I'm not sure I'd call it terrible, but can't say I'm particularly fond of the sound you're referring to either, definitely a bit too far into the high pitched screeching side of the spectrum.

This sound of the weapon or whatever its doing is either broken or messed up.  call it what you will but it sounds terrible and has a really high pitched screeching noise to it.  Yarlen, you guys need to look at this please.

The sound of this effect seems strongly dependant on the quality of the speakers.

Through the internal speakers of my laptop it would be terrible - the original opening sound of the Ironclad/Stardock logo was highly distorted.

However, through my half-decent (20-year old) hi-fi Unity Mass actually sounds very effective, although I'll admit it is rather loud.

This loud volume, coupled with its high pitch, would also make this unpleasant to listen to using 'phones too, even decent ones - it's a sound that needs a bit of space to fill.

So I would suggest that the volume of this effect should be reduced before altering its pitch.

The main problem I have with Unity Mass is visual, not audio, as not all of the particle effects show correctly.

Sometimes the two side beams do not show, sometimes the main beam isn't visible.