DROK 5W+5W Mini Audio Amplifier Board PAM8406 DC 5V Digital Stereo Power Amp 2.0 Dual Channel Class D Amplify Module for Speaker Sound System DIY

The quality of the solder mask is impressive. Music sounds decent, but of course two 5W speakers is not going to turn any heads. My application is just for a raspberry pi smart Google assistant. For spoken words, the speakers and amp sound terrific.

This board is simple to hook up and use, takes less space than comparable products, and it's laid out in a convenient manner.

The first one I received did not work. Requested a replacement and it was shipped right away. The replacement did not seem to work but it turned out to be the 1/8" input jack. Low quality jack. Consider the overall price and you get what you get. No big deal. Corrected that and it works well. This was not the problem with the first one. If you're looking for a cheep little no frills make music 5VDC amplifier, this is it.

I bought the 5W+5W version of this amplifier for use with a 32" LCD TV and a pair of unpowered 8 ohm bookshelf speakers. It is being powered by the USB port on the TV. The input is connected to the TV's headphone output. The resulting sound is much better than the TV's internal speakers. I was surprised at how loud the speakers could get with this set up. Normal viewing is with the volume at about 1/4 but even at full volume the sound isn't significantly distorted. I took away one star because there is no EMI shielding. When the amp is close to the TV you can hear a little buzzing and hiss. You'll want to keep it away from EMI sources or use a shielded project box. I rated it "easy to install" because of the standard 3.5mm stereo connector and the screw terminals for the power and speakers. Check out the companies web site.

Worked for 30 days with no issues. Tried to play music yesterday and no sound! 5v is being provided. Green light turns on but nothing. It provided good sound when it was working.

Edit: Although I tested the input line with a meter between the input end of the 1/8" stereo wire and the circuit board, it appears that the "stereo vs mono" issue I described below was an issue with the jack connection on board. I think the input jack is slightly too far back from the outside edge of the amp board, preventing a true stereo input connection. I am going to de-solder the input jack and wire my input directly to the pads- I will report back with another "Edit" if the amp board ends up being mono after all.This amplifier sounds nice for its size and is nicely built for the money, but the output signal is not stereo. There is no left and right channel output imaging; when listening to more "nuanced" music some of the elements of the music are simply missing. Therefore it doesn't even "sum" the input signal through the outputs either(that would still be mono, but better than this situation). It is either using the right or left channel and amplifying that side of the input through both channels of the output. I checked the 1/8" input jack with a meter and a connected 1/8" to 1/8" TRS wire and found the jack is standard, therefore it must lie within the way the circuit is wired internally on the board. If you go to the company's website, there is a customer question relating to whether this amplifier is stereo or mono which is unanswered by the company.

I’ve bought several of these tiny class D amps for tinkering and faffing purposes, starting with the pam8610, which also has quite a nice sound to it, but the lower power 8406 contained in this board has really made made quite an impression. I wanted something to drive really sensitive open baffle speakers, and being terminally short of cash a tube amp was out of the question. With this wee feller, my zenith cz49s come alive and fill my world with beautiful music.The documentation says that this is capable of being used as a class AB amp, but doesn’t say how. The 5v rating is good because you can plug it into a usb cube phone charger and not have to worry about a power brick. I will try it out with more demanding speakers, but for now this is superb!

I used this to nake a LED flash to the rhythm of my music and it worked perfectly