Harmony Express

Company	:	Miglia
Price	:	RM 200
Rating	:

Miglia's Harmony Express is a virtual 5.1 sound card. It is as small as a USB flash storage device with an output port for headphones and an input port for a microphone. A USB extension cord is also thoughtfully included in the blister pack. You just need to plug it into a free USB port and Mac OS will do the rest. You probably need to go to System Preferences to select the sound output you wish to use.

I listen to music via a hi-fi stereo set so I cannot give any impressions about headphone usage. Ditto about the mic input. Compared with the soundcard that comes with my old Pentium 3, the sound out of my iBook is pretty good. Harmony Express sounds better though, with better bass to give a more balanced listening experience.

Miglia offers customised software/driver for Windows XP (downloadable from their website) and it gives the option to create a virtual 5.1 output. I don't have 5.1 speakers so I cannot vouch for this but watching movies with AC3 5.1 sound out to my 2 speakers, the sound staging is very good and there is some semblance of surround sound. You probably need real 5.1 speakers to truly check this out.

When I watched normal movies (without AC3) I notice a slight echo and I had to de-select the virtual 3-D option to cut out the echo. This software/driver is NOT available for the Mac but you still get excellent soundstaging on it. However with the customised software on XP, there is a discernible difference.

I have a Chaintech AV710 soundcard (basically a budget soundcard that many people say is comparable to much more expensive ones for 2-channel stereo output) and musicwise Harmony Express is either equivalent to or better than the Chaintech. The Chaintech tends to be a little bright and hard but I find Harmony Express to be more balanced, with the bass sounding a little louder. Mid to high tones are quite well defined.

With it's small size and compatibility with Windows, Mac and Linux, it is hard to beat for maximum flexibility. I even used it on my old P3 (which I think has the old USB1 port) and it worked as well. One thing though, it gets pretty hot.