Car Stereos: Whine noise from speakers, daytime running lights, automatic lighting

Question
When I turn the ignition to the on position I get a loud whining noise from the speakers whether the radio is on or off.  This does not happen in the acc position.  Where do I start to find this problem.  

Answer
Hi Gary,

Sorry it took so long to get to your question; unfortunately, this is one I can't start to answer without a lot more information (and probably not without having the car in front of me).

What kind of vehicle is it?

Do you have a stock audio system, or after-market?  If it's after-market, can you tell me what components are in the system?  If it's stock, do you have a "premium" factory system (ie, Bose)?

Are you getting the whining noise from all the speakers, or just one?  Does it happen only when the engine is running, or when the key's in the "on" position before the engine is started?  Does your vehicle have automatic lighting, or daytime running lights?

It might be some sort of induced noise, from a vehicle component that comes on when the ignition system is powered.  It's very unusual for noise to be induced directly into a speaker wiring, however; though if you're getting a whine with the radio off, either something is affecting the speaker wires directly, or there's an amplifier in the system that stays on after the radio is off.  

If you can give me some more details, I'll try to come up with some suggestions (and hopefully I'll be able to answer a bit more quickly).  However, there are some problems that require some hands-on testing to solve, and this may be one of them.

Good luck!

Brian