Problems with Ruby LM386 amp on breadboard

[Hydrilla]

How do I get more volume without too much gain?

[Ben Lyman]

A bigger speaker will push more air making more volume but I'm guessing you want more clean power out of the amp and I'm not sure it can be done, other than finding that perfect balance.
Check out the runoffgroove Little Gem MKII, it is 2 bridged LM386's and gets "twice" as loud and stays clean if you want it to. I made one, works great, drives a 2x12" cab loud enough to jam with a bass and drums.

[slashandburn]

Ben beat me to it but I'll post anyway. Thr 386 doesn't really do proper clean, sadly.

From my own experience though, A few things that might given you more output with it would be:

A higher load speaker (eg. 8ohms should give you more output than 16 ohm).

Or bump the voltage. At 12v you have a little more headroom. That's about its limit though.

Third option would be to bridge 2 chips, but thats probably leaving yourself open to entirely different world of pain to get working on the breadboard.

[Hydrilla]

I know you can't get a ton of volume out of them, but I have heard a bunch of samples where they were way louder than mine, and clean enough to at least play chords.  With 1 and 8 open, it is so quiet that you have to listen carefully to be able to tell if it is working or not, since it is barely louder than a solid body electric guitar unplugged.

With 1 and 8 bridged, or a fairly low value resistor (I have experimented with a bunch of them), it is louder but it is so muddy that it is novel at best, but you can't even strum a chord except for power chords without sounding terrible.

I would be interested in the Little Gem MKII but I don't read schematics very well, and the diagrams I have seen are confusing, looks like they are using a concentric volume pot or something.

It has been a fun learning experience but unless I figure out something better, all of the parts are going back in their bins.

[deadastronaut]

If its clean your after take a look at the punch 1w amplifier,

great little amp, and much cleaner, louder than the 386's..

TDA7052/A.

search punch amp.