CD audio sounds better with Linux !?

[tetrahymenix]

I've recently installed Mandrake 9.0 (download version) and have found that CD audio sounds significantly better when run from KDE / Gnome than from WinXP.
I have an Audigy player soundcard, and I've struggled for quite some time to tweak the settings under WinXP to make up for the thin mid-tone in Win-media player. At best the sound is still somewhat compressed and strained.
When booting from my Linux partition, the sound becomes notably warmer and open, with no tweaks needed.
Can anyone offer a technical explanation for this (as opposed to the generic 'because Linux is better') ?

(Setup: AMD athlon 1600, 512mb DDR-mem, audigy)

[Schotty]

I would presume since the Linux system has no ties to DirectX. DX is a dirty tool, and since Linux has no plans whatsoever to reimplement DX, you are in a better situation than the Win users. Now there are differences in the drivers themselves that can make a particular platform better/worse. But they are for the most part hardware secrets that couldnt be implemented (on linux) and DX issues for windows.