The other day, Creative stopped by our office to give us a demo of the Xmod, an external soundcard only slightly larger than an iPod nano. (It's about 4.25 by 1.5 by .5 inches). This tiny gadget packs in a lot of technology, including Creative's X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity, which digitally restores high and low frequencies that are lost through compression. Just connect the Xmod between PC speakers or a headset and a PC, Mac, or portable music player, and your audio is enhanced "beyond CD quality" (according to Creative). Anecdotally, I can tell you that I was quite impressed. Music that sounded flat and tinny coming straight through PC speakers and a headset was much more rich and full with the Xmod, and the sound seemed to expand around me. I was thinking how great this would be to have with me when I'm traveling, and the price is definitely doable.

Of course, I don't have the golden ear of PC Magazine's audio analyst Mike Kobrin; he plans to put the Xmod through its paces. Watch for his review soon on PCMag.com.

The Xmod will be available later this month, at a list price of $79.99.