Good audio is decided before you queue, not during the fight. The aim is not the loudest level your headset can survive — it is a baseline you can read from when the map gets busy.
Use one clean path
One listening device, one Windows output, one app shaping the sound. Stacking headset surround, bass boost and a second equaliser blurs the very cues you are trying to protect. Get PullzeAudio and the chain stays short enough to reason about.
Keep the level comfortable
If the only way to hear movement is to turn everything up, the mix is working against you. A level you can sit with for hours lets quiet detail come forward without making every firefight punishing.
Play a real match
Practice ranges are tidy. Real information comes from doors, reloads, mantles and sprint cuts under pressure. Play normally, listen for those, and resist changing a second thing before the first one has proved itself.
