Game runs fine, but the sound is very bad, especially the voices. A terrible "sparkly" or "electric" sound lies on top of the voices, and it doesn't sound good. It's not the speakers, I have tried several.
Does anyone else have the same problem?

okay, thanks for the clarification.
good to know.
just for the sake of anybody who is following this,
i'll leave a clarification of my experience and my system...
I get the tiny fmv windows, of course, but i haven't gotten any conversation skipping whatsoever, and the popping is not noticeable after fooling around with the opl settings, the mixer block size and the soundblaster device settings.
the popping is still there, but i have to put my ear to speaker to detect it.
if the windows version seems better in the dos version, it's probably due to software sound enhancements softening the decay and the edges of the samples.
that would be great, because it would save a lot of time altering audio settings, but the trade-off would be the time it takes to get the xp version up and running.
btw ukjohn, how much of a time investment are we talking about for the xp version, if you don't mind saying?
as for the full sized FMV screens, i would love to have them, but i am now so sick of monkeying around with dosbox that i will go without.
maybe when you, whoever you are, start fooling around with this setup, you can choose the smarter options than i did quicker (like maybe the xp version... ukjohn what is your opinion?)
good luck to all the fans.
windows xp sp3- current build
P4 northwood 3.4ghz stock -hyperthreading off
dell dimension 8300 bios A07
soundblaster live xgamer 1993 creative drivers
directx sound hardware acceleration and SB sampling rate set at maximum

At first I was a bit put off by the artifacts in the voice recordings. There are a lot of pops and clicks, but after a while you get used to it.

@soundprob, I have around 10 hours into Gabriel Knight and have got used to the odd popping, because it doesn't happen with every conversation. I know it sounds a small thing, but having the FMV almost full screen is much more immersive than having that small window where you almost have to squint!
I would agree that burning a CD to use the XP installer is a shame, but you would have to contact the XP installer programmer to change that. However, for me, the combination of larger FMV screens and no conversation skipping (which I had when I played in DOSBox on MY machine) would be enough for me to have burnt a CD to use the XP installer.
As I say, unzipping the GK1 game is not a big deal, burning a CD if you have that facility is not THAT big a deal, and then downloading and running the XP installer is easy as pie, as it leaves a shortcut on your desktop that you just double click to start the game and enjoy all the benefits! :) Overall I would say it could all be done in 10-15 minutes from start to finish, plus one blank CD/DVD and a CD/DVD writer, of course!
Hope this helps...!
XP installers are a saviour for me, as they have got my System Shock and Betrayal at Antara games working in the same way as GK1 over the past months! I am hoping many more games get XP installers as the difference can be amazing! :)
Note: Here is a web page with ALOT of GK1 info that may help!
http://www.sierrahelp.com/Games/GabrielKnight/GK1Help.html#NoSound

You can almost certainly use something like Daemon Tools Lite to mount the image on a virtual drive.
My problem is that the XP installer thing doesn't work with Vista 64.

Well, the XP Installer is half a dozen years old.... So you have to forgive him.....

FYI, the pops and static in the audio were present when I played GK back in 1995, on actual DOS. Sierra support (on Compuserve!) blamed my SB16 card and said that they didn't have a workaround or a patch.

I REFUSE TO FORGIVE. HANDWRITTEN APOLOGY NOW.
I finally got a chance to play this game, BTW. It's lovely. I've already played most of the best old-school adventure games so this is particularly welcome. On day 3 now!
(One complaint: that miserable clock puzzle in the attic. Ugh)

If only you had examined the painting made by your Father on the wall in the book store instead of staring at your assistants legs or down her blouse! :)

When I played the game for the first time, I had no problem getting the clue, the painting's not the only item with the clue either, however I had some trouble applying it to the clock. It wasn't obvious how I should set the wheel with the dragon. Also there's two hands on the clock so I thought I'd need another number.
All in all my only grudge is that such a puzzle shouldn't appear so early in the game. It can very potentially make you completely stuck too early and get frustrated.

The Sierra SoundBlaster drive has always been a PITA. A good solution for many of the Sierra games is to choose a different sound card if the game supports it. ThunderBoard is usually good.

Please, GoG solve this!

I'd also appreciate it if the GOG wizards could look into this issue. But the artifacts are probably part of the original recording.

I hope so too..

Thanks! Will try it soon.
Thanks sound is much better now!