circuit harness wiring

For some time now, there have been a number of tape cassette decks available at low prices from mail order businesses and electronics retailers. Such decks do not contain any electronics, of course. It is not easy to build a recording amplifier and the fairly complex magnetic biasing circuits, but a playback amplifier is not too difficult as the present one shows. The stereo circuits in the diagram, in conjunction with a suitable deck, form a good-quality cassette player. The distortion and frequency range (up to 23 kHz) are up to good standards. Moreover, the circuit can be built on a small board for incorporation with the deck in a suitable enclosure. Both terminals of coupling capacitor C1 are at ground potential when the amplifier is switched on.

Circuit diagram:

Because of the symmetrical ±12 V supply lines, the capacitor will not be charged. If a single supply is used, the initial surge when the capacitor is being charged causes a loud click in the loudspeaker and, worse, magnetizes the tape. The playback head provides an audio signal at a level of 200–500 mV. The two amplifiers raise this to line level, not linearly, but in accordance with the RIAA equalization characteristic for tape recorders. Broadly speaking, this characteristic divides the frequency range into three bands:

• Up to 50 Hz, corresponding to a time constant of 3.18 ms, the signal is highly and linearly amplified.
• Between 50 Hz and 1.326 kHz, corresponding to a time constant of 120 µs, for normal tape, or 2.274 kHz, corresponding to a time constant of 70 µs, for chromium dioxide tape, the signal is amplified at a steadily decreasing rate.
• Above 1.326 kHz or 2.274 kHz, as the case may be, the signal is slightly and linearly amplified. This characteristic is determined entirely by A1 (A1’). To make the amplifier suitable for use with chromium dioxide tape, add a double-pole switch (for stereo) to connect a 2.2 kΩ resistor in parallel with R3 (R3’). The output of A1 (A1’) is applied to a passive high-pass rumble filter, C3-R5 (C3’-R5’) with a very low cut-off frequency of 7 Hz. The components of this filter have exactly the same value as the input filter, C1-R1 (C1’-R1’). The second stage, A2 (A2’) amplifies the signal ´100, that is, to line level (1V r.m.s.).

The well-known LM386 is an excellent choice for many designs requiring a small audio power amplifier (1-watt) in a single chip. However, the LM386 requires quite a few external parts including some electrolytic capacitors, which unfortunately add volume and cost to the circuit. National Semiconductor recently introduced its Boomer® audio integrated circuits which were designed specifically to provide high quality audio while requiring a minimum amount of external components (in surface mount packaging only). The LM4906 is capable of delivering 1 watt of continuous average power to an 8-ohm load with less than 1% distortion (THD+N) from a +5 V power supply. The chip happily works with an external PSRR (Power Supply Rejection Ratio) bypass capacitor of just 1 µF minimum.


In addition, no output coupling capacitors or bootstrap capacitors are required which makes the LM4906 ideally suited for cellphone and other low voltage portable applications. The LM4906 features a low-power consumption shutdown mode (the part is enabled by pulling the SD pin high). Additionally, an internal thermal shutdown protection mechanism is provided. The LM4906 also has an internal selectable gain of either 6 dB or 12 dB. A bridge amplifier design has a few distinct advantages over the single-ended configuration, as it provides differential drive to the load, thus doubling output swing for a specified supply voltage. Four times the output power is possible as compared to a single-ended amplifier under the same conditions (particularly when considering the low supply voltage of 5 to 6 volts).

Circuit diagram:

When pushed for output power, the small SMD case has to be assisted in keeping a cool head. By adding copper foil, the thermal resistance of the application can be reduced from the free air value, resulting in higher PDMAX values without thermal shutdown protection circuitry being activated. Additional copper foil can be added to any of the leads connected to the LM4906. It is especially effective when connected to VDD, GND, and the output pins. A bridge configuration, such as the one used in LM4906, also creates a second advantage over single-ended amplifiers. Since the differential outputs, Vo1 and Vo2, are biased at half-supply, no net DC voltage exists across the load.

This eliminates the need for an output coupling capacitor which is required in a single supply, single-ended amplifier configuration. Large input capacitors are both expensive and space hungry for portable designs. Clearly, a certain sized capacitor is needed to couple in low frequencies without severe attenuation. But in many cases the speakers used in portable systems, whether internal or external, have little ability to reproduce signals below 100 Hz to 150 Hz. Thus, using a large input capacitor may not increase actual system performance. Also, by minimizing the capacitor size based on necessary low frequency response, turn-on pops can be minimized.