As for the running water sound...

Could this perhaps be, for some crazy reason, the test mode for those speakers running? I know on my NAD receiver, I have a button on my remote labled "Test" and if pressed while in one of the surround modes, it will send a "running water" sound to each of the speakers, moving from first the left main, to center, to right main, to right surround, to left surround, and back to left main. It's basically a "noise" allowing for volume adjustment of the individual channels so that they can all be matched up. Maybe...for some reason...that's what's happening? I dunno...