Gainclone

It had fewer parts, less capacitance, and simpler construction than virtually anything preceding it, and relied for amplification on a 56-watt chip, the National Semiconductor LM3875.

[1] The DIY community started building replicas or "clones" of the Gaincard using integrated circuits from National Semiconductor and other manufacturers in an attempt to see if good sound could be obtained, thereby the term: "gainclone".

The name was first coined by a poster called "triodont" (Ramon Salamat) on the popular Audio Asylum board (ca.

The "TF" model, as in the picture, is covered in plastic, and thus insulated, but it has less efficient heat transfer properties, which means it can't run continuously at full power.

Most designs produce high-quality sound, even though some audiophiles consider chip-based amplifiers to be inferior to their discrete counterparts.