I am playing wolfenstein 3d and Spear of destiny. Both have the same issue. There is some popping and "gritty" sound. The sounds all seem to be present (music, digital, other). It is just difficult to desern everything. For example, when the guards fire, it just sounds like a small pop which is hardly audible. The gaurd voices are also very weak. I've messed with many of the sound settings in the config file with no difference. Changing cycles and speed makes no difference either. I have a core duo system, sound blaster live, and nvidia 8800 video. Doesn't seem to be a resource problem, just something not quite right in the sound configuration.