On my ASUS WinXP, the speakers are up front. I can hear a little bit of the sounds on the ASUS without head phones.
On my Toshiba Win7, the speakers are next to the hinges. I cannot hear the sounds on the Toshiba unless I am right next to the speakers.
If I put on the head phones, I can hear all sounds. In fact, I have to turn down some of the sounds.
With head phones, heavy rain and horse sounds I turned down to 15%.
Take the head phones off and my ASUS WinXP needs 100% to barely hear the horse sounds.

Marty