@Uhrwerk: thats true but my point is, i dont have 32 sounds to use:

"..16 entity sounds.."

if i choose to use ent_playsound for background sounds also, then, alot of them will get cutoff when in a complex gunfight [16 player online shooter];

I'm not worried about player sounds dropping off, just wondering how noticeable background sounds dropping off will be;

Again, not sure how noticeable it would be because closer sounds would distract you from farther sounds stopping but having the 32 to use for ent_playsound also seems to make alot of sense to me..