The legacy AA MD80's in my opinion are 'normal' amount of noise. The ex TWA MD83's have a very large amount of 'noise' in the cabin. I would call it wind noise more then a whine .. but then I normally am in middle rows of First .. so a bit farther back it may sound more like a whine.

The other thing I have noticed on the MD83s is that the speakers for the PA announcements (or the PA system iteself) is poorer than on the legacy planes. The FA annoucements of connecting gates is always inaudible (so thought it might be the phone-mic) but also the pilots inflight announcements are very hard to hear.

It looks like when TWA bought the MD83s .. they cheaped out on the insulation for the cabin AND the PA system.