I've compared the audio between 1.6 and 1.7, and I'm not sure there's any difference. Sometimes I hear a slight difference (but I think it's more of a hunch), and sometimes I don't hear it at all. However, I haven't touched the game's audio at all, so it seems strange to me that anything has changed. The only thing that has changed is that the game now runs on .NET Framework 8.0 instead of 6.0. It's possible that something has changed there, but, as I said, I'm not entirely sure.
Mmm; I have tried after a fresh reboot of the PC to assert it again, and quite surprisingly the "clanking sounds" isn’t there anymore... But another day, it is "coming back". It can barely be heard at times, but then is "strikingly present" (it is happening when eating non-stop/10ish pellets in turbo-mod).
Judging from the variety of it all, it seems it is the sound engine that "stacks or re-launch" a repetitive sound badly like i saw in other games (when a sound is stopped and another goes over it etc...) Hope it is only my PC here and not a all-around bug.
By the way, do you plan on updating "Random Lady-pac" with the same great options any days? (holding my breath is only good for snorkeling! ʕ◉ᴥ◉ʔ haha)