I usually listen through my 2.1 speakers when gaming, but yesterday I tried headphones.
Immediately noticed that I was barely able to hear the engine sounds, while at the same time the environment sounds were much clearer and louder compared to speakers. So I checked the settings and turned the environment slider all the way down, but the engine sounds were still not present enough. In addition to that, I could also notice how much lack there is in the bass sounds of the engine. Especially compared to the very prominent bass sounds from helicopters and rumble strips.
BTW, the heli sounds are totally wrong. Both helicopters in FM7 seem to be AS355 Twin Squirrel. But the sounds they use are very characteristic two-blade main rotor sounds like the Bell UH-1 for instance. AS355 has three-blade main rotor and sounds completely different.
Anyway, bottom line is
Speakers: Engine sound is very prominent, even with environment slider set to maximum.
Headphones: Engine sound is too quiet, even with environment slider set to minimum.
Well lots or reasons way to may to list but here we go
Cheap Head set only good for making mobile phone calls
PC not configured to use head set but set for 2.1 Speakers
Damage to headset
And sounds strange but HeadSet not tight enough on head or ear cushions damaged to test listen to replay of game and gently increase presseur on headset to check if Headphones are to loose sound will improve.
First off Make suer you are using a decent head set Mine cost me almost $300 to buy but as I only use head phones for all gaming, Music and Watchin Videos they are worth the cost to me.
Now second Dalby Atmos buy it is exclent for head phones. Failing that Windows has it own version not as good but will improve sounds is called Windows Sonic for headphones. Now I have a $2,000 Bose 5.1 Sound system game sounds good on it and for $2,000 you would expect that.
The game almost sounds as good with Head Phones running Atmos you miss out a bit on the Deep Sub but that is about it. I have tried cheap Head phones and ear buds and you do get what you pay for, but Windows Sonic or Dalby Atmos will boost any head phones, With head phones you want to look for ones with a quality 40mm or bigger Driver in them and also something made for gaming will help.
May i ask which headphones, and speakers you are using ?
I play the game on my LG 7700 series TV, which after setting it, has a decent sound for a TV. Yet once i connect my Sennheiser PC 310 Gaming Headset the sound is dramatically improved in every aspect. Have you tried different, maybe higher quality headphones ?
It sure is nothing highend, but sound levels ingame should be at least similar. They are in other games.
The difference between headphones and speakers is really strange. It is like I said, with headphones the engine sound is way way in the background albeit environment sounds are set to lowest level. And with speakers it is basically inverted and I have to raise environment sounds to max.
It’s probably Windows Sonic emulating a surround effect and boosting environmental sounds to make you “feel” like you’re there even though there’s a possibility it’s not realistic.
IMO they’ve nailed it when it comes to the race cars but the road cars could’ve had less noise muffling the engine sound. There are a few cars where this is fairly noticeable.