Edit the new blacklist file ?..................

That's only because sounds are set in Preferences/Sounds. Go there and
change the settings.

yes, I edited the new blacklist file - I did everything from
removing the line, saving, restarting computer, then adding in
blacklist pcspkr back into the file- no change

I tried the sound preferences from "Settings Manager"=> Sound
in Xubuntu, but that control is very limited- it only brings up a
long list of sound devices that I can either "check" or "uncheck"
and I was unsure of which device name is the PC speaker, if it's there at all...

I think that there has been some confusion on here because of the
differences
between Ubuntu and Xubuntu! In Ubuntu, the option exists under
System>Preferences>Sound to disable system beeps. Having run up an
Xubuntu live cd, I see that this doesn't apply.

I'm not sure if the following will sort it out for you but it's worth a try
if you haven't already. In a terminal type "sudo xfce4-mixer". This will
bring
up a mixer. One of the sliders is PC Speaker.