TDA2050 real vs. fake amplifier chip on the analyzer
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- Опубліковано 12 січ 2025
- Let's try one of these eBay chips to see how it performs against the real deal.
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Email: johnaudiotech@gmail.com
Thank You!
Happy Holidays everyone!
Happy Holidays To you Too Sir John,
Thanks John, Happy holidays to you too!
Happy holidays my friend.
for you too John, (of course everyone!) happy days for you and your family! RadioRob - Rob
Please buy a tripod for your cell phone.
Your video is very shaking and dizzy.
Greetings from Serbia. UTC is company from Taiwan. All their stuff is of excellent quality, ICs and transistors. This is 100% legitimate company and all their replacements for discontinued products are 100% identical as original products.
John, authentic UTC chips are sold from Profusion Plc in UK. The company is specialized for audio semis. Price is USD 0.93 each. Price is lower if you buy 25 pieces.
I totally agree with you John, the TDA 2050 and 2030 are a gem to me. They are also my favorite.
I'm your loyal fan. Yeah, I have bought some other chips from UTC such as LM386 and tested complied to the specs as well. These are genuine chips but under different brand, which are different from fake chips with ST ot TI logo. However, one much source them from proper channels and so far I have tested many of the super expensive transistors and they worked well.
Honest, good faith
review. Thank you.
Happy Holidays!
Thank you for this! Been waiting quite a while for this one.
I assembled two of these about three years ago for 3-way bookshelf speakers on my PC desk. I assembled them with 23x gain, 18v symmetric supply, 10uf feedback capacitor and 470nf coupling capacitor. And its sound source is an Asus Xonar SE card. I did it this way with less bass and less gain, because my speakers play at low volume and only have 4 inch woofers and in any case, they don't reproduce very low frequencies. This would only strain the amplifier. The result, especially for the female voice, is excellent. The midrange is clear and smooth, the treble is crystal clear without sibilance and is not tiring.
In Europe you can get authentic UTC chips for very cheap.
From which company ?utc 2050l's any chance?
@@terencekaye9948 "reichelt" stocks some of the UTC chips. Just got some UTC TDA2003 - and they are good. Of course the 2003 is not used for HiFi but it is nice for 12V single supply designs like my DIY internet radio
Theres a lot of old obsolete chips that are being re-produced by chinese companies and they're re-producing a lot of other kind of chips not only amps. UTC is one of these companies. I dont know how they did it but I guess they bought the design from the original manufacturer (idk)? Since they also got the datasheets.
This probably the only thing that I love about china, they're good at keeping legacy and such a heaven for a lots of repair technicians
I repair hifi, and have restored a lot vintage record player cabinets. If I can't find a NOS replacement stylus or cartridge, or their is a tight budget, I dip into a box of $5 ceramic cartridges from china. They actually sound good too! And recently needed a 50's philips cartridge that was part of the tonearm head. No problem, brand new reproductions in China for $35. If China didn't make so much rubbish we wouldn't have these gems to help keep old hifi alive!
Alpha&Omega is another one of those revival companies. They make some very very old components in a large quantity because they're still ubiquitous. Think of surface mount version of the 2n7000!
UTC is a Taiwanese company. So not mainland China. The PRC likes to think Taiwan belongs to them but the people on the island believe otherwise and govern themselves. The status of Taiwan is somewhat complicated. But for now they're a democratic republic.
@@1pcfred Ok I didnt expect an info on Taiwan's political status but thanks for the correction
@@desperateloner8555 Taiwan being part of the PRC is a dicy topic. Taiwan is spending tens of billions dollars a year to make sure that doesn't happen. A least not on the Chinese Communist Party's terms.
Most requested video! thanks John!
Here in India I get them for just 40 INR (0.45$) each and they are genuine ST, the knock off ones are cheaper usually around 20-25 INR (0.25$). I had a power Amp made out of those cheap UTC2050L after a year one of the IC failed wasn't providing audio and was very distorted at low signals as it heated up the distortion got even greater. Also it locked up sometimes creating a short between any one of the supply inputs and ground after sometime it use to work normally. Only that one was faulty I also have 2030 but none of them have failed.
