) with axial capacitors with such
big plates? I was thinking of using one of the smaller
WIMA MKP 4 series capacitors for C1. Those are also
metalized polypropylene film capacitors, but with a
smaller footprint and lower voltage ratings. The
drawback is a bigger tolerance (10%), but they are dirt
cheap compared to the Mundorf monster cap used
here (WIMA MKP4F044706F00KSSD is about 1/7 of
the price and way easier to find where I live).

And lastly a tip/request/suggestion for your CSS:

Could you please add a print stylesheet to the website,

where all the unnecessary stuff (navigation, newsletter
subsciption, social links, footer, etc) is hidden and the
content column has full width?

Also, older versions of Firefox have problems when

parts of the page are not “display: block”. On this web
site it’s the #content-area DIV that is set to “display:
flex”, that causes Firefox to print only the header on
the first page, then whatever part of the article fits on
the second page, followed by third page with just the
footer. All other (47) pages of the article and the
comments are hidden.

You could even add a DIV at the top of the web page
with a .print-only class attribute, that is invisible when
the page is viewed on a screen/tv, but would be

included in the printed version. In there you could put

things like a publishing date and a copyright notice,
keywords, a table of contents, (social link) URLs written
in full as normal text instead of just blue words in the
article, etc.

REPLY

Jimmy George on August 23, 2017 at 12:00 pm

I made an amp with LM3876 in 2015. From then on, I
have been trying to improve its performance by
making modifications. In addition, I wanted to publish
a systematic article with instructions on that.
However, due to lack of deep knowledge in
electronics, the project was lagging behind.

Surprisingly, while searching for “Negative Feedback”

of amps, I came here. This is amazing. Though I have
no expertise in Physics, was able to understand the
technical things in this article. This is far far better
than I wanted to publish, or would say – THE BEST.
Awesome job, guys.

REPLY

Dave on September 6, 2017 at 10:35 pm

Thanks for all the hard work. I noticed that in the
schematic you have a 100nF cap (Csn). And in the
photo under Wiring It All Together, there is a
polypropylene cap labelled as a 100nF cap (I assume
this is Csn). You explain in the tutorial (and as the
actual photo of the cap shows) the actual value of the
polypropylene is .22uF. Could you update this info.
Thanks.

REPLY

Judah on October 4, 2017 at 10:53 am

Thanks a lot for this awesome project. This is my first
and through the detailed explanation, I’m well able to
understand almost all of it.
I have a question though. For the power supply circuit,
how can I connect diodes and capacitors to safely give
the required voltage and do away with the
transformer.
Thanks in advance.

REPLY

selman on October 8, 2017 at 12:58 pm

Hi.
Some designs used only these parts For input:
1-Rb and Rin
2-Cim,Rb,Rin
3-Rb,Rin,Cc
4-Cin,Rin,Rb,Cc
Is there any order we should follow?
Rb before Rin or Rin before Rb?
Cin after Rin?
Cc before Rb?
Cc before or after Cin?
Can I use Cin and Cc in The between of Rin and Rc?…….
Thanks.
 REPLY

MBBS on October 15, 2017 at 11:28 pm

Thank you for posting.

Very similar to Neurochrome design procedure,

except Neurochrome uses Crest factor for RMS Power.

Possible options:

Use two smaller transformers and put bridge and

caps on amplifier board. Use low ESR bulk storage
caps and minimize inductance lengths. Keep all
unregulated storage caps close to the LM3886 with
proximity based on parasitic inductance effects.
Meaning, small caps closest to LM3886. The
combination of bulk caps should provide low
impedance current throughout the frequency band
for the load. Also, at the same time provide IC centric
decoupling of the supply.

Heat sinks for Natural Convection should be exposed

to room air flow. However If amp is run at near full load
(not likely) heating effects of the transformer and bulk
storage caps should be cooled as well. (This is where
you find air flow holes across the entire top and
bottom of enclosure.) Use the metal tab version of the
part. Published Rth of plastic is optimistic.

Weakest link: Supply large bulk storage caps. The

design should specify based on cap heating RMS
Ripple current effects (ESR), which basically translate
into Capacitor life expectancy. So depending on the
capacitor supplier used, the design may have larger
bulk capacitance, divided into multiple smaller caps in
parallel as needed that can satisfy the RMS ripple
requirement. Also, some airflow spacing is needed
around the caps.
Hope the above was helpful.

