Asus has announced what it claims is the smallest 5-channel PC soundbar in the world. The Cine5, as it's called, could offer a nice alternative to people who have a stack of speakers positioned all around their room.

It comes with several 3.5mm jacks for multichannel input, a headphone socket, and a volume knob and mute button. It offers a frequency response of around 80 to 20,000Hz, meaning that it won't give you deep bass, but without a subwoofer attachment we wouldn't expect that.

We're a little dubious of some of Asus' claims - that it can offer precise surround sound locations good enough to give an advantage in video games - but for tasks like movie watching it should be more than adequate. It sits just under your monitor, and can turn any stereo source into 5-channel audio.

There's no pricing or availability details, but as soon as we hear anything, we'll be sure to let you know.

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