TDA7377 stereo amplifier board test and review

[@fxtrader7856]

This amplifier is used by Creative Labs in various models of 2.1 computer systems.
I have been given an equipo Creative I-Trigue 3300 that was not working, and it was due to the preamplifier.
Instead of repairing it, I decided to desolder the TDA7377 to use it in another rig I am building.
It is a tri-amp that uses the TPA3116 (D class) as the subwoofer amp, the STK4182 as the mid amp, and this TDA7377 amp as the tweeter amp.
I still remember many years ago, when I used coils and capacitors to separate the woofer, mid and tweeter signals. But now electronics is much cheaper than 30 years ago and you can use three separate amplifiers for less cost.
I wanted to see this video because I don't have such a good lab to make measurements and I wanted to know what you thought of this amplifier.
Best regards from Argentina.

[@captainjim1010]

Amazing little amp. Having tested a bunch of these i can safely say this is one of the best if not the best out there (at it's size and price). Sound quality is very good, sounds crisp and warm at the same time, especially at 18v.
Needs a bigger heatsink or a fan if you are planning to operate it at 18v and high volumes. Currently using it with a step-up voltage regulator. It is drawing about 2-2.1 amps on its absolute peak but generally it uses about 1.1-1.3 amps on max volume at 18volts. Depends on the music you are playing too.
I am planinng on replacing it's 2 capacitors with better quality ones and see if there is a difference (i have seen considerable increase on sound quality on other amps).

[@ryanredmond9195]

Are you stepping up from 12 to 18? I got the bigger brother version of this board with the BT header and four 2200uf caps instead of the two 3200uf. Was planning on just running an 18v 5a psu since it looks like the chip is rated for 18v 4.5a max. I'm concerned now because all the power switches I'm interested in using are only rated up to 24v and 3a, and I don't want to burn out a switch from overcurrent. Building a custom enclosure and will be running a 96 x 96 x 36mm sink on it just to be safe. Will be running 8 Ohm loads at moderate volumes.

[@kuntalsoma5279]

Thank you so much for this excellent review video of this amplifier ic ,and I just completed my 2.1 sound system with this ic and getting excellent performance with no problems at all, again thank you SO MUCH!!!!
I still can't figure out why UA-cam isn't making your channel popular (I mean ,you deserve more subscribers😄)

[@EngineeringEssentials]

Thank you for doing good work for the tech community ❤️

[@logotrikes]

I just like the way you do your videos John. I know I'll get good value, especially the way you do the tests. Easy for the layperson to dig...

[@jaredgray7872]

Yeah, fair enough cutting back on the ads.. it works both ways, but UA-cam certainly had the upper hand.. if they want ads showing, they gotta pay you for it. I got you on patreon! Peeps, if you can let's help out John, he puts a lot of effort for us!

[@RustOnTime]

Really like this board and think the sound quality is excellent.
Replaced the main amplifier section of an old classAB amplifier that went bad with it but using the preamp with tone controls and the casing. Running it at roughly 16.5 Volts with the bigger heatsink of the old amp and even when playing at volume the heatsink barely gets warm.
Not much power (a realistic 10 Watts at 8 Ohms I guess) but it seems perfectly adequate for my needs. Comically good sound quality for $12 and I think many would fail an A/B test with amplifiers costing thousands.

[@KissAnalog]

Nice video John!

[@gkdresden]

The thermal problem is typical for the bridged amplifier configurations. They have twice the losses compared to single ended configurations because the speaker is controlled by two half bridges and not by one. The advantage is to get higher output power at lower dc supply voltages.

[@woodcoast5026]

Is it to correct to class it as a problem and twice the losses when the comparison is made for each unit of output power.

[@gamersungyoutube1468]

thanks for making the video. ordered one and it arrived today. I love it! it's very crisp. it's a keeper now.

[@bassblaster505]

i bought a tube of 5 7377's...for some reason couple years ago. It was fun until i realized the STA540 is pin to pin the same and gives a little more power on the same voltages. But can be run up to 38Wx2 on dual bridge. the 7377 and 540 are good little chips. Logitech uses the STA540 in the Z313 lol

[@GeoBass-89]

Logitech use this IC sta540 in almost all 2.1 systems except top systems like 906, 623, z2300 etc.
This is verry good chip amplifier and have good quality and transparent sound

[@21thTek]

17:15 / 20:01
•
Heatsink
TDA7377 has reverse polaruty protrection build in so there is no need to use the schottky diode on the board, THANKS !

