Fond as I am of my laptop, one of it’s major drawback is that the built-in sound card is terrible. Although it’s got a rather nifty instant-mute button, that’s the only redeeming feature – the sound quality is marred by a constant buzzing and clicking, presumably crosstalk from the CPU and the buses.
Since I discovered iTunes and online radio I’ve got really fed up with this – plus there was no easy way to connect a mic so I could use Skype. So I went in search of USB sound cards and ended up with the (takes deep breath) Hercules Gamesurround Muse USB (exhales). Partly because it was cheaper than the alternative Creative model, and partly because the alternatives were rectangular beige plastic boxes, and there’s enough of those in my life already. The HGSMUSB resembles a large (10cm or so in diameter) turned aluminium volume control that’s been wrenched off the front of a hifi and turned through 45 degrees to sit on a table top. It connects to a standard USB (1.1 or 2.0) via a Mac-eqsue silvery 2m lead and translucent plug. The bottom is translucent, and lights up green while in use, rather like the Microsoft optical mice do.
There’s headphone, front, rear and centre 5.1 outputs; and mic and line-in inputs. The bundled software gives various output options for headphone, 5.1 surround and standard stereo, but I can’t speak for how well those work not having 5.1 speakers.
Generally speaking, it works pretty well. The knob acts as a volume control when rotated, and mute/unmute if it’s pressed. It’s not terribly responsive – the software’s got a bit of a lag, so you tend to turn the knob too much and overshoot the desired volume; and it’s not as well-screwed together as it looks – with it being turned aluminium and heavy, you expect the knob to be a lot less wobbly than it actually is. You also pick up a fair amount of mains hum if you touch it when in use, using the headphone out at least.
The sound outputs aren’t too bad – the headphone out has a bit of background hiss which is apparent if the volume is low, but there’s a nicely heavy bass sound, and there’s enought top end for my ears, shot to bits though they are. I”ve no idea what audiophiles would make of it, but then audiophiles aren’t likely to be seen dead using something like this anyway.
If you connect headphones to the speaker outs the sound is devoid of any hiss or hum, but the volume is a bit on the low side (with these headphones at least). The bundled software works without a hitch with WinXP – there’s various options for tweaking volume and frequency response, but I’ve tended not to bother with that as iTunes has all the options I need.
Overall, I’m fairly pleased with it – for the price it seems to do everything I need it to do adequately. I’m not sure it’s as portable as Hercules would like you to believe – they seem to position it as a travelling device, but as it’s a couple of hundred grams and 10cm or so in diameter, it’s a fairly chunky addition to my laptop bag. If you’re looking for a decent external USB soundcard and want something that doesn’t look like a beige plastic box, this will do the job nicely.