REPLY

Brad on November 15, 2017 at 5:21 pm

Absolutely top-notch. A person with or without
electronics knowledge can follow this quite easily. This
helped me have the courage to continue with my own
Gainclone amp project. THANK YOU.

REPLY

dave on December 3, 2017 at 2:22 pm

Fantastic tutorial. It explained so much.

REPLY

0rphu on December 19, 2017 at 5:40 pm

Truly fantastic stuff you got here! I just finished my
build based on your tutorial, with minor changes. I
used single sided PCB, but tried sticking to your
layout as closely as possible and changed some
components – especially the Mundorfs for something
readily available (and a bit cheaper ;) ). When I
powered it up it sounded… different. At least to me,
but I’ve been listening only to Yamahas for the past 10
plus years. Now after a couple of hours of listening to
the LM3886 I must say it really sounds great! But it
wasn’t so from the start – either I wasn’t used to the
sound or the amp needs some time to burn in (which
many people say is a myth). At first, the sound stage
seemed too narrow to me and some of the songs
sounded somehow odd – mostly metal tunes, in some
the mids sounded somehow hollow. I think the sound
my LM3886 amp produces is much sweeter and softer
than my Yamaha. That’s why death metal sounds…
odd :D. Also the imaging and mids either improved
quite a bit in time or I just wasn’t paying attention at
first. But I was astounded. I listened to songs I heard
hundreds of times with a slack jaw. Amazing! Also,
due to the sweeter and softer nature of the sound I’m
able to comfortably listen to it on a volume which I
would hardly stand listening to on the Yamaha.

REPLY

govie on June 19, 2018 at 10:11 am

I will add a comment to this post: I calculated the
total cost of accuiring these exact components in
The Netherlands (europe): €80 (mouser) + €180
(hificollective) + €120 (modushop enclosure
including heatsinks) + €50 (ebay/amazon/other) =
€430,– in total without pcb’s. If someone wants to
add tonecontrols, I think you should atleast think
about €125– in total for
components+pcb+knobs+rods+fasteners+aluminiu
m profile+etc is my assumption.

REPLY

gershom gorgonio on March 6, 2018 at 11:26 am

Hi,

Excellent work.. Love the in depth circuit analysis on

components functions and why values were selected.

I would like to know how much the project costs for a

stereo system including the power supply/transformer
and where can i order these modules/accessories?

I live in Manila, Philippines.

Best regards.
 REPLY

Toivo on April 17, 2018 at 6:02 am

Wery nice article! Thanks a lot! Only one thing- why
the pcb ordering link won’t work anymore?

REPLY

Dr Dorkmeister on May 21, 2018 at 11:55 pm

Chip amps sound mediocre

REPLY

Thomas on May 28, 2018 at 1:26 pm

Oops! I get no sound out of the amplifier and it’s
something I can’t figure out on my own. :( when I
connect a power supply (tried 2 different ones),
voltage slowly rises on both the positive and the
negative rail on all power supplies on both channels
with no signal through the speakers. Any idea what it
can be?

REPLY

Robin P Clarke on May 29, 2018 at 10:21 am

Make sure you haven’t got fake chips! Get from a

reputable supplier (components specialists rather
than ebay).

REPLY

Thomas on May 29, 2018 at 12:32 pm

Thanks for your reply, Robin! I sure hope I got
 genuine chips as I ordered them from Mouser.
Funny thing is: my LM3886 amplifiers from
AliExpress and eBay are both working fine.
Pretty ironic.

I recently discovered a couple of bad solder

joints on the new ones, so there’s a *ahum*
“slight” possibility that might have something
to do with it… Looks like I have something to do
for the weekend.

REPLY

govie on June 18, 2018 at 10:20 am

I signed up for the partslist but I am not recieving any
partslists, can someone upload the partslist, thank
you.

REPLY

Circuit Basics on June 19, 2018 at 6:29 am

Sorry to hear that… Try checking your spam folder.

If it’s not there, then send us a message through
our comment form and we’ll make sure you get it:

http://www.circuitbasics.com/contact-us/

REPLY

govie on June 19, 2018 at 7:57 am

Thank you!

REPLY

VlaDIMIR on August 7, 2018 at 9:18 am

Hi guys! Can I ask?
I found the post about LM3886 amplifier.
http://www.circuitbasics.com/design-hi-fi-audio… /
In this post the author writes about Iphone as input
signal source with 1 volt lvl. I want to use PC’s
intagrated Realtek sound card as signal source. Which
voltage level gives this output? Probably 1 volt too?

