Is noisy cricket mkii good for testing pedals?

[ppanousos]

I want to make a small amp to test my projects.I will connect it to a 12" speaker.Is noisy cricket good for testing pedals?I want something very simple with no coloration of the tone as possible.Any other suggestions are welcome.Thanks!!!

[Sacorus]

I built a 386 powered amp in an 8" speaker enclosure with the intention of using it to test pedals. I found it to color the sound too much at moderate volume levels the 386 chip adds its own "crunch" to the sound  

[meffcio]

I built a 386 powered amp in an 8" speaker enclosure with the intention of using it to test pedals. I found it to color the sound too much at moderate volume levels the 386 chip adds its own "crunch" to the sound  

A better (higher spl) speaker should help. You could also try different chip version, like LM386-N3, or run the amp on more volts. This should help you achieve more headroom - more available volume before clipping.
Still it's kinda strange, what you're saying. My ruby (connected to 2x12" cab - maybe that's the point) gets loud before clipping occurs.

[artifus]

Absolute Maximum Ratings...

...Input Voltage ±0.4V

[Jdansti]

I've found that my Noisy Cricket sounds great through 12" speakers; however, pedals with high output tend to cause some ugly distortion. For example, pedals with unity gain such as a reverb sounds great, as does a straight Tillman preamp with the gain off.  But if I crank up the gain on the Tillman, the Cricket starts to sound blatty. Same for my Umble tone stack. I have to keep the output low enough to avoid overdriving the Cricket.

I should note that I'm running the Cricket at 9V. 12V might give more headroom before it starts distorting. One of these days I'm going to get around to trying it.

[Perrow]

For about twice the money (or a little more) you can build a tda2030 amp, cranking out 10W+, enough even for most cheap/salvaged speakers to be loud enough.

http://generalguitargadgets.com/projects/13-amps/59-tda20x0-amp

The 2030 is a whopping $0.37 from Tayda