[@prithivirajthambiraj4611]

John can you please do a loudness circuit video, that magic button used to sound nice

[@aurthorthing7403]

FIRST!
Sweet! I like the class AB amps.

[@darthbubba866]

Product link? Especially an Affiliate link (another way for you to make a little extra money). 😉

[@Conservator.]

Here’s an AliExpress link to the board. €9.30
No affiliate.
AIYIMA TDA7377 Audio Amplifier Board 35W*2 Dual Channel Stereo Power Amplifier Car AMP Home Sound Theatre
a.aliexpress.com/_dYpTqRQ

[@shean-koklim4197]

Thanks John. Good review backed up with substance.

[@tectalabyss]

Great review. Liked,shared. All my best.

[@gazzaboo8461]

Filmed in SuperSnickerVision ™ 😁

[@napatencie4421]

Which sounds better? This or TDA7297?

[@nikiforosf4824]

I have bought one like this but with 4 capacitors, 2200mf each. I think it is quite good for its price....

[@EngineeringEssentials]

If you don't mind please do affiliate links with Amazon and similar sites. If you're reviewing a board and somebody interested in purchasing the same a link to the product is much appreciated.

[@GnuReligion]

Hard to understand how UA-cam benefits by strangling the niche content creators -- but obviously, it is happening.

[@JohnSmith-fq3rg]

They want big channels which can't be built up again easily to comprise most of their income so they can easily manage and manipulate them as needed. All your eggs in one basket.

[@bobking7347]

The only issue with these amplifiers is that they don't have any thermal paste on the back of the amplifier chip

[@cassvirgillo3395]

Hey John, Good to see a JAT video, you too, as it were. Seems like a pretty good amp for the money, I am partial to the class a/b linear type amps. I can't remember exactly, but, isn't the LM 1875 a linear class a/b amp? I will review your video on it. I hope all is going good for you, your Brother and Family. Happy Summer, say hey to Snickers, best, C.

[@JohnAudioTech]

Yes, the LM1875 is a class AB chip amp and very good for what it is. My dad and I have been cleaning and doing some remodeling work on my brother's house in hopes to move him back in this July. He has been improving with the treatments.

[@cassvirgillo3395]

@@JohnAudioTech Hey John, Thank you for the reply, I know you busy, and only if you can. I'm glad your Brother is responding to the treatments, I wish him and all of you the very best. Stay strong, be good, Cass.

[@gogiaudios]

Surprisingly the chip tda7377 is used by Bose, with a little mod.

[@joshuawang5859]

Really like your video

[@SianaGearz]

I think adsense dropping might just be a side effect of overall economic downturn, caused by the worldwide events that have been unfolding since about February. If brands are scared to spend money, then what can UA-cam do about it. And i think the bulk of the reduction will be distributed across the wide periphery of UA-cam rather than affect a handful of bigger names that are the most efficient to advertise with, like it always tends to be.

[@Jimmeh_B]

@JohnAudioTech, a suggestion:
Have a look at "brave browser" and get verified as a creator to receive BAT (basic attention tokens).
For the viewer, brave blocks all tracking and you can opt in to only seeing ads from advertisers that respect the "Do not track" agreements. For opting in and clicking on the ads (which open in a separate window) the viewer gets paid in BAT tokens (cryptocurrency) which I have the option to donate to a creator if I so please. (or cash them out for USD)
I literally do nothing other than what I normally do online, my YT video's don't get cut up with ads and I get paid roughly $11-15 a month which I would happily donate to the cause.

[@TheLOD2010]

I got UA-cam Premium just to watch my favorites without commercials and still giving them the money to live :-D

[@MrVizzle]

thanks for the video

[@dmcbohol]

The Bose Companion 2 series actually use this amp chip in BTL mode

[@laxr5rs]

New one. Cool!

[@truckman7123]

Compare to Tda7297 in d last video, is Tda7377 an upgrade in power performance and sound quality?

[@woodcoast5026]

Its called Class AB but actually that board is configured as Bridge Tied Load. That is why it does not have output capacitors or split supply.

[@ferrumignis]

The amplifier class is not related to the a BTL configuration, any class of amplifier could be used in BTL.

[@woodcoast5026]

@@ferrumignis The review is not of the chip, the review is of of the board.

[@19janiboy96]

No don't demonetize your channel, you will lose views. Most of your audience uses adblock anyway

[@westinthewest]

I use adblock too. It works wonderfully.

[@tectalabyss]

I use it too, But for channels I really enjoy and want to help like Johns. I do chores while I have the ad block off and then watch it when I have time.

