It's a new Dell and it has been making crackling sound since I got it.
I spent an hour on the phone with a technician who restored the laptop with Windows 8.1 to an earlier point in time and it stopped crackling for the rest of the day, but the next day, the noise was back.
The worst are "ding" sounds, they have more crackle than ding. Video playback is bad but at least we can understand what is said. Youtube is bad. mp3 audio is bad. Crackle is there with earphones too.