I am building an audio amplifier using a lm386 amplifier with a 12 volt supply driven from a headphone jack. I am looking for a speaker that will work well in this setup. Currently I am using a small speaker and their is a lot of distortion in the sound. I am looking at a speaker that is rated for 1 watt and has a frequency range of 180Hz ~ 10kHz. I was not sure if this would be good enough for a good sound quality when playing music. Please tell me if this would work with my setup. Here is the link to the speaker I am looking at http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/GF0771/GF0771-ND/304442
What frequency range is acceptable for a speaker in an audio amplifier
amplifieraudiofrequencylm386speakers
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Best Answer
Be careful with the power ratings of speakers. In the hifi community the power rating is not understood as a value where the speaker performs best. It's understood as a value which, if exceeded breaks the speaker or produces very bad sound results. When picking speakers, you usually multiply the power ratings by 3-4, just to be sure. Before searching for speakers check your amplifiers total output power!
Regarding frequency: 10khz is not enough for a decent music quality. Low quality audio hardware ranges from 50HZ - 16khz.
Decent quality would be 18Hz to 20kHz. Now, a single speaker usually does not perform well over such a wide range. That is why normal speakers are build of a tweeter (for high frequencies) and a woofer (for low frequencies). The woofer plays everything from 50-2khz, for example, the tweeter plays everything else. The signal is split with a high pass, for example.
There is a solution for that problem as well:
Look for a broad band speaker. They are usually ranged from 50Hz - 16kHz. They are not meant to play to loud, though.
One more thing: Keep in mind, that even if a speaker is rated as 180Hz ~ 10kHz it won't perform the same on all these frequencies. Some frequencies will be louder, others are choked. Check the frequency response diagram for the speaker if available.
Another solution:
Try finding PC speakers, somewhere. Maybe even old ones, people dump them everywhere, for no obvious reason. You might know someone who can give you a pair.