[@19janiboy96]

I think you it is possible to disable it for certain channels

[@azfpm]

Hey John....hi I have a 200 watt mono DIY amplifier. I have USB card, AUX & MIC in it. But when ever I work on one input let it be Aux, I have to open all three input volume knobs to almost 50 % otherwise volume dosent come at all. Pls make a video on decoupling all three or more inputs. How to solve it???

[@amitghosh6966]

I see your nice Speaker boxes in every video. Can you please tell how to make a speaker system of 50 watts @ 4 ohms having one tweeter and woofer and what should be the wattage for tweeter and woofer in that case ?

[@johnsonlam]

It's UA-cam changing the algorithm again, everyone was making less.

[@ryanredmond9195]

I don't suppose you recall what your max current draws were? It looks like this chip is rated for up to 18v and 4.5 amps. I'm trying to build a case for one of these and I'm struggling to find a switch rated 12-24v but above 3A that meets my dimensions/asthetics. Going to be running 8 ohm loads. Thanks.

[@speedfastestsolo]

Im using STA540, basically same as TDA7377/7379

[@fabioborlina8604]

This is good but the one Tra 7377 Pro 2 is better...it has 2000 microfarad more and you feel listening drums...

[@jorgeinovisk4879]

Can i run this with a 19v 3.4 laptop powersuply or i will need a step down to send only 18v ?

[@DasAntiNaziBroetchen]

I have two amps similar to this one (made by the same manufacturer), but in a more flat configuration and with four power filtering caps instead of two. It's pretty nice, but I suspect the chips are fake. I think they lack short circuit protection and will blow up (like mine did).
The caps' capacitance matched what was written on them and they had an ESR of about 1 ohm each. I have cheaper and crappy amp boards (with the pin-compatible TDA7297) that came with one Chinese power filtering cap each, which actually ended up having almost as low ESR (0.04 ohm if you trust my equipment) as my Nichicon audio caps. Seems like some no-name chinese brands are indeed pretty good.
*Regarding the heat sinks:*
According to my girlfriend who does extreme computer overclocking, the way the heat sink is mounted is not very important, as long as the thermal mass is the same. I run my chips off 15v with 4 ohm speakers and they barely even get warm to the touch. I don't listen with the volume on full blast though.
*Where to buy:*
The cheapest place I found them at is at droking.com. Currently they're 8$ and shipping to Japan is about 3$.
Without case: www.droking.com/Amplifier-Board-35W-x-35W-DIY-Power-Amplifier-DC-9-18V-12V-Audio-Stereo-Amplifier-Board
With case: www.droking.com/Power-Amplifier-Module-35W-35W-Class-AB-Digital-Audio-Stereo-Amp-Board-DC-9-18V-2.0-Dual-Channel-Amplifier

[@MrDunk66]

Hi John, how would you reduce the the low freq roll off in this amp?

[@ferrumignis]

Increase the value of the input coupling capacitors.

[@MrDunk66]

Any suggested values? I would like to use this with a subwoofer that taps into the speaker terminals.

[@andydelle4509]

I don't think those large 3300uf caps are for power supply decoupling. They are most likely outyput coupling caps for the speakers. Since the amp runs on a single 12v power supply, the speaker output is biased to half the supply voltage or in this case 6 volts. The cap is needed to block that DC going to the speaker which would destroy them. In order not to have an output capacitor the amp must be designed for a bi-polar power supply, like +6/-6 volts to ground or common. This places the output line at zero volts DC or very close to it like in the millivolts. Also those caps are physically small for 3300uf at 25 volts even with today's cap technology. They are no doubt dirt cheap caps. I would replace them with good 1000uf at 25 volt caps. Based on the power output of that amp, 1000uf is more than enough.

[@woodcoast5026]

They are not output caps . The board is configured in Bridge Tied Load and so does not require output caps. The swing is 22V with centre point 0V.
The output caps on the single rail class B or AB amplifier Class are to provide the current path for the reverse current flow in the speaker coil.

[@amitghosh6966]

Please tell some part numbers for some Low gain audio ICs upto 30 db

[@IgnacioSanchezWebDesign]

Product link PLEASE! Thanks!

[@fabioborlina8604]

Go to Amazon... they sell it there..

[@amitghosh6966]

According to datasheet this is a quad channel audio amplifier but then why the datasheet title tells it as 30+30 Watts amplifier ?
Why only bridge configuration is preferred instead of using all four channels independently ?

[@woodcoast5026]

Bridge configuration has higher total power .

