noisy personal iris sound from /dev/audio

[Seth Teller]

i've been fooling with /dev/audio for the first time and there 
seems to be an awful lot of noise coming from the 'out' port.
i've got a six-foot patch cord leading from that to an active
(i.e., amplified) speaker, and a continuous low-frequency 
rumbling comes from the speaker.

i think it's related to the power supply, since when i run
a grfix program or even press carriage return in my wsh,
the sound changes.  finally, this happens whether or not
anything is plugged into the 'mic' or 'in' ports, and 
whether or not /dev/audio is being read or written at 
the time.

thanks for any help or advice.

seth