I don't get it.

I'm using Fedora Core 3 (although I think the distro is irrelevant, as it seems to be a general problem). I've searched time and time again but there seems to be no definite answer to this problem.

Sound on GNOME is exteremely bad. I'm not talking about the apps that use ALSA, like xmms and gaim, but system sounds. The startup theme doesn't even start, and the logout theme, along with all the other sounds, seem like it's being played from beneath a drain pipe or something -- the quality is awful. It made me go to KDE at times, because the aRTS sound daemon is better (but I quickly switched back to GNOME, as i just prefer the look and feel -- but let's not start a KDE vs. GNOME war here )

For example, I start Tux Racer, and the sound is awful. It starts fine under KDE or other environments, but not GNOME.

The Soundcard detection program plays that nice little guitar tune when I click on the test button, in CD quality. My music plays in CD quality. It's just GNOME (and inevitably, the applications launched from GNOME where the ability to configure the sound server is not available) where sound is awful.

If anyone has ANY idea about how to sort it out, I'll be extremely greatful! Thanks

Sorry for not answering to your question, but how the hell did you manage to install ALSA?
(See my thread in Hardware)
I can't do it. What audio chipset / card do U use? I use the on-board VIA8233A and it sucks!

And sorry for not answering your question, because I believe that ALSA was automatically installed when I installed Fedora Core 3!

If this means anything to you:
Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R AC'97 Audio Controller, Module snd-intel8x0

I seem to have come accross a solution, which is to replace the libesd0 package with libesd0-alsa. However, the solution is only for Debian, which uses apt-get to install the package. I can't seem to find an RPM or even a source package for it -- and yum and apt-get on Fedora can't find this package. Can anyone help?