Mutual torque ripple in a brushless DC motor is the main source of acoustic noise, especially fur motor operation with high speed and torque. This paper presents a method to obtain mutual torque ripple to identify acoustic noise source. Mutual torque ripple can be determined by analyzing phase current shape and magnetic circuit with different lead angles. Current shape is determined by state space model of voltage equation with the use of inductance calculated by FEM, and confirmed by experimental results. Mutual torque ripple is also determined by FEM analysis for the calculated current shape. Acoustic noise experiment reveals that mutual torque ripple with different lead angle is one of the main sources for noise generation in a brushless DC motor.