Blitzmax doesn't use 3D sound either. Yet it has problems.
BlitzMax doesn't use DirectSound either. BRL coded their own soundplay lib. If they used DirectSound, it wouldn't have any problems - of course then it wouldn't run on MacOS or Linux either. OpenAL was the obvious move to me, I guess lack of hardware support for it is what prompted BRL to do their own thing.
If it is Vista, there will be problems.
The only non-16bit game I've ever had trouble with in Vista is Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 (but the first two run fine). All B3DSDK and B3D games as I've said run fine. Then again iexbeta.com/wiki shows there are others that have problems that I've never played ;]
You people really need to stop creating problems out of nothing and listen when someone's done their research.