LM386s are cheap and very easy to use. However, they lack power. This isn't surprising as they are meant for small battery-powered things that don't need much power and where having more would needlessly shorten the life of the battery. If more power is needed there are plenty of other things around; the LM380 or TBA820M spring to mind. However these are not as easy to use so what you can do is add output transistors to an LM386:--
