I just bought a new 21.5 iMAC a few weeks ago and today it started making some weird static-like noises from the internal speakers. I don't have any others but, would imagine they would have made the sound also. Since it just started today, I back-tracked what I had done in the past couple days and I located the culprit. I had recently, today, downloaded a "gadget" on my iGoogle home page. It had an animation running, even though I wasn't playing the game. When I had the iTunes app focused (active) on my screen and a drop of blood fell to the bottom of the gadget's window, it would make the noise. The iMAC didn't make any noises unless I had the iTunes app active on my screen. I deleted the gadget and all is well. Having 25 years of SR. technical support experience and building Telecommunications networks from scratch has taught me a few key things.
1- Don't over-think the problem
2- Always document changes, just in-case you have to run backwards
3- Exhaust your options before pointing the finger
I hope this helps someone and prevents them from wasting a bunch of time.