Different flavors of LM386, A Question and a Challenge!

[Heath]

A quick bit of background:  I built a Noisy Cricket circuit from a Beavis Audio layout.  

I used the typical LM386N-1 chip.  It's not loud and it gets really dirty really quick.  For me it ended up being a novelty build... but I kept thinking it could be better.

I found that there are different flavors of LM386:
 


So I thought, if I use the N4 variety of LM386 chips, I can run it at 18volts and getcloser to a full Watt of output and possibly a lot more clean headroom.  In reality, however, nothing is that simple.  I swapped the N1 for a N4 and it sounded like crap.  I assume it's due to some biasing, etc. but I have no idea where to even start there.

So, my Question:  Anyone have an idea of what one would need to tweak in this layout to properly use the N4 LM386 chip at 18volts?

Now for the Challenge:

According to Beavis Audio, you can bridge two 386 chips for twice the power.



Who is cool enough to layout a circuit based on the Noisy Cricket but using two LM386N-4 chips bridged and running at 18volts for a Dual King Cricket amp?  Super Chirp amp?  Mighty Morphin Cricket amp?


Here's the Beavis Audio page on the 386 chip.