I have been experimenting with op-amp audio amplifiers powered from a 9V battery. I am just wondering how I should go about splitting the voltage from the battery, as I have found 2 ways of doing this . . .
CIRCUIT 1:
One method is to make the ground rail the -ve terminal of the battery and then DC offset the input signal . . .
CIRCUIT 2:
Or a virtual ground can be created like in the following . . .
They both seem to do pretty much the same thing. Should I prefer one method over the other?
EDIT
Based on Mark's answer, you can also have a rail splitter circuit like the one shown below. The purpose of the (optional) resistor in the feedback loop in the supply is to keep the op-amp stable in the face of heavy capacitive loads. The ground on the non-inverting input is only there to keep the CircuitLab simulator happy.
virtual gnd
or-VCC
? \$\endgroup\$ – learnvst Oct 31 '12 at 13:32