Once you get used to them, yes. However QL sound will still not be great.

Ok this is the second thread I see about this...

I could have sworn QL (like Q3) only output stereo, and regardless of what you played that audio on you wouldn't get any more information than left/right.

Is this not true?

I thought this also.

Yep. Just get high quality stereo headphones with a good soundstage like either Audio Technica ATH-AD700 or AKG K701. Can't really do anything more than that with the low sound quality of QL

How about other games that do not support 7.1 but have not as shitty sound as QL?

syncerror confirmed this

It is true, and it is ridiculous. 3d games have had positional audio in place since the late 90s, but the greatest one of all time still only has left/right in 2013. No words =/

it's more than rediculous actually:

"Even though the Aureal SQ2500 comes in last performance wise, it's the only card that properly supports Quake 3's A3D 2.0 audio engine. As such, it's the only one that bothers to perform all the sound function requested and thus sounds by far the best in Quake 3. "

http://www.anandtech.com/show/460/6