Thank you in advance!

REPLY

Robert Reed on August 15, 2018 at 12:23 am

Your LM3886 article is fantastic. It just does not get

better than that! However , is it possible to go directly
to EDA with info you posted for the amplifier board?
Do they have any kind of records on that so it may
only require a push of a button on this end?
Robert

REPLY

John on August 15, 2018 at 3:59 am

Great article, thanks a lot. Could you explain briefly,
the advantages/disadvantages of the T versus TF
versions of the LM3886? You use the TF version, why is
that? Thanks.

REPLY

Robert Reed on August 15, 2018 at 3:28 pm

John- in regards to the case, the T version is non
isolated meaning the back of the case is clean
metal connected directly to the -V supply which
requires electrically insulating it from the heat
sink. The TF version is isolated and mounts directly
to the heat sink. The thermal resistance of the TF
version plus thermal paste is about 2.2 C/ case to
 sink.The thermal resistance of the T version
including mica insulator and paste is about 1.4C/W
case to sink. Although its a bit more work, I prefer
the T version for the 0.8 C/W increase over the
other. This allows for a smaller heat sink for the
required dissipation thus saving a considerable
amount of space and cost.
Robert

REPLY

John on August 25, 2018 at 1:17 am

Robert
Thank you very much for the reply. You
explained it very well to me!
All the best
John

REPLY

YNM on August 23, 2018 at 10:36 am

Thanks a million for the detailed top quality guidance.
It is hard to resist from building this amp:-)

A question: If a separate supply is provided for each

channel (with separate capacitors bank for each
channel, or even possibly with two power
transformers), how should grounding be organized?
With two two separate power supply units, all grounds
be channel specific on the PCBs and the two ground-
loop protection circuits (one from each power supply
unit PCB) connected together to the chassis?

Thank you.

REPLY
Angelo on August 25, 2018 at 6:01 pm
Thank you for your excellent work! I have just a
question: in section “SET THE LOW FREQUENCY
CUTOFF AT THE FEEDBACK LOOP”, how did you
obtain the formula for Ci ? I would like to better
understand how to set a value for low-frequency
cutoff at the feedback loop. Thanks in advance.

REPLY

Mohammad fahmawi on September 17, 2018 at 4:33 pm

Your efforts really appreciated….thanks a lot

REPLY

Khurrum on September 21, 2018 at 9:17 pm

Hi All,
someone correct me if I am wrong, the photo showing
the board shows the 680pf in place of the 50pf as is
the board lay out.
From my understanding the 50pf should be C13 and
the 680pf the C2??
that had me confused for a while because of the pcb
layout and the image.
Anyone?
If I am correct the pcb layout needs to be modified to
represent the difference in size between the 50pf and
the 680pf

all the best

REPLY

Khurrum on September 21, 2018 at 9:26 pm

Hi all
my 51pf silver mica is definitely much smaller than the
615pf silver mica I have so….?
thanks in advance for any clarification but the 615pf
definitely goes to ground,

khurrum

REPLY

khurrum wahid on September 23, 2018 at 2:52 am

To all

this really is the best site for anyone considering

building a Gainclone
For me it has been invaluable in “gaining” essential
knowledge towards the building of a gainclone.
My suggestion would be to not just follow the
instructions, which are very well explained, but to take
full advantage of the instructions as a starting point to
a better understanding of exactly what each
component is doing.
The means to do so have been provided.

all the best khurrum

REPLY

khurrum on September 23, 2018 at 8:39 pm

I have built a couple of the Peter Daniels Audiosector
Gainclones before.
Both the lm3875 and the lm4780 which are both very
impressive.

If I may offer my observations, which are purely

subjective though based and no doubt influenced by
research

The power supply and each of the individual

components do have a massive influence, especially
as there are so few of them.

Mono blocks, rather than stereo, the volume control

before the amps, not in the amps, using a passive or a
buffered pre-amp is essential for quality
The power supply is all important and IS a part of the
signal path, it controls it

Bearing in mind most is subjective, though

differences between components of different
materials do have a definite measurable difference e.g

carbon v metal film resistors, silver mica v polyprop

capacitors etc.