Took a look on LCSC, there are actually more TDA2050 analogs, like the XBLW TDA2050 in a TO-263 SMD package. HGSEMI and JSMSEMI also seem to make thier own version. I wonder if thier performace is also this good.
LCSC has been my "go to" electronics component source for about a year. I only use Digikey and Mouser for items that are less expensive or are in stock when LCSC don't have them. Even with the postage costs I am saving so much.
Long time viewer, and you read my mind with this one, J A T!!!:)
Merry Christmas John, as we say up here in the Great white north Eh! 😊
I wonder if they would be the same decapped.
I have an amplifier that is over 30 years old and I recently had to replace the NR5532 opamp and I took the opportunity to replace all the electrolytic capacitors and I noticed that it has two MosFET 2SK1058 and 2SJ162, I have several amplifiers, NAD, Grundig, Sansui, Pioneer, Philips etc and also a modern SMSL that is not bad at all but the sound quality of this Aura VA100 evolution is absolutely incredible and manages to have much better quality than a modern SMSL, until today I have not passed through my hands any amplifier that sounded so good, I am not an expert in electronics but I would like you to tell me why this amplifier is so completely different from everything I have heard until today, greetings from Castelo Branco, Portugal. And merry Christmas.
As everyone knows there's guys on YT who decap some digital chips and have a look at the silicon under a microscope... Occurs to me it'd be interesting to look at the dies on these to see what if anything is different between the 'originals' and the UTC ones.
Merry Christmas everybody.
Hey John, could you please consider doing a video on decent mosfets that can be purchased fairly reliably. I remember a video you did a few years back for BJT'S and TIP's but an updated video on this in general is very very much appreciated!!! It’s a shame what counterfeiters have done to the semiconductor markets!
I'll have to do this sometime.
@@JohnAudioTech MOSFETs are really in our future, even if I love my bipolar transistors!
Many thanks for your knowledge John! 👍
There is a soviet audio chip that, if i remember right, is pin compatible with the TDA2050 so it would be interesting to see you test that one one day maybe.
I have always wondered what the Soviet Audio Industry has been up to for the last 80 years. I only saw a few items from them, and wonder what they for everything else that was non consumer or had to be in in their broadcast gear.
К174УН19
@@yevgeniydundukov8179 the K174YH14 should also be compatible as it is said to be a clone of the TDA2003
Authentic components made by UTC of Taiwan are good made and price nice , since I used from 90's , why do you hate or surprised ???.... KEC of Korea are also good products if you may don't know !...
I never heard of UTC before now.
@@1pcfred Really ??.... How old are you and how long have you been in field of electronics ?!!... didn't you hear of Taiwan before ?!...
@@ahmedalshalchi I have heard of Taiwan. I do not know about every company in Taiwan though. I find it ludicrous that you expect me to know about some obscure company from Taiwan too. Regardless of my age or experience.
I have around 150Pcs of UTC TDA2050L and they cost in ranges of 0.5$USD in retail here in India , I have made a design for TDA2050/LM1875 Parallel Amlifier using these ICs they do work wonderfully, I also tested another brand which is Chinese made with 🔺logo they do work fine too like UTC TDA2050L, UTC is from Taiwan , they are better little bit than other onces
i build an stereo amplifier with UTC7265L recently and i use +/-21vdc and 4 ohm load. at high volume cut sound. i think is authentic and have overload protection or so, but sound better than tda2050 fake IC
Hi John, Happy Holidays, and thanks for all the work you put into these videos!!
One test I'm curious about is the short circuit survival of the UTC's.
When testing with square waves at full output, I did see current limit activate and reduce the signal. So it is present on the UTC chip.
I have some UTC2050 units that were salvaged from equipment sold some decade and a half ago. Willing to send you one or two if that's desirable and I can find em!
Reindeer crunch sounds good.
I'm eating some Harry and David Moose Munch premium popcorn. Mine has green Packaging like yours.
