I'm new to SS electronics but have built about 15 small tube amps from 5 watts to 40 watts in the past 4 years.
So I built a single supply TDA2050 amp with a ROG "Eighteen" preamp. I used a 15v 1.6 amp wall wart that supplies 17.5 volts with the amp at idle. Overall, I'm quite happy with both the clean and distortion tone. I did expect it to be louder,though. Right now it's not putting out as much volume as my 5 watt tube amps. It's almost loud enough to play with drums - but not quite.
Maybe I botched up the build? I tried lowering the voltage to 14.5 V and the volume went way down and it sounded real bad so I took it back up to 17.5V. Next,I tried using two 12V motorcycle batteries in series, figuring I would get even more volume, but it sounded about the same. Maybe a little more clean headroom.
I used half of a CPU heat sink on the chip and even after10 minutes of loud playing it only heats up a few degrees past body temperature and I can only feel the heat if I put my finger directly on the chip. The heat sink itself,does not heat up. Hmmm... I thought these chips were supposed to run hot? I'm using this amp with a 4 ohm Fender guitar speaker.
My main questions are: Does a single supply only allow the chip to produce half of it's rated power? And why is the chip running so cool? It sure sounds good,though. Oh,one other thing, I mounted the chip in an IC socket so I could try out a TDA2030 and LM1875 too. Maybe that's part of the problem?
Don
So I built a single supply TDA2050 amp with a ROG "Eighteen" preamp. I used a 15v 1.6 amp wall wart that supplies 17.5 volts with the amp at idle. Overall, I'm quite happy with both the clean and distortion tone. I did expect it to be louder,though. Right now it's not putting out as much volume as my 5 watt tube amps. It's almost loud enough to play with drums - but not quite.
Maybe I botched up the build? I tried lowering the voltage to 14.5 V and the volume went way down and it sounded real bad so I took it back up to 17.5V. Next,I tried using two 12V motorcycle batteries in series, figuring I would get even more volume, but it sounded about the same. Maybe a little more clean headroom.
I used half of a CPU heat sink on the chip and even after10 minutes of loud playing it only heats up a few degrees past body temperature and I can only feel the heat if I put my finger directly on the chip. The heat sink itself,does not heat up. Hmmm... I thought these chips were supposed to run hot? I'm using this amp with a 4 ohm Fender guitar speaker.
My main questions are: Does a single supply only allow the chip to produce half of it's rated power? And why is the chip running so cool? It sure sounds good,though. Oh,one other thing, I mounted the chip in an IC socket so I could try out a TDA2030 and LM1875 too. Maybe that's part of the problem?
Don