With growing popularity of notebooks as well as various small form factor personal computer devices, market share of external audio-solutions is expanding. Creative Technology today announced the Sound Blaster Digital Music portable USB Sound Blaster sound systems that provides quality audio for less $50.

The lightweight, compact Sound Blaster Digital Music is smaller than a typical PDA yet offer a large set of connectivity options, including optical digital input and output plus analog inputs and outputs that include Line-In, Line-Out, microphone input and a headphone jack with volume control. A removable clip also enables convenient attachment to a back of a notebook display.

Easily connected by USB, the Sound Blaster Digital Music transforms any notebook or desktop PC into a stereo system. In addition to Bass Boost and a 10-band graphic equalizer to enhance the MP3 listening experience, the Sound Blaster Digital Music includes Creative MediaSource, a full MP3 and WMA creation and management application with a host of music enhancement features:

• Bass Boost and Noise Removal features enable PC users to improve the audio playback quality of MP3 music;
• 10-band graphic equalizer with audio presets enables customization of music playback environments to match specific genres;
• SVM (Smart Volume Management) matches volume variations across MP3 tracks so no adjustment is needed during playback;
• Audio Clean-up removes pops and clicks from MP3 and WAV files or recorded material from vinyl records or cassettes;
• CMSS 3D (Creative Multi-Speaker Surround) spatializes audio through stereo speakers or headphones.

The Sound Blaster Digital Music has an estimated street price of $49.99 and is slated for shipment in Asia Pacific in May 2003. I believe later we will see something similar for Europe and the USA as well.