With the knowledge and the tools available on this

site I have built very modified boards. 10 minimum
so… 2oz copper
They have ended up 250mm x 170mm and the board
is a z shape and the pins etc allow me to swap the
various components (polystyrene caps are massive) I
have connected some components underneath and
supported them on separate boards
the holes have been kept as small a diameter as
possible so the component pins need a light sand and
pull through to fit through, maximum contact
without solder, keys the pins as well.
Soldering quality does make a noticeable difference,
don’t bend pins at the body, will cause damage

I have sourced components from ebay from Russia

and the Ukraine.
Military grade Silver Mica capacitors SSG2 0.1uf at 0.3%
tolerance (possibly the best capacitor made)
615pf at 0.3% tolerance
FT3 teflon 0.47uf and 0.22uf and 680pf
Polystyrene 4uf, 1uf, 0.22uf and 680pf and 48pf
All at amazing prices when compared to what they
would cost here if obtainable without custom order.
From the left
I’ve moved the 4.7uf ceramic onto the pins, bottom of
board obviously
used 2x10uf polyester mounted both sides of board for
mids.
used 220uf then 3x470uf bipolar nichicon 50v
electrolytics

Power ground is between V+ and V-

2 currents flowing in same direction will have cross
interference due to proximity, ideally should be at 90

degrees or have sufficient space

2×0.1uf silver mica for rf oscillation filter, sm is the best

followed very closely by polystyrene. noticable
difference from polyprop, (I know?the rf oscillation
fiter makes a difference) hmmm, could be subjective

signal in paralleled 0.2uf silver mica, 1uf teflon and 4uf

polystyrene
signal shunt to ground paralleled 0.2uf silver mica, 1uf
teflon, 3uf polypropylene, 30uf polypropylene 100uf bi-
polar nichicon 63v and 330uf nichicon b.p
Seems counter productive to use film cap on signal in,
then electro for shunt

From my understanding re: “bypassing capacitors”

for power supply decoupling the values are
dependent on frequency requirements
for signal path coupling should be at least 10% of next
capacitor value so; 0.1uf, 1uf, 10uf, the reason for the 3uf
polypropylene above, to link the 0.47 teflon to the 30uf
polyprop
using tiny values as mentioned in some forums,
produces nothing noticeable , at least not to my ears

used 5ppm 22k vishay resistors on signal path and 22k

holco 15ppm on some boards
income 22k uses 4 x the voltage so gets warmer so
important to have close ppm
15ppm 21k holco for balance bias current resistors and
15ppm holco everywhere else.

A bit much perhaps? the difference in price is

negligible

The board layout has allowed for flexibility which will

allow for experimenting with components.
Every component really does make a noticeable
difference

choice is subjective for example;

it seems people like the foil in oil because the oil
allows movement which causes distortion in 2nd
order harmonics, which people perceive as warm.
Too much clarity is not something people are used to,
which can be an issue
still experimenting

Oh! all a bit pointless without sensitive speakers to

match.

I have built 98db sensitive speakers, without physically

large speakers it’s a little difficult to achieve sensitivity
That is another subject altogether, all I will say is that
the vast majority of commercial speakers have just
been thrown together more or less. Crossed over at
1000 and 7000, that’s about it
No matching of different drivers resonance frequency
etc then crossover to match
It is definitely worth building ones own speaker
system using a dsp rather than a cross-over, same as
the Gainclones one can have exceptional performance
at a fraction of the cost if one is willing to put in the
time and study
I am now in the process of building 3 way active
speakers, initially with crossovers then with dsp’s fed
through a preamp.
The advantages of the amps in the speakers are
immense and save on cost of cases binding posts
banana plugs length of wire etc as well as massive
improvement in audio quality.

I do believe a carefully planned lm3886 using quality

(not expensive) components with suitable source,
volume control feeding decent speakers is difficult to
beat.

all the best

REPLY

Marten Pärnapuu on September 29, 2018 at 10:04 am

Hello!
Im considering building the amp, but i have a
question that i sadly havent found an asnwer to. I
have quite a bit of leftover CPU coolers and i have
an idea to use those for building an amp based on
3886. So the question is, if and how much would
adding fans to near the circuit affect sound
quality? Obviously i would use 120mm+ fans on low
rpm-s. But the question is if the motors operation
would generate enough electric fields to start
generating noise in the amplifier?
Regards
Marten

REPLY

George on October 3, 2018 at 1:08 pm

I’m confused. I ordered exactly the chassis and
heatsink as specified and there is no way that the
heatsink will fit in that chassis. The heatsink is huge.
And now I am left with these choices.
1. Buy a bigger case.
2. Saw down the heatsìnk.
What have others done to resolve this ? Or did you
order some other combination of heatsink and case ?

