Add an ear to your project with this well-designed electret microphone amplifier. This fully assembled and tested board comes with a 20–20 kHz electret microphone soldered on.
This would be a great way to make sound-reactive NeoPixels — check out our NeoPixel Starter Strip to pair with it!
For amplification, we use the Maxim MAX4466 — an op-amp specifically designed for this delicate task. It has excellent power supply noise rejection, so it sounds really good and isn’t nearly as noisy or scratchy as other mic amp breakouts.
Key Features
Adjustable gain via trimmer pot on the back: 25× to 125×
Output range: ~200 mVpp (line level) up to ~1 Vpp (ideal for ADC input)
Rail-to-rail output — can go up to 5 Vpp on loud sounds
Frequency range: 20–20,000 Hz
Power: 2.4–5 V DC
How to Use
Connect GND to ground and VCC to 2.4–5 V DC (3.3 V recommended for lowest noise)
Audio waveform comes out of the OUT pin with a DC bias of VCC/2
Connect OUT directly to a microcontroller ADC pin — no amplifier or decoupling cap needed
For AC-coupled audio equipment, place a 100 μF capacitor between OUT and your device input
Not designed to drive speakers — use an audio amplifier for that
