http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=29841
--- Comment #3 from Andrew Eikum aeikum@codeweavers.com 2012-02-09 08:26:16 CST --- Hi Michael, can you try:
aplay -Ddefault /usr/share/sounds/KDE_Startup_new.wav
and see if you get similar distortion? Wine is using the "default" device, when your aplay example is using the "pulse" device, so I'm curious to know if that's what's causing the problem.