Creative TravelSound Notebook 500

Creative, once again, has produced another gem of a speaker in the form of the TravelSound Notebook 500. Unlike other portable speakers, it is unique as the compact unit can be fixed onto a notebook screen though they may shake quite a bit up there. Among the benefits would be great sound quality and a three-way choice to power up the speakers. However if you're a frequent Wi-Fi user, you may get more than irritated with the constant radio interference.

The elegant white veneer of the Creative TravelSound Notebook 500.

Design
The white TravelSound 500 is very convenient to carry around. When folded up, it measures a compact 213 x 47 x 33mm and is matched with a nicely padded pouch for storage. The speakers sport a cool dual LED which emanates a blue or amber glow depending on whether you use USB power or a battery pack/AC adapter.

The key feature is undoubtedly the TravelSound's ability to be attached to the top of a laptop screen. This can be handy if there is limited space on your table though we must gripe about the way the speakers attach onto a notebook. The speakers don't appear to lie too comfortably on top with no rubber grip to fix on the back of the laptop screen. This is obvious when you gently shake the screen. The 243g speakers could actually weigh your screen down should your notebook hinge be as flexible as the Toshiba Portege A200's. Also, note that if you have a thick screen width of more than 13mm such as the IBM ThinkPad R51, the Creative SnapAttach clip cannot be fixed on.

Check out the connectivity options of the TravelSound.

For playback on an MP3 player, you can place the TravelSound on level ground and conveniently tilt the speakers to aim at a level suitable to your listening pleasure.

Features
To power up the TravelSound, you have a choice to use either USB power, four AAA batteries or an AC adapter (purchased separately). Creative claims approximately 30 hours of battery life if used with the four AAAs. In terms of connectivity, there's a subwoofer-out to plug to a powered subwoofer should you need enhanced bass, line-in for audio, mini-USB port for a notebook to power the speakers up and DC-in for either the battery pack or AC adapter. The provided 293mm stereo-to-stereo cable may be a little too short for some notebooks such as the Compaq Presario B3813AP whose line-out jack is close to the front edge. Creative mentions that the TravelSound is magnetically shielded so that no display interference can be seen on a TV or notebook, and so it delivers on this count.

We ran our tests by pairing the Creative Zen Micro with the speakers and battery pack.

Performance
The speakers run on NeoTitanium micro drivers and digital amplifiers which serve to give the audio some "oomph". We matched the speakers with our Zen Micro to check out the sound quality. Clear vocals could be heard from Andrea Bocelli's powerful Canto Della Terra while George Michael's Too Funky produced a well-balanced midrange with decent bass and well articulated lyrics. The bass could be snappy at times when playing The Chemical Brothers' The Big Jump, but is admittedly resounding for its size. When the volume was cranked to the max, we were pleasantly astounded to find little sound distortion even at such a high level.

The problem arises when you fix the speakers to the notebook screen. If you use Wi-Fi or a 3G data card to surf the Net while the speakers are on, you will definitely get radio interference similar to a mobile phone sending an SMS near a CRT screen. This is most pronounced when using the 3G card and when huge files are being downloaded.