Turns out this is a common problem:
http://www.macintouch.com/reviews/mbp15led/#issues
"Audio Noise
Noise from the headphone port (first identified by a MacInTouch reader) is a real problem, which has three components, we found in testing with sound-isolating headphones:
First, a very quiet hiss is present whenever the laptop is awake with headphones plugged in. It's on the same scale as the hiss we noted in the aluminum iPod Shuffle, so many people will never notice it.
A greater problem is a quiet but ubiquitous static. It is present only when the audio circuitry is working, and ceases within a second of pausing iTunes or QuickTime player. It is easily masked by music but shows itself during quiet passages.
The last component is an intermittent high-pitched noise. We've heard four distinct pitches, but never more than one at a time; it varies from a high tone to a faint whine. It goes away within five or six seconds of pausing iTunes; we believe this is when the audio circuitry turns off to save power. We cannot consistently cause the high pitched noise to happen, nor affect the pitch. We cannot trigger it with hard drive activity, spin-up or spin-down, display or keyboard brightness, or display activity. We assume it is caused by interference from other components within the machine.
These audio problems probably can't be solved without a hardware redesign, which is disappointing, given Apple's previous audio quality. If audio playback (or recording) is critical to your work, you'll probably need something like an external USB or FireWire audio interface. (We didn't test digital output from the headphone port.)
Other Issues"
I guess those of you who said your macbooks were quiet had different models.
I'm really pissed off right now. I can't believe apple would let such simple yet irritating problems plague their $2500 laptops. I guess its the whole aesthetics over functionality philosophy they've embraced.