It's not that you will hear it right away, i thought my Bionic was okay but they all do it - at least i have tried 3 others...
Put on headphones or hook up your Bionic to your car stereo or powered speakers via the LINE OUT headphone jack.
Crank up the sound a bit. Play an MP3, youtube video ...
Now pause / stop the youTube clip or mp3 .
You will notice a high pitched whine / noise for about a second and thru my powered speakers or car also a pop (this is the noise that's always there in the background, until the sound engine stops , with material that's louder you don't really notice it, only in quieter passages but it is there and has an overall affect on audio, if you don't notice it then that's good but do the above test and you will - at least when stopping , if you don't listen to lower passages or don't notice it when cranked and are satisfied that's great, wish i didn't care / notice it....
Note - it doesn't matter what brand headphones you are using - just that they are standard phones without any sort of volume deal in between the signal - just normal phones or power speakers / car radio. No EQ/ audio enhancements are enabled on my phone (bass, reverb, etc.)
This is some sort of electronic / electric (not my area) interference with the line out and the audio engine / circuitry . Using the built-in speaker or bluetooth audio there is zero noise .
My Droid, wife's Eris, Blackberry, 5 yr old FUSIC , Sansa mp3 players - none have this issue, totally unacceptable.
I wonder if it can be fixed via a firmware update? if it's interference i don't see how. i don't see how in the world Motorola could let this end up as is ? Especially with the months of delay in the Bionic and then with such an issue ? Insane .
This issue plus the constant auto focusing during videos , CDMA only network dropping (when my Droid, wife's Eris, BBerry all at the same location have zero network issues) - these 2 items alone are enough to return the Bionic, i can't go 2 yrs with a device that cost me $249 , used up my last NE2 upgrade and has these types of issues plus others...... (like the poor slow still camera focusing with an awful glare effect when using the flash, the video auto focus which looks like the video is zooming in and out, the display with the noticeable pixels / dots on gray or white content, the weird scrolling effect, yellow that at best looks like Mustard compared to even my wife's Eris and my OG Droid using the Palette Color test app on each , ......
my orig Droid, i had a few complaints - but nothing major , this is crazy ........ , i so much WISH h could be satisfied with the Bionic as it's fast, i have been waiting 9 months for an upgrade - for a dual core phone with 1G of RAM on verizon (LTE i could care less about at this point as it's not in my direct area, eats up battery and i don't download large amounts of data on my phone, 1.5 mbps 3G is fine).
Really frustrated and will return my 1st phone ever - i so much do NOT want to go back to the Droid as who knows when VZW will have something out worthy of upgrading, Sprint with $99 Photon's or Epic Touches for me and my wife for less than the price of my Bionic - here we go (my wife will be glad to get off of the Eris). VZW / Moto - by putting out a poor product , you wasted my time and money (restocking fee maybe with the audio issue that I can show the VZW reps with powered speakers easily - perhaps with that defect I can get out of the restocking free)
Unless somehow in a couple of days Moto addresses the issues above, it's going back. I do like it for many reasons and want to keep it but i will kick myself for giving in after waiting 9 months and being stuck possibly with the issues above for 2 years ........