Oh god i love the UTC ones, they're very close to original with almost no difference at all, but please be aware that i found some 2030 with popcorn noises once in a while, thankfully they're cheap so you can just replace them easily. the only difference i knew is that I tend to use 1000uf as decoupling caps since they sounded "too heavy" on the bass with 2200uf unlike the O.G ST ones.
Also, i had absolutely no idea why some "naughty" Chinese seller sells """fake""" 2030/2050 and printed the O.G ST marking in the front but you can identify the original ST made by the plastic encapsulation on it's back, the fake one will always has straight "square" pattern unlike the original ones. if you want this thing, just buy it straight from LCSC, it's cheap and it's great.
EDIT:
Anyway, Merry Christmas!
Sir John , UTC also make the LM1875T and they have used Same original silicon die[Same Die Area and geometry and same dimensions ] from National Semiconductor now TI, but these UTC made LM1875T are marked as LM1875L and they are kinda hard to get hand on, atleast in My City , please take look at them too, also please look at your Inbox i have send you JAT801 PCB Design which I have layout as per your recommendation, where you said the where and how to mount the transistor underneath the PCB itself,
One very important test is missing: how does it handle an output short, or working to a load of non supported impedance, like 2 or 1 ohms ? Original ST and licensed chips have very good protection against such conditions, while cheap clones usually don't, sometimes they lack any kind of protection. Yes, UTC is making good replacements, but the price what you got these two for, is suspicious. Happy Holidays!
When performing the square wave test into 4 Ohms (not filmed) it did go into current limit at high signal levels indicating protection is present.
Hello John, I always enjoy watching your videos, thank you for the effort you put into it! I use this IC as a modulator for AM pirate transmitters (if you want to listen: SDR Twente - Google ) around 6300KHz. I also use those LM386 SMD modules for all kinds of things. How do you set up the SDR Twente properly? Then read this piece carefully ?
( set SDR Twente: 1 allow audio, 2 click on the * MAX IN * button, 3 click in the NIOCE REDUCTION box(checkmark), 4 write the frequency in the box where KHz is behind.)
I think you might like it because there is plenty to hear with us there! in the weekend mainly around noon and evening around 6300KHz- AM in the mornings around 1630KHz also AM
If you like it I can tell you more! but for now I think this is fun! I say: Happy, Healthy, Days from the Netherlands/Rotterdam - RadioRob/Rob
lol, listening to this on my lil TDA2040 based stereo. built on a bit of perfboard thats still smaller than the PCB youre holding...
Test also the Chinese TDA2050-LM1875 chips. They are not counterfeit or copies, they are new designs only labeled so instead of a new reference. They are unity gain stable but very low slew rate of 2.5v/us, I tried with saturated output on 8 ohms with +/-27v successfully. As they are unity gain stable, they can be paralleled and bridged to output 200W on 4 ohms with 10 units for less than $2.
yes they are good new parts , I Parallel [LM1875T And TDA2050] 2 ICs to get 60W RMS and Chinese TDA2050 with 🔺logo worked at +/-26V DC with NO heatsing at all, no heatsing as temp doesn't go very high , it just got 25*C to 38*C not like 60*/70*C
@VIPINSAINI_20 It doesn't have current limiter to protect out short but has thermal shut down at about 85°C on the tab. The low slew rate makes the female voices saxophone sweeter as the tube amplifiers do with their output transformer low slew rate. I TDA2050 and lm1875 labeled are identical.
@@hugueslecorre4893 see sir john comment, Sir John said it have current limit protect, and as for me I have design my Parallel LM1875/TDA2050 with OCP and I have SpK Protection buildon board with using uPC1237HA IC, so I'm safe all the time , it doesn't matter if TDA2050 current limit doesn't work , my custom Overcurrent protection will and does the job all the time I ahve tested it 100%
@@hugueslecorre4893 Yeah, low slew rate gives sweet sound and as Sir John showed in the video it have very low THD 0.004% , no wonder it's sound good, and as for current limter , Sir John also confirm that too, see his comment about it. and as for my Paralleled LM1875/TDA2050 , I have design my boards with buildin OCP using transistors and I have used uPC1237HA Speaker Protection ICs for Detction and all the features of uPC1237Ha IC available in datasheet of uPC1237
@VIPINSAINI_20 we are not talking about the same chip. The one considered here as fake, is manufactured under license by Taiwanese UTC. The one I am talking about is the Chinese chip which is sold as LM1875 or TDA2050 .
