TDA7052A and LM386 in low voltage power amp designs

[Cjuried]

I am interested, in the groups consensus, with respect to using a TDA7052A in place of the common LM386 in low voltage amp designs. General topic, but nevertheless, should spark some interesting bullet points. Thanks in advance.

 

[D.A.(Tony)Stewart]

That's comparing an Apple to an Orange.. Why don't you start.

 

[Audioguru]

The LM386 is a single low power amplifier.
The TDA7052A has two amplifiers in a bridge for double the output power and it also has a voltage controlled volume control.

 

[Cjuried]

That's comparing an Apple to an Orange.. Why don't you start.

Boy is it ever. Assuming we are using an equivalent Voltage gain and Power output (substitute LM386N-4 in place of LM386 and TDA7052 in place of TDA7052A) with both these amplifiers, please describe your take on their "sonic characteristics".

 

[Audioguru]

They both have the same amount of distortion so they will sound the same. Except some have lower distortion and some have higher distortion. So you will actually have different gain, different maximum power output and different distortion. The TDA7052 and TDA7052A are not available anymore in a DIP package.

 

[Audioguru]

I forgot to mention noise. Some will be noisy and others will have less noise.
So the comparison of how they sound is that they have four variables: distortion, gain, max power and noise.
If you make a few thousand of them then a few might sound pretty good unless somebody already took the best ones.