Have you noticed that sounds are noticeably softer when looking away from the source? Even in that wagon ride at the start it's harder to hear when you look away from the speaker. Any fixes for this?

Isn't that how it's supposed to work?

I have this happen when my speakers are not set right. I have 5.1 speakers and sometimes, Skyrim does not p;lay nicely with them

Do you play on PC or console? I play on PC

That happens to me on Fallout 4 when I have the head phones on.

Check your speaker settings. If you're playing with a 2-speaker system or headphones, make sure your speaker settings match.

I'm playing on pc. But why should the sound volume sent to my speakers change just because my character faces in another direction or turns her head? Shouldn't the sound volume be based on distance from the source? In real life I can hear my radio just as well if I'm looking away from or looking towards it.

For me, the sound was coming from my center speaker only. When I looked away, the left/right speakers failed to pick up the sound.

3D spacial audio effects do modulate the volume of the left and/or right speakers to give a sense of direction to the sound, which is crucial in a game where enemies make noise but can be hidden from view until the very last second. Directly facing the sound source should balance the left and right volumes, and moving closer or further away should increase or decrease the overall volume of the sound effect. Some possible causes of the directional audio fading too much when not facing directly at the source might be: Using a non-stereo headphone or speaker extension wire - having the speaker/headphone plug not plugged in all the way - having your pc's audio control setting set to Dolby 3.1 or surround 5.1 or 7.1 when you only have a 2 speaker setup - having your pc's audio control setting set to surround 5.1 or 7.1 when you only have a 3 speaker setup. I'm sure there's a few more, but realistically none of them would be one of the games audio settings that I'm aware of. Unless, of course, that it's just having the games main volume too low, or having the volumes of other things besides the ones you can't hear set too high.

Hmm. I've never even opened speaker settings. I'll look for them and see what's there. I just plugged my speakers into the green speaker outlet and forgot about it.

Are you using the built in sound hardware of your PC? if so then it's most likely a Realtek chip which had a known issue with Skyrim when it first came out.

In your sound settings for the Realtek you need to enable 'loudness Equalization'.

The game expects a 5.1 setting and works best when you use that with the sound configured for only the speakers you have. E.g. I have a 2.1 setup, and just mark the center and rear speakers as "not present". That gives me a better sound field than two-way stereo.

Works fine for me on my 5.1 speakers. Are you sure you have them set up correctly? I have a Realtek chipset too lol.

Green speaker outlet is two-channel only...

Hence my post, using a 2 speaker setup on certain Realtek chipsets, the vocal audio of Skyrim is wrongly balanced.

The problem lies with the game, not the speakers and has been known and complained about since 2011.

Skyrim sees 2 speaker/Realtek setups incorrectly as 5.1, When you are facing a noise source it uses both speakers as the center channel, when you turn away from the source it tries to pan the sound across speakers that don't exist, EG: front left and right hence the quiet audio.

Checking 'loudness equalization' on 2 speaker setups is one of the known potential fixes.