Projects: MacAmp Mini What do you do when you want to have a HiFi amplifier matching the design of the Mac Mini? It's easy. You buy a Mac Mini lookalike external harddisk case and fit an amplifier into it! Various mail order shops sell the so called M9 MINI POD. It's a case with Firewire- and USB-hub and with space for a 3.5" harddisk. There's a heatsink provided to cool the harddisk which can be used to cool the amplifier instead. Since none of the readily available amplifier boards really fits into the small case I decided to build one myself. The finished amplifier board Solder side of the board I'm using two TDA1562 integrated amplifier components which require very little external circuitory and only need one single 12V power supply. Internally a charge pump generates a symmetrical supply of +/- 12V which enables the amplifiers to deliver up to 70W @ 4 Ohms. The complete board can now be fixed to the heatsink and then mounted inside the case: Amplifier board with heatsink The whole assembly The Firewire- and USB-hub remain untouched and can be fully used. However, there's no space left for a harddisk any more unless you try to squeeze in a tiny 1.8" drive. Since the included power supply can't deliver 2x70W I've added an extra connector for a separate external power supply just above the USB port. Unfortunately the there's no more room for the speaker connectors so I've routed wires outside the case to a small external box holding the connection terminal. So this is how the finished product looks like: MacAmp Mini front MacAmp Mini rear