Err...
Back in the late 90s, the A3D cards were about the best you could possibly get in terms of positioning, maybe equal to, or even surpassing a true multichannel speaker setup, but with the intimacy and clairty of headphones (which I think is what you might actually be thinking of, not positioning). Since Creative Labs caused Aureal to go bankrupt and then bought their assets, there wasn't really anything to replace those cards, and the next best thing came in the form of Dolby Headphone, which was something I've been using in various forms from PC to console gaming and movies for over a decade now.
In no way, shape or form does it come close to the positional audio capabilities of an actual speaker setup. But it's often much easier to simply hear cues over headphones than it is speakers unless you have the speakers up pretty loud.
With the A8 and A16 you get the benefit of the better positional audio that speakers provide, with the intimacy and clarity of headphones. I have the A8, which only allows for 7.1 (waiting for my A16 to arrive in a few months), but it's still like a multi-generational leap over what any other similar consumer 3D audio device can do right now. It seems like Sony is trying to offer something like this, but it's still going to be a moot point if they don't allow you to do a personalized HRTF. You'll just end up with Dolby Headphone 2.0. Which is at least, something...
It would be severely underwhelming for them to not support it since they are finally adding a UHD drive.