REPLY

George on October 4, 2018 at 3:22 pm

Whoa !!!
The PCB has 2 holes for the diodes, but the parts list
specifies a 3 pin diode.

Whats up with that.

Im beginning to not trust this beast.

MUR860G vs MURF860G

REPLY

George on October 4, 2018 at 3:53 pm

Oops, my bad. The actual diode has only 2 posts
rather than 3 as is shown in the data sheet.

REPLY

Francois on October 11, 2018 at 9:58 am

Hi, i am confuse this is what we can read in your
Guides,
for LM3886
“Audio input cables running from the source to the
amplifier chassis can pick up interference. If this
becomes a problem, you can install a 1 nF capacitor
between each input terminal ground and the chassis
to filter it”.
For TDA 2050:
“Audio input cables from the source can pick up stray
electromagnetic interference. To filter this out, you
can install a 1 nF capacitor at each input terminal,
from the positive side to ground”.
which one is right?? from the positive to ground or
from ground to chassis

REPLY

dan on October 19, 2018 at 4:00 pm

Hi
love the design and want to build the amplifier
when I’m trying to order the PCB for the amplifier and

the power supply from EasyEDA its running DRC tests

and i get many errors ‘Pad to Copper Area’
i didn’t change the file just saved it
Is it OK to proceed?
Thanks,
Dan

REPLY

George on October 19, 2018 at 8:24 pm

Dan, I dont remember but I dont think so. If there
were a way to trade email addresses, I think that I
have a few of the amplifier boards in my shack. I
could send them to you for the amount of the
postage.

George KG5TKY

REPLY

Alessandro Raco on December 23, 2018 at 10:07 pm

Hi! I had the same, and i placed the order anyway.
Package is still on ship. What to expect? Am i safe?

REPLY
Dave on October 30, 2018 at 8:44 pm
I am having a hard time finding X7R Ceramic resistors.
Is there are substitte that can be used? Thanks a lot!

REPLY

Robert Reed on October 31, 2018 at 1:33 am

X7R ceramic resistors? Did you mean X7R ceramic
capacitors. Commonly available through Moser and

DigiKey.

REPLY

Dave on November 1, 2018 at 12:17 am

Yup, meant a cap. I take may hat off to you Robert.
Thanks!

REPLY

Tyler on November 5, 2018 at 8:15 am

Couple quick questions:
1) I am just starting to get into DIY audio and while
this amp seems like a great quality amp and the
article is very in depth I am wondering if this is too
complicated for a first amp build?
2) with the above in mind I also don’t want to drop a
fortune on a project I am going to likely make
mistakes on. Does anyone have a rough cost of
building this amp??

REPLY

Guy on January 7, 2019 at 5:29 pm

I just priced it, mostly through mouser, DIY coils
 and substituting Erse MPX caps for the Mundorf. It
came out to just under $35 per side for the
components, but you have to consider the costs for
the boards and power supply. If I build this my
transformer will be one scraped out from an old
Audiosource amp.

REPLY

Robert Reed on January 9, 2019 at 5:12 pm

I have about $180 into the completed unit with

enclosure. I purchased almost all the parts as new
with only a few parts from my “junk box”. I did
build my own enclosure with about $25 in material
and I cut back on the high priced input coupling
capacitors to another high grade film type. The
unit looks very professional and the performance is
fantastic.

REPLY

Robert Roberts on December 6, 2018 at 5:38 pm

Where would i put in a stereo potentiometer for
volume control

REPLY

George on December 8, 2018 at 8:00 pm

What is the rating for the fuse at the power switch ? I
looked all over for it and cannot find it.

thanks

REPLY

Robert Reed on December 11, 2018 at 2:11 am

 I started with a 3 amp Fast Blo and it immediately
blew on the first startup due to inrush currents of
the 40,000 ‘ lytics. No surprise there! I then
switched to a 3 amp Slo Blo and every thing works
fine. I really think 2 amp or 21/2 amp would work
really well, but did not have them in stock at the
time. Alternately, you could fuse the power supply
rails (+30 vdc and – 30 vdc) with a pair of 21/2 fuses.
There are two schools of thought here. First being
to place fuse at bridge input, which will protect all

power supply components. However the big lytics

will continue to conduct until fully discharged and
continue to do damage for faulty down stream
components. Second is to place fuse at the output
end of the lytics. This will give good protection to
the actual amp circuit but will not blow for shorted
bridges or lytics! Fusing both AC line input and
power rails are the best but more work and
expense.

