I've got to say, that I am puzzled again and again how much money people spend on monitors and graphics-card to get the perfect immersion from a game. Never ever would they consider tuning down graphics enough to run them via onboard graphics.
For some odd reason, the same bunch of people insist that running sound through cheap crappy onboard-chips and a 10$ headset provides the best sound available.
I use an x-fi soundcard linked to an HiFi-Amplifier and a HiFi-Headset with a frequency range from 5Hz to 25kHz.
I honestly never understood why people were not shaken by the original sound of 50s or didn't notice any difference between different engine sounds. With a good setup you surely do.