Asus is a common name in computer components. We have taken a look at more than our share of their products from the mundane to the extreme. One area that Asus has been taking more of an interest is the higher-end side of the HTPC market. Here is where things get interesting. Unlike gamers, or overclockers a person that wants to build a high-end HTPC is looking for the best combination of performance, cooling and power draw. If you can build it fast, cool and power efficient then they will want that. But building an HTPC is not only about what you drop inside the system. You also need some good hardware on the final end of the output side. Not to worry, Asus has you covered there too. They have their own line of HD capable monitors and even speaker sets to keep you happy. We are taking a look at t new one to hit the market. It is a speaker bar that is capable of providing 5.1 surround sound to your viewing area. Called the Cine5, this small and stylish speaker system runs for about $130 on the internet. We are going to take a look and see if it is worth it.
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The test system and comments -
For our testing I used an HTPC system that consisted of the following components;
Additionally I dropped an Asus Xonar D2X into the single x16 PCIe slot on the AT3IONT-I Deluxe motherboard. I wanted to test this in multiple environments and also with multiple seating arrangements. The three rooms I chose for testing were the living room (15’ 2” x 17’ 11” Vaulted Ceiling with a 10’ 10” peak), My Office (7’ 7” x 8’ 10” x 8’), and a bedroom (14’ 4” x 12’ x 8’) with these three setup I ran the usual gamut of audio. These included Bluray, DVD, MP3 Audio, and even some gaming. I used our normal subjective testing methodology (five test subjects to comment on the audio) for each of the rooms used.
