In the same vein as the Creative MP3+, Hercules offers a USB sound adapter with an interesting design twist. The round aluminum device has roughly the circumference of a hockey puck and is surmounted by a tall volume knob. The lower “puck” portion features 1/8” stereo headphone and mic jacks along with three 1/8” output jacks for the front, rear, and center/sub channels. The device tethers back to the PC via a 150cm USB cable. The volume knob also acts as a mute button when you press it, and the puck is rimmed on the bottom by green LED illumination.
Setup of the MUSE is plug-and-play simple, and the bundled drivers give the user a mixer screen in which line levels for each channel can be adjusted. The Sensaura technology in the software also allows for surround virtualization on stereo headphones as well as different positioning effects.
The MUSE has two key selling points aside from its slick appearance. The obvious one is surround audio support for everything from multichannel WMA to DirectSound-based games. (We recommend Zalman’s 5.1 Theater 6 headphones from mobile gamers.) The less obvious advantage is convenience. Users can leave their headphones and speakers plugged in simultaneously. More importantly, the device is even easier to use for volume control and muting than a remote control. Think about the frequent interruptions you experience on airplanes, for example. Rather than spend 10 seconds clicking and scrambling to bring up an on-screen control interface, a simple tap or twist of the knob mutes the audio.
Overall, this is a clever device that should be an easy upsell for notebook users as into good looks as they are good music.

Creative Labs
SoundBlaster Go!
MSRP: $89.99
www.creative.com

You’ve seen USB-based webcams and reading lights that clip onto the top of a notebook screen. Now Creative has the perfect answer for on the go users needing better audio. The Sound Blaster Go! package is a bundle containing Creative’s external Sound Blaster MP3+ adapter along with a set of Creative HN-500 noise cancelling headphones.
The MP3+ (not to be confused with the old SB Live! card of the same name) is about the size of a PDA and features two sets of ports. Along one edge at the volume knob and gold-plated 1/8” headphone and mic jacks. On the other edge are left and right channel pairs of RCA jacks for Line-In and Line-Out accompanied by in and out optical SPDIF ports. Between these, users should be able to plug in just about any external audio device they want. The input flexibility in particular could come in handy when wanting to record analog content while at a seminar (recording speeches, for example) or ripping LP collections over at a friend’s house.
Note that the MP3+ is a CD-class device. Nowhere does it mention supporting Dolby Digital or other surround schemes. You can pull 5.1 content from the optical out port, but who is realistically going to need a six-speaker arrangement for a mobile audio adapter? This is a 16-bit stereo product made for modern music listening and recording needs. As such, Creative does an excellent job packing its software set with lots of audio optimizations. The EAX Console is the same app that comes with the Audigy cards. Users can enable DSP-based environments (auditorium, jazz club, etc.), suppress voices in a karaoke mode, use Creative’s CMMS matrixing, fine tune audio with a 10-band equalizer, normalize volume throughout a playlist, and perform track clean-up for things like pop and hiss. Note that clean-up is actually a filter routine that requires using Creative’s included jukebox app, MediaSource. The original files are left untouched.
The HN-500 headphones are a brilliant addition here. If you still haven’t tried noise canceling headphones yet, the technology is a bit like flat panel LCDs or broadband Internet access. Once you try it, you’ll never willingly go back. Noise canceling headphones work much like regular headphones, only each ear cup integrates a microphone designed to detect ambient, low frequency sounds, such as air conditioner hiss or airplane engine rumble. As you probably remember from high school physics, all sounds can be represented as waveforms, and if you pair one waveform with its exact opposite, the two will cancel each other out and leave you with a flat line. Thus the mics built into the headphones detect these incoming sound waves, generate the appropriate inverse waveforms, and play them back in realtime in order to dampen the obtrusive noise. All it takes is one cross-country flight with noise canceling and you’ll never travel without them again.
That all said, there are varying levels of quality in noise canceling headphones. Bose is the undisputed and well-deserving leader in the field with its QuietComfort products. At the other end of the field are sets approaching $50, such as one Aiwa pair I have. The noise canceling you get at this range is fair, but then other factors enter in. For instance, the Aiwa set is heavy and uncomfortable to wear for long periods, and the ear pads are made from foam, which is notorious for starting to disintegrate after a couple years of use. The HN-500 set falls about half-way between Aiwa and Bose. The noise canceling from Creative is a bit better, the pads use a soft leatherette material which stays cooler against your head over prolonged use, and the headband design is definitely more comfortable.
Purchased separately, the MP3+ retails at $39.99. Creative also sells an external version of its flagship 24-bit adapter called the Audigy 2 NX for $129.99, but it lacks a notebook clip and is designed for desktop use and desktop-class audio applications. Given the Go!’s price, form factor, and target users, the adapter and headphones together are quite a steal.