I have been playing BF games a long time and War Tapes has always been my go to audio setting. My reasoning being it sounded the best to me in the options menu and in game. I have been reading about BF audio for the past hour and will be changing my settings because of it.
The reason I will be changing is War Tapes sounds amazing because it is mixed to make “Awesome” sounds “More Awesome”. So if there is an explosion on the other side of the map you are going to hear it with great volume just like you were in the explosion. If you want dynamic range sound War Tapes isn’t for you. I’ll try to explain each setting below from what I read.
War Tapes makes everything sound at almost the same volume. It’s designed to make it look like you’re listening to an old battlefield recorder. It makes everything booming. The downside is that there is no difference between sounds 15 feet away and sounds 100 feet away.
TV speaks for itself. It has a higher dynamic range than war tapes but it’s still rather low. It’s suitable for most built-in TV speakers.
Hi-Fi is the go to settings for most decent speaker setups and home cinema sets while playing on a low volume. It has a medium dynamic range.
Home Cinema is recommended for most decent speaker setups and home cinema setups while playing on a high volume. It has a rather high dynamic range.
Headset has an even higher dynamic range than home cinema. I doubt it sounds good on anything else than a headset without cranking up the volume to uncomfortable levels.
Logitech G Headset setting is a new setting in Battlefield 1. Presumably it has an even higher dynamic range than headset.
I have used the Logitech setting in BF1. It definitely allowed me to hear distance in sounds. For example I was laying prone and could hear a horse galloping, it gradually got louder until it was loud enough for me to turn in time to watch myself get trampled.
Anyway I hope this helps you get your audio dialed in. While War Tapes sounds amazing it may not be the best choice if you want to be a sound whore like Gunny.