Robert Reed

REPLY

jeff on January 13, 2019 at 2:04 pm

/

REPLY

jeff on January 13, 2019 at 2:06 pm

which heatsink was actually used ?

REPLY

Gary on January 17, 2019 at 12:26 am

And your reply is rife with grammatical errors.
Let it go. I think many of the posters are from
countries where English is not the primary language.

REPLY

Aakash gajjar on January 24, 2019 at 4:44 am

Many many thnx to share this ..
Pls make thesis on power supply too.
Thnx in advance

REPLY

JML on March 1, 2019 at 2:34 am

Very nice tutorial. I’m trying to understand the origin
of the mathematical formulas. In the section
REQUIRED TRANSFORMER POWER, I cannot
understand where the pi factor comes from. Is it from
the bridge rectifiers? In that cas, it should be 2/pi… can
anybody help me with that%

REPLY

odie santos on March 29, 2019 at 8:58 am

Hi

Your Tutorial is very nice especially to our novice like

me.
Really appreciate if you include your tutorials in TDA
7293/4 chips.
Thank you very much this blog is very helpful.

Regards,
odie

REPLY
Alessandro Raco on April 16, 2019 at 2:49 pm
I’m going to make it.
your job is truly inspiring me so i have to do it.
I’ve already bought the pcb and the main electronics
circuitry.
I’m just missing the mundorfs and the toroidal.
It will be the last big step but i need time to save some
money.
Doing your maths, i should have a 2×19,34 volts/370 VA

toroidal to get 68 watts. Is that right?

I asked to a local dealer to quote a toroidal with this
values for me, would you be so kind to give me your
opinion? Is it worth doing it or i should buy a
18×2/330VA ? Thank you for your suggestion

REPLY

Alessandro Raco on April 16, 2019 at 9:56 pm

(4ohm load)

REPLY

Nigel on April 27, 2019 at 5:43 pm

Well done for a great article.
The way you explained all the design papameters was
very useful to me

REPLY

Pete on May 9, 2019 at 8:17 pm

Wonderfully and informatively written. I’ve learned a
lot from your detailed sections on build and theory.
Just about finished building the amp as described
here. Future plans are (to try to) alter the amplifier
PCB to use a Mundorf MCap Supreme Silver Oil
instead the Evo Oil (an increase of about 44mm in
length; 27mm to 71mm long). I’m still fumbling when
trying my hand at using the EasyEDA software.

REPLY

Yuval Abadi on May 15, 2019 at 4:19 am

Hello
Is any one change to 8ohm

I think that only 25v DC will make it

Run to 8 ohm speakers
Yuval

REPLY

Pete on May 20, 2019 at 1:33 am

Yuval, I built them amp just as described and I’m
using it with my 8 ohm speakers. Sounds fine to
me. I will, however, get a 330-400V 25+25 torroidal
to see it it sounds any better.

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arnaud on July 12, 2019 at 2:19 pm

Hello, have you try with the new transformer ? I
have order the pcbs but no the components.
So if it works correctly for you, I take directly a
330-400V 25+25 transformer instead of the
recommended one.
Thank you.

REPLY

Pete on July 13, 2019 at 12:00 pm

Arnaud, I’m actually using this one
http://www.antekinc.com/as-4428-400va-
28v-transformer/ . I’ve been trying to find
the Avel Lindberg 330V 25+25 but no one
has stock in the USA that I can see. I drive 8
ohm speakers so I wanted a bit more
horsepower. To tell you the honest truth I
can’t hear a big difference between the
18+18 and the 28+28 and the larger toroidal’s
use doesn’t improve the bass response. It
also adds a lot more weight to the

assembled components in a chassis. I don’t

listen at high volume levels to be honest. My
opinions are based on listening judgements
and not electronic measurements.

REPLY

Arnaud on July 13, 2019 at 3:51 pm

Okay, thank you.
I also plan to use a pair of 8 ohm
speakers, so if everything works properly
with a little more juice in the input I will
start with a solution equivalent to yours.
I may try to make comparative
measurements if I also find an 18+18 in
my business.

