Audio Amplifier with Volume Control

and Gain Switch

Sonali Mishra
Vellore Institute of Technology,Vellore
sonali.mishra2012@vit.ac.in
AbstractThe Aim of this Project is to implement a low voltage
audio amplifier with volume control knob and gain toggle switch
using an LM386 Audio Op-amp IC by Texas Instruments.
Keywords-component; formatting; style; styling; insert (key
words)

I.

INTRODUCTION

The Audio amplifier is designed using an LM386 audio

amplifier IC manufactured by texas instruments and test the
output on an 8ohm Speaker taking input from an audio source
requiring a 3.5mm jack (generic mp3 player , mobile phone
etc.). The LM386 is a power amplifier designed for use in low
voltage consumer applications. The gain is internally set to 20
to keep external part count low, but the addition of an external
resistor and capacitor between pins 1 and 8 will increase the
gain to any value from 20 to 200. The IC is suitable for battery
operation ( 6- 12 Volts) , has a low quiescent current drain of
4mA , features low distortion of about 0.2% for an 8ohm load
and gain of 20. The inputs are ground referenced and the heat
dissipated during operation at 6V is 0.2 Watts.
II.

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

The circuit diagram of the amplifier is shown below. The

connections to pins 1 and 8 are left open as they are shown in a
separate image. These pins determine the gain of the amplifier.
The Circuit can be easily implemented on a solder-less
breadboard using connecting wires.

Figure 2: Circuit Diagram

The diagram above shows the external parts required for gain
toggle. In configuration A the gain is set 200 while in
configuration B the gain is set to 50. A toggle switch is used for
switching between the 2 values.
III.

COMPONENTS REQUIRED

A. LM 386 Audio Amplifier IC

A brief introduction of the IC has already been given. This
section addresses the typical electrical and Performance
characteristics of the device. The following data has been
collected at T=25 Celsius [3]

Operating supply Voltage : 4-12 Volts

Quiescent Current at VS=6V , VIN =0 : 4-8 mA

Output Power ( Pout ) at VS=6V, RL=8 : 325mW

Voltage gain : 26 46 dB

Total Harmonic Distortion at VS=6V, RL=8 and POUT

=124mW : 0.2%

Figure 1: Circuit diagram

Power Supply Rejection Ratio (PSRR) : 50dB

Input Resistance (RIN ) : 50k

The Graph shows the variation of the quiescent current with

respect to the change in Supply Voltage. The Maximum
quiescent current required is 4.6mA at 12 Volt which is an
ideal value for battery operation

The Graph shows the variation of Voltage gain(dB) w.r.t

change in frequency (Hz). The bandwidth of the amplifier is
300kHz which covers the hearing frequency range (20Hz20kHz)

The Opamp has T.H.D <1% for power output <1.2Watts. After
that it increases rapidly and reaches a very high value (~10%)
at 0.3 Watts

For RL= 8 ,Vs= 6V, the maximum output voltage across the
load resistance is 4 Volts

The power (Heat) dissipated by the device at Vs= 6V is

approximately 0.2 watts.
The Op amp has very low Total harmonic distortion(0.2-0.5%)
in the low and mid frequency band. The distortion goes to
>0.8% at high frequencies (>10Khz)

B. Other Components

C1 Bypass Capacitor 10uF

C2 Gain Capacitor 10uF

C3 Output decoupling Capacitor 220uF

C5 Capacitor 47nF

R1 Resistance 10

R2 Gain Resistance 1.2 K

R3 LED resistance 1.2 K

R4 Potentiometer 10 K

R5 Speaker - 8

Green colour LED

Switches 2

DC voltage supply (battery bank) 6V

has two components: An AC component, which is the

amplified input signal, plus a DC component of 1/2 Vs
= 3V. This biased voltage cannot be fed directly to a
speaker. The 250uF electrolytic capacitor filters out the
DC component and the remaining AC goes to the
speaker.

The 0.05uF capacitor and 10 ohm resistor pair from pin

5 to ground are used to prevent high frequency
oscillations.

A small electrolytic or tantalum cap of a 10 uF from

pin 7 to ground will isolate the high gain input stage of
the LM386 from power supply noise, hum, transients,
etc.

Another capacitor of 100 uF is connected between the

power supply and ground to deal power supply noise
(unstable power supply).This capacitor keeps the input
DC voltage stable for stable output.
V.

IV.

WORKING OF THE CIRCUIT

This amplifier circuit uses an LM386-N Low voltage audio

Op-amp IC whose pin out diagram is given here:

DEALING WITH POWER SUPPLY NOISE

Another common way of dealing with power supply

noise is adding a small decoupling capacitor (100uF)
next to the IC power pins C5
In my experience, the presence of these capacitors
turned out to be decisive, especially when working on
a breadboard.
Couple of other approaches may also be used to
reduce the noise likeA) Keep all components as close to the IC
as possible
B) Keep all signal lines as short as
possible.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Pins 1 and 8 control gain. When not connected (NC),

the amplifier gain is 20. Adding a 10uF capacitor
between them gives a gain of 200. Intermediate values
are also possible, as described in the datasheet.

Pin 2- is the negative input GND in our case.

Pin 3 is the positive input i.e. the actual signal to be

amplified. There is a 10K potentiometer before it,
which adjusts the input signal level, acting as a volume
control.

Pins 4 (GND) and 6 (Vs) provide the supply voltage

for the amplification. For this setup a 4x AA battery
pack is used, which provides ~6V.
Pin 5 is the output. It is biased to 1/2 of the supply
voltage Vs. In simple terms, this means that the signal

Sonali Mishra extends her sincere gratitude to the VIT

University for the brilliant infrastructural facilities offered to
the students, the Chancellor of VIT University for providing
her the opportunity to realize Analogue Circuit Design
practically, and Mr Arun M. for being a constant pillar of
support and guidance.
REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

http://lowvoltage.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/lm386-audio-amplifier / :
An Blog about electronics, programming and photography. A
comprehensive analysis of the LM-386 amplifier has been provided.
http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm386.pdf : The Datasheet of the LM386 as provided by Texas Instruments. The data sheet provides the
typical performance graphs and electric characteristics of the IC.

[3]

Table 1: Electrical Characteristics