Recommendations for Sound Blaster Cinema compatible headset/speakers?

[Catnmouse]

I built a system with an MSI motherboard, which came with Sound Blaster Cinema 2 software. I know very little about audio hardware and software, but I'd like to get the best sound I can out of it for as little as I can get away with spending. Can anyone recommend speakers and/or headsets that work well with Sound Blaster Cinema 2 software for less than $150 USA?

MSI 970 Gaming board
AMD FX 8320 Black
MSI Radeon R7 260x
8G HyperX (1x8G)

 

[ssddx]

sound blaster cinema 2 is just a variation of SBX which are audio drivers/software. you do not need specially certified speakers to run on them, anything would work.

as far as your options go for $150 or less?

z506 for about $100. would give you fair quality surround sound. not excellent, but adequate for the price. there are some other brands of pc 5.1 sets which would give a similar quality level.

z523, creature3, soundsticks 3 all run about $150 usually. would give you 2.1 sound only but at better audio quality than the z506. basically a trade giving up surround sound for better audio quality.

getting a pair of budget hifi speakers such as the dayton b652, micca mb42, pioneer bs22 and hooking them up to a cheap amplifier is $70-150 range. you lose out on a subwoofer but gain some nice sounding speakers which will put most pc speaker sets to shame given the price. you can still get decent bass without a sub but will miss out on the lowest of the low tones.

as for headphones and headsets, if you wanted to use SBX's virtual surround sound you would want one which is analog (3.5mm connection(s) not usb). some good options for under $150 would be the hd518/hd558 (neutral sound), ad500x/ad700x (bass light sound). a good mic would be the modmic, maybe the moovmic or a desk mic like the snowball/atr2500. as for headsets, the hyperxcloud is not bad at its price range however the hd518 is better for just a bit more (though the hxc is a headset and includes a mic for that price as well).

 

[Disintegrate666]

Hi, I have the MSI x99s Gaming 7 and recently bought Sony gtk-x1bt for music.
I can tell you that there is huuuuge difference when I am playing music from my Note3 compared to playing from the PC over 3.5mm to RCA interface.
The same difference was observed when I was using Razer Ferox speakers using the 3.5mm jack to connect the speakers to the phone and the PC. There are options in the Sound Blaster software, which just make the sound alive.
You will need either 3.5mm or optical connection to be able to use the software though.
Haven't tested it with USB DAC, but considering what I have on the motherboard - I don't feel like I need one, as I don't use professional/studio speakers. For gaming I use optical headset.
You can feel the difference on every speaker/headset/headphone, even low cost ones. So, it' really up to you - how much you want to spend on audio, which itself also makes a huuuuuge difference.

Cheers,
Disintegrate