This was actually a problem in the beta for me as well, and I mentioned it on one occassion, but never really got a response. I figured it was just an issue with the Beta, but now that I am getting the same audio interference on the final version I thought I'd bring it to light once more.

During the course of the game I experience crackling/popping sounds as the music and the other audio effects occur. It's quite annoying, as it's incessant, and the zoom level affects the amount of interference. While zoomed out all the way, the crackling becomes increasingly irritating and frequent, and the music/sound effects even slow down. The same thing occurs when zoomed in all the way. The best point I've found (thank god) is mid-zoom but even then there is considerable crackling. It would be good to note that I am using Vista Ultimate 32-bit.

Any ideas?