IuB 1.03 beta, PATCH 1.1 available! (20-03-06)

I'll quote Average Joe on this:

FWIW, I won't mess with any sound-settings in SH3, (changing format, or attributes such as quality, bit-rate, stereo/mono, etc).

It's easy to crash the whole game, merely by changing a mono .wav file to stereo.

The only changes I would make is perhaps a sound-patch/mod that fixes default sound-files, and only if needed.

You might try a test, changing sound quality of a often used sound-file (i.e., upping kHz quality). You'll know pretty fast if it's acceptable or not.

I'm not sure of anything as I never modified sound files yet, but that can be a part of your problem.

http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=49256