Over the years, I have seen certain probelms in the sound rendering on Windows with little to no explanation to them. However there seems to be a pattern:

1. Max Payne: certain game sound are muted. IndirectSound fixes them (how?). A precursor to the IndirectSound fix was to convert all the APDCM* sound to PCM.
2. DK Pinball Science: The game uses APDCM* for audio and on startup complains about not having a compatible device. DxWnd fixes it by converting the APDCM (and presumably 4-bit) audio to PCM 16-bit sounds.
3. Princess Maker 3: This Japanese game proceeds to freeze when the game sound setting is changed from DirectSound to PCM. Another quirk is the fact that speeches don't play in the game (just as in Max Payne) even in DirectSound mode.

Max Payne has multiple solutions, but probably nothing to raw and original output. DK Pinball Science's author made APDCM patches for Windows XP SP1 and SP2, and they install and work there only (didn't work on SP3). Princess Maker 3, yet, has no solution, I talked in the DSOAL forums and there was no conclusive answers.

I am not sure if anybody documented the problems and how that's happening. It's up for discussion and observations.