[@guestwho552]

As a not knowledgeable person I have this question bugging me. I want to use one of these cheap premade amplifiers for a diy project and add a small fan for cooling. A fan, being a coil, powered by the same dc power source that supplies the amplifier, will it cause noise to the amplifier's output due to flyback?

[@SianaGearz]

I can see what you mean. Now i don't think i've seen a wee computer fan affect an amplifier significantly at all. Thing is you aren't allowed to be TOO electrically hostile in a computer, you might damage tons of stuff, so you expect that there is an input diode on the PCB of the fan that would prevent the voltage kick from feeding back into the common power rail. A second measure that you expect is that the transistors driving the coils are switched fairly gradually, which helps the fan run smoother and more silently, which is another major design goal of a computer fan, but also helps tame the induced power rail noise. Naturally any consumer with any kind of burst behaviour still impacts the power supply a bit and you'll be relying on ample output capacitance of the power supply (and input capacitance of other devices) and on the power supply rejection (PSRR) of the amplifier so that all this noise doesn't end up on the output.
Should there still be trouble, you can implement power supply filtering stages to attenuate the burst noise, basically a coil in line with the unit that you want to shield against power supply noise - or prevent from injecting noise into the common rail - and then a capacitor bank right in front of the device. Together with existing output capacitance of the power supply, it forms a CLC or Pie filter. I don't think a fan mandates adding one of those, but they are often needed in conjunction with say Class D amplifiers which tend to give a horribly bad time to whatever other components you might have hanging off the same supply - like Bluetooth receivers, preamps, headphone amplifiers, etc.

[@1pcfred]

You may be better off just using a bigger heatsink. I know I would not want to listen to a fan.

[@guestwho552]

@@SianaGearz Thank you for the answer. I will certainly need to study it to fully understand it, but much appreciated.

[@guestwho552]

@@1pcfred I'll certainly replace the tiny heatsink that comes with board but I dont want it to be too big for a compact enclosure. A fan could be regulated not to operate at full speed but will still impact the size of heatsink needed.

[@bushcraft3602]

Did the amplifier sound any better.

[@amitchodankar1989]

How to optimize TDA 7294 for best sounding?

[@dibyamartandasamanta583]

Use good quality capacitors , genuine ic , that chip is amazing
Thick Diode Bridge

[@EngineeringEssentials]

You need atleast 20000uf per rail if you're using EI transfomer, 15000uf per rail if using with toroid transfomer. Anything less than this will eat up your output. All the best.

[@19janiboy96]

@@EngineeringEssentials 20000uF is way too excessive and will stress your diodes and transformer

[@EngineeringEssentials]

@@19janiboy96 you should select the rectifier to handle the hit, otherwise you loose output power just because of voltage collapse.

[@marcusm5127]

How much do you get if I have UA-cam premium? Does UA-cam still give you the ad revenue you would have gotten if I didn't have premium?

[@jeremytravis360]

UA-cam is trying to get more money through advertising. A lot of UA-cam content makers are talking about it. Even Patreon want to make money from donations by charging tax on your payments and they now want $2 instead of 1$.

[@praveenbanarase3052]

How can I buy this or any board

[@allenhsu869]

I had one before but somehow it stopped working in less than a month :(

[@jeffclark5206]

I am designing an amp based on this chip for PC's

[@shanesanders2706]

Do u have a catalog

[@rajivcybercafe9234]

Lovly nice video

[@godfree2canada]

laptop brick would run these, 16V 18V 19v

[@ergindemir7366]

Does it work properly in parallel mode? My chip gets really hot when I parallel the outputs.

[@ferrumignis]

You shouldn't be connecting the outputs of the amplifiers together, not surprising it gets hot. John was paralleling the two channels on his PSU.

[@ajithsukumaran3241]

It's available in robu .in

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

Myxomatosis

[@johnbeer4963]

If Ad-Sense is behaving like that putting commercials every few minutes in peoples videos that'll be why your revenue is down. It's things like that which provoke people to use blockers to stop them doing it.

[@khanguyen4728]

Lass a 30w hihi

[@makermatrix9815]

If you demonetize your channel the views will fall off a cliff.

[@alberti.2334]

John tries to use social media to make multiple views. making Twitter posts and paying $ 20 a month to promote your posts doesn't cost much, people are interested. work with social media and you will see that your channel will have many views again

[@ronniepirtlejr2606]

TELL YOUR VEIWERS, IF THEY PAY UA-cam $9.99 A MONTH, IT HELPS YOU & NO AD'S OR COMMERCIALS EVER WILL SHOW UP!!!