As stated in the readme, this version of Sanitarium has an added performance slider in the settings menu.
For some reason, it is set to minimum detail / max performance by default (slider all RIGHT).
I've found that setting it to max detail / min performance (slider all LEFT) increases sound detail considerably. I didn't notice any special change to the graphics, though.

I noticed this too. In some places, like the circus, it also adds some animations. The game is less static when max detail is set. However, choosing to increase performance (slider to the right then) might also solve some crashes, as far as I know.