Dude, chill. This happens to a lot of laptops and even high end ones. Apple may be trying to fix this but it may cost them more space or money to change this. I've heard that on almost every laptop I've used. I'm no sound buff and I couldn't care less about actual surround sound in a laptop but it's probably not as such a big deal as you're making it out to be.
Pardon me for asking but, who are you to tell someone else that it shouldn't be a big deal to
them ? Despite how much money we paid for our MBP's, the issue boils down to expectations in relation to what we've been sold marketing wise. The MBP is supposed to be a high end laptop, and so naturally we don't expect such a simple thing as clean audio output to be over looked so carelessly.
I love music, and have a rather large Mp3, Ogg, FLAC collection which at times I like to stream from my MBP to either the AUX in of my receiver, or from the USB port to the receiver's, and out through my nice speakers. I've personally heard some static before when playing music, as well as when using Garage Band, in to the receiver, but contributed it to one of the cables I used to hook it up. It was one of the most annoying things to me, and the fact that (as the OP stated) I paid so much for it, really got my goat. I can not blame him one bit.
Yes, high end products need servicing, they fail, and are at times faulty. But for Apple to not acknowledge the issue or try and resolve it, seems irresponsible. I'm not saying they won't, in time.. but don't try and be Apple's little PR lackey and speak for those of us who disagree with you, at the same time.