REPLY

Arnaud on July 13, 2019 at 3:53 pm

I may try to make comparative
measurements if I also find an 18+18 in
my stuff. * (stupid corrector)

REPLY
 Pete on July 14, 2019 at 12:30 pm
Arnaud, one advantage in using the
18+18 is you can use higher rated uF
Caps (using 35V instead of 50V) in
both the PS and the amp w/o having
to worry about their diameter limits
fitting on the boards.

REPLY

Jesin on June 1, 2019 at 3:24 pm

Thanks for the detailed writeup.

Can you provide more details about your power

supply circuit. Is that a CRC filter circuit? How did you
calculate the values for these resistors and capacitors?
Do you have a circuit diagram for this power supply?
The circuit in the grounding diagram doesn’t seem to
include all the components.

Thanks

REPLY

Pete Z on June 1, 2019 at 9:56 pm

Jesin..all the way at the beginning of the article is a
yellow box that states “Bonus..download my parts
list”. A pop up box asks for an email address. They
will send you a pdf of the parts list and the power
supply schematic + Gerber files.

REPLY

john hauton on June 2, 2019 at 7:27 am

I note your information regarding the lowest am
broadcast frequencies in your country, and you quote
the am band (medium wave). What happens to long
waveband signals and very high power VLF signals
like from time signal transmitters? How would this
alter component values?
regards john

REPLY

Jawad Tariq on September 8, 2019 at 6:08 am

Hi,

It’s a great project and I really liked it. I’m wondering

where we can add bass control and volume control in
this

REPLY

Robert Reed on September 8, 2019 at 4:42 pm

You can add these at the input to the amp. At the

same time, you could install a balance control. Guess
what- you now have the makings of a standard
preamp. You can do this in two different ways- Build
everything into the original amp housing or build the
additional controls into a separate enclosure. If it were
me, I would opt for a separate enclosure which would
leave room for multiple input/output connections also.
In either case you will probably want to incorporate a
quad op-amp (TLO84) for buffering, gain .etc. The
down side of the separate enclosure is it will require its
own power supply, but you could add a DC jack on the
power amp and tap off whatever power you need
there, probably less than one watt. There are
numerous designs for these circuits on the web.

REPLY

Pete on September 9, 2019 at 9:58 am

So I built this gainclone LM3886 chip amp and I learn
a lot from doing it. Like all the other, simple LM3886 or
LM3875 gainclones I’ve built the soundstage was
magnificent, airy and brought detail to the music I’ve
never realized before with my regular amps & DAC
combinations (nothing high end). However, the
bottom was always missing to the music. Preamps
couldn’t add it back in either. If you really want to
build a satisfying LM3886 amp, look to the My_Ref FE
Evo A (My Reference Fremen Edition Evolution A
amp). It’s more complex and expensive to build (it

uses SMDs that either you can buy already attached or

you can solder them on yourself) but you will be just
astounded with the music coming out of your
speakers. Realistically. I needed to have learned many
things from reading this article, and building this
amp, before I tackled the My_Ref amp.

REPLY

dave on October 3, 2019 at 2:49 pm

Pete, yes this gainclone was a great project to build
and the detailed theory was very instructive. I am
interested in the Fremen Edition Evolution A amp
as well but cant seem to find a link to where you
can order some boards.

REPLY

Hicoco on October 3, 2019 at 3:02 pm

Dave, I am not sure but you can try this Forum:

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/chip-
amps/234032-my_ref-fremen-edition-build-
thread-tutorial.html

Hicoco

REPLY
 Pete Z on October 3, 2019 at 4:21 pm
Thanks Hicoco….Dave: you’ll have to join the
diyaudio forum and then private Message
(PM) Dario Fremen (ClaveFremen) about
purchasing the boards directly from him in
Italy. He sells them either blank or with the
SMDs (surface mounted devices) already
soldered in place (for an extra fee of course).

There is also a new build-buy forum

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/group-
buys/330082-my_ref-fremen-edition-gb-
13th-gb-6.html
that you can read through.

Hicoco’s link is a very long read but its best

to start from page one and just hack your
way through it to learn the variations the
builds have taken. Dario is currently up to
build 1.72 I believe.

