Can I use LM387 for Smokey Amp Clone?

[rousejeremy]

The place I normally get my parts from is out of the 386, but has 387's. I was hoping to make a headphone amp for a friend for his birthday this weekend. Will it work?

[anchovie]

Google is your friend! Find a datasheet for this and it'll show you that it's a completely different function - a dual preamp.

[rousejeremy]

Damn, anybody have any ideas for projects for the 387? I bought it anyway.

[waltk]

Hi Jeremy,

I'm raising this old thread because my question is the same as yours - what to do with an LM387 preamp chip.

I found a small supply of CD4049UBE chips for sale on Ebay for a couple bucks.  What the guy sent instead was a tube of LM387 chips.  Looking at the datasheet, it seems like they might be useful - unfortunately, the pinout for these is not at all like a standard dual opamp.  So I'd have to make a new layout to use the thing.

Did you ever find any circuit that was intended to use the LM387?

[Mark Hammer]

Chances are they would make respectable low-noise mic preamps, given that they are/were intended for phono cartridge preamps.

[anchovie]

Get one on the breadboard and see how it sounds when set up to clip on the rails!