Gainclone or chipamp is a term commonly used to describe a type of audio amplifier made by do-it-yourselfers, or individuals interested in DIY audio. It is a design based on high-power integrated circuits, particularly the National Semiconductor Overture series. The Gainclone is probably the most commonly built and well-known amplifier project amongst hobbyists. It is simple to build and involves only a few readily accessible, inexpensive parts. As an amplifier it is highly regarded by many in the DIY community. (from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gainclone)

No one can describe the gainclone’s philosophy better than this wikipedia page!

Tha gainclone is an easy-to-built, cheap, hifi quality, simple amplifier made with few components. I’ve decided to create a gainclone version myself, doubling the output power and using the idea from an old application note from National Semiconductor, talking about the parallel amplifier PA100.

The schematic is essentially composed by a couple of common LM3886-based (TI’s datasheet: http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm3886.pdf) gainclones, with big capacitors and a couple of low-res resistance to connect the output together

Let’s see the result:

I’ve tested these amps in dual mono configuration, each with a separate power supply of +-35Vdc at 4A per rail. They drive a couple of 8-ohm speakers without problems, the sound quality is excellent!