Regards,

Pete

REPLY

Rodolfo on September 24, 2019 at 2:16 pm

I built a similar amplifier using the Hi-Fi 2000 “Galaxy”
enclosure.
The assembled panels of the enclosure are not
electrically connected, but they should be to have a
proper earthing of the chassis.
How did you obatin electrical continuity between the
front, back, side, top and bottom panels?
Thanks for the nice tutorial and beautiful built.
Regards.
Rodolfo

REPLY

Yuval Abadi on October 25, 2019 at 9:10 pm

hi
I have just finish the buikt
I put some changes in Powe supply
troidial 24 0 24 with 6 /8200uf nichicon

happy with outcome

thanks
Yuval Abadi

REPLY

garry on October 30, 2019 at 3:28 pm

I have this pcb made, and there is no R4?!!!!
why is c5 a 63 volt cap that is really high is it
necessary?

REPLY

Pete on October 30, 2019 at 4:09 pm

Garry, R4 (also called Rfi) is soldered directly onto
pins 3&9 on the LM3886 chip. See page 38? of the
build guide. Why a 63V cap (versus a 50V like
everywhere else) is needed in the Mute Circuit I
can’t answer. Cheers

REPLY

garry on October 30, 2019 at 4:16 pm

thanks man. i am not sure how that will be
done though. the pins on the chip are so close
 and also i dont see this in the video. it if i solder
a resistor between those pins it would be
awkwardly floating on top of the chip and i just
dont see that done on any other builds.

REPLY

Peter Zafian on October 30, 2019 at 4:39 pm

Gary, optimally it should have been done
before soldering the LM3886 onto the board

(see the written guide above). The

alternative is to solder it to those pins on the
underside of the board now. The idea is to
keep the resistor leads as short as possible. I
did the “directly onto the chip” procedure.. it
took patience

REPLY

HENNING on December 2, 2019 at 11:41 am

Hello,
Nice project, good explanations, etc.
But I dont understand why C4 (470µF) is a polarised
cap.
In my understanding there schould be an non
polarised Cap, because there should be
an symetrical Audio Signal, so this Cap would be
about half the time wrong polarised.
Im thankful of an Answer if I missunderstand
something.

REPLY

Pete on December 3, 2019 at 11:44 am

Henning, if you read the “SET THE LOW
FREQUENCY CUTOFF AT THE FEEDBACK LOOP”
 section the author does state that a non-polar
polypropylene could be used but the size of such a
cap would be huge so an electrolytic cap is
substituted. Looking through Mouser for a non-
polar cap (470uF 50V) turned up a Panasonic and a
few Nichicons but I’m not sure they possess “good
musicality” as some folks might say.you need in
the music signal path. Doesn’t mean you can’t try
one and see what it sounds like. Comments folks?

REPLY

Jackson on December 4, 2019 at 5:02 pm

Wow! great Project, well explained! Thank you circuit
Basics for the Details in Explanation.
Questions About the transformer:
1 – what would be the effect of using a 18-0-18
transformer (not 0-18, + 0-18) and share the common 0
as ground?
2 – Since the power per channel would be about
40watts, why should the transformer be rated 300VA?
Can’t one use a 120VA 18-0-18V transformer? would
that have a negetive effect on the Output power?

Thanks a lot guys in advance for a response

REPLY

Jesin on January 1, 2020 at 8:18 pm

Are you using a center tapped transformer for the

power supply?

REPLY

yuval on January 2, 2020 at 7:50 pm

hi

my amp have high redio buzzzz

any one may sugest sultion?

I build the amp borad are same as sescribed here

the rectifier I use other design , 50% more capsitor
trodial transformer 25-0-25 (i use 8 ohm speakers)
the grounfg loop same but I put other capcitor value
200nf (I got one in my box)
my other amp on same spaker calble pre amp is quit

REPLY

Mario on January 14, 2020 at 3:08 pm

Hey i would like to buy this PCB but don’t know how
to

REPLY

Pete on January 14, 2020 at 3:24 pm

Mario, you actually have to have them made. Drop
me a private email ([email protected])
and I’ll try to send you understandable
instructions.

REPLY

Tom Arnison on February 9, 2020 at 9:49 pm

Hi there,
This was a super useful detailed post and I’ve started
trying to make the above circuit but with a few small
changes. My plan is to power this DC i.e. off a car
battery or portable battery, however I’m really
confused as to how all the grounds are arranged in
this scenario, can power ground and V- just be
connected to each other? If not how should they be
connected up?

REPLY
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