Ok, now that I have your attention the thing is major.
Realtek has(had?) broken environmental audio extensions.
Nowadays it's not all that matter.... though this got me thinking: there must be more.
Especially if you consider that an ALC889 music-wise is almost on par with claimed damn better equipment
That's the "flagship" chip of the taiwanese producer, and maybe OEMs don't always use it to save as much money as they can (and this may be why people with lower end integrated chips feel so much differences)
Though, in games the gap seems way big and contrarily to music field I have yet to meet anyone that can't hear a tangible improvement with dedicated solutions.
Placebo effect could even be another explanation, who knows..
Thanks for reading, as always ;)
EDIT: is situation the same even under OpenAL?
And remember I don't bite if somebody want to release its findings