World's Longest USB Audio Interface?

At nine feet long, the IK Multimedia StealthPlug guitar-to-computer interface is possibly the skinniest way to go digital. The StealthPlug is a cable with a USB plug on one end and a quarter-inch guitar plug on the other. In between, there's a little arrowhead that converts the analog guitar signal to digital and the computer's digital signal back to analog so you can hear it.

The arrowhead also contains a headphone jack and volume up/down buttons, making the StealthPlug an improvement on the slightly cheaper SoundTech LightSnake. And the StealthPlug also comes with a much better software bundle, featuring a slimmed-down version of IK's AmpliTube effects processor; the full version of Mackie's well-regarded Tracktion audio/MIDI sequencer; IK's SampleTank 2 SE (a software sample-player); and 500MB of guitar, bass, and drum grooves from Sonic Reality.

It wasn't clear whether the StealthPlug's headphone output has the option to mix in the direct signal for zero-latency monitoring, but early buyers report that the latency through the software guitar effects is as low as 5ms. The StealthPlug supports both ASIO and Core Audio.

I first saw the StealthPlug at NAMM last January, so presumably IK spent the last ten months polishing it. If the StealthPlug upholds IK's tradition of good-sounding plugins, it should be a terrific bargain—not to mention a compact, easy way to get your guitar and computer talking. It sells online for as little as $99.