SRS Labs' WoW Thing is a small translucent blue box with a number of black knobs and jacks on it that interfaces between a computer, or a portable .MP3 or similar player, and powered speakers or headphones..

Using their proprietary sound enhancement codec, WoW thing performs two functions.. using its knobs, you can adust the spatial sound stage of your speakers, making small speakers sound bigger, and big speakers or headphones sound simply incredible, but adding too much of this effect is overkill. For the most part, I leave the WoW setting in the middle..

Its other feature is TruBass, and this is where the unit really shines. The bass boost curve is simply incredible, beyond my ability to describe it. It's worth buying for the TruBass feature alone.

The little blue WoW Thing box has a couple of ergonomic problems, though. First, there is no battery compatment at all. It operates only powered by an AC Wall Wart, so it's not portable. You could, I suppose, use it with your car's stereo and a portable .MP3 player but you'd need a DC/AC power inverter in your car. More wires to trip over. The box also has no pilot light of any kind, so there's no visual indicator at all when it's on.

The knobs are all black, and set into a black panel, and while each one has a thin groove or pointer on its top, the groove is not painted white. The knobs also have no hard or soft click-stops, so you can only tell by feel or by staring at them, exactly where they are set. This is a design oversight which should have been addressed, but was not.

Besides the on/off switch, WoW control and TruBass control knobs, it also has its own volume control, so it also acts as an amplifer for portable players whose output is weak or tepid. And it does this very well.

You can pipe the output of the WoW Thing box to headphones or to powered speakers. The better your headphones, the better your speakers, the more you'll notice and enjoy what it's doing, and with judicious tweaking of its control knobs, you can find and easily adjust for an ideal group of settings, depending on your source material, and output devices..

For anyone who has never heard the Wow Thing effect, especially its TruBass feature, it's quite a revelation. I've slapped my headphones (Sony MDR-V6..) .. on friends' heads and watch them literally go slack-jawed when they heard the enhanced sound come out of this little box. The first thing they usually say is "Where can I buy one of these??"..

I have never seen these units retailed, although I suppose they're out there.. I bought mine directly from its mfr., SRS Labs, at http://www.wowthing.com where the price often changes.. one week it'll be $25.00, a couple weeks later it might be $9.95.. why they do this, I have never figured out, but I'd say it's certainly worth $25.00 for what it does..

It's also worth mentioning that Windoze Media Player has the SRS WoW Thing's effects built in, and there is a WoW Thing plug-in for WinAmp at WinAmp.com. I'd imagine that Micro$oft and WinAmp's developers paid a hefty licensing fee to SRS Labs to license this technology for inclusion with their software players..

The upshot of the WoW Thing is that if you have decent speaker or headphones, it'll make them sound spectacular. You will notice the difference immediately, espcially the awesome TruBass effect. If you're using crap speakers or cans, well, your mileage may vary.. you can't make something out of nothing, and in the sound reproduction chain, ultimately, your speakers are the most important component..

The WoW Thing might not be for everybody. But I give it a very high recommendation as a tweak that delivers what it promises.. even though it should have the ability to run on batteries to make it portable, but alas, it doesn't, so it can't..





Recommended: Yes