This was something I was interested in seeing so thanks for it. Merry Christmas John. The ST package is still better looking though. The UTC may hit the numbers but it's not doing it stylishly.
It's all about the presentation!
@@JohnAudioTech the ebay chip has the specs but it looks cheap. It is good to know it can do the job though. Frankly I had my doubts but looks are deceiving.
Hello. What are the values of the coil and resistor in LR filter that You used? Thank you and merry Christmas!
Excellent - thanks John !
It was me who suggested it !!
Going to watch this at least twice !!!
Edit - I wonder how much individual ic manufacturing tolerances come into it ? Somewhere I have an old HiFi mag article where the author modelled a generic amplifier response with a spread of component tolerances - and his take away was that if you auditioned any hifi component in a shop and had a definite liking for one over another, that 's the one you should take home - not the same model boxed up and new but the *actual* one you listened to !
There are tolerances as shown on many datasheets but I haven't seen actual ICs vary much. Circuits controlled by feedback won't show much variation.
Perhaps UTC had already manufactured the chips on behalf of ST and now that ST has stopped selling them, UTC has taken over the patent and manufacturing?
That would be the simplest explanation.
I have a home theater system from mercury 20 years old still working well having UTC 2030 audio Ics
Aliexpress eBay semiconductor stuff usually comes in a clear plastic bag, does it cause any static damages?
How much any part is affected by static depends on the part. FETs are static sensitive. Bipolar transistors are not as susceptible to static damage. A lot of parts have diode clamps now too. No one likes damaged parts so efforts have been made to minimize the effects of static. Which is to say it was more of an issue in the past. Personally I consider overly sensitive parts somewhat defective unless they've a good reason to be so sensitive. Or if it's blown up you're likely better off without it.
@@1pcfred thanks for clarifying
Since you use giant power caps and your results are much better than the datasheet, i guess most of the distortion is noise not harmonics.
Harmonics do show above the noise floor in the test but they are quite low.
What does it do? Can you amplify something, a saw or a lamp? Examples?
Signal decoupling caps make them sound different! (behave?)
Merry christmas 🎉
Verry nice loving videos
aligator clips?
THD Inflection point ua-cam.com/video/i6bS0WUOn40/v-deo.html is at 20W sharp (8ohm) and original has 8ohm inflection point at 16-17W ua-cam.com/video/i6bS0WUOn40/v-deo.html?t=563 did you use same exact voltage for these measurements?
Same +/- 20 volt supply. I did use finer stepping in this latest test which might have shifted the point a bit.
@@JohnAudioTech Ah i see, i did notice THD curve looks bit "rough" since they all shoot up at that point you might refine stepping close to clipping point (in general)...
The leads on the fale chip are noticeably skinny compared to the real chip.
😮I only have 3 more of these
Try " Inland Electronics " in " Modesto. California.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 i kno the feeling 🙄🤣🤣🤣
Trump is born this day!
Rejoice! Merry Christmas!
Trump the sun of god is born!!!
First viewer❤
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Haha fake is better, high power THD increase lags compare to original! it gives more clean power!
Generally if a manufacturer stops to manufacture 1 component this means these components have become obsolete and replaced by a better component more efficient .
Maybe, but the new part is generally more expensive, and maybe the old part is good enough.
Anyway, will you recommend one? TDA7292?
Hey John, could you please consider doing a video on decent mosfets that can be purchased fairly reliably. I remember a video you did a few years back for BJT'S and TIP's but an updated video on this in general is very very much appreciated!!! It’s a shame what counterfeiters have done to the semiconductor markets!