Why can't emulators get the sound right?

[Graham Mitchell]

God, I love ZSNES. Which emulators don't sound great?

I haven't noticed much of a problem in the last few years, but NESticle used to be pretty off. Most of the digital sound effects just ended up being silent.

Also, I use NESEm on my Palm and the sound is abysmal. Then again, it's a Palm T/X so the glass ceiling for sound quality probably has more to do with the hardware than the emulator.

You know, the Generation NEX butchers NES game sound as well. The timing is usually okay, and digital voices are reproduced fine, but the tone is altered in most games.