I've reported the same exact issue and posted a couple times also in the past two weeks. Seems it effects players who still use Windows XP. However, it must be a simnple fix somehow. They didn't change the entire sound system just for this. The complete games sounds return as soon as you exit space. I guess there are not enough players with this issue for someone on the team to take a look at. In the meantime, I cannot play it properly either.

Same issue here using Windows XP. Seems like this should have been noticed and resolved during beta testing. Sound returns to normal upon exiting space combat. I'm not sure why this hasn't been addressed, but there should be a simple solution for this.