Fan Noise ruining my enjoyment of new media room!!!!

[bsmith203]

After two year of saving and budget shopping, I finally have my home theater up and running. The projector is a used Studio Experience HD 13 with a brand new bulb that i spent $450 for. Anyway to the problem, This machine sounds like a small plane hovering over my head while watching movies. Action scenes are fine as I have a robust audio system that I believe will ultimately cause structural damage to the house :B , but during quite scenes in movies where you should be able to hear a pin drop, this thing just bloats out air in a low whining pitch :M . Are all projectors like this? I've only seen one that I could not hear and it was a $20,000 runco :E ! I know all you guys just cant be tolerating this noise just to have a bigger picture are you? Any Suggestions on a Extremely quite Model for under $3000 :T ?

[GregLett]

Why not look at some options to isolate it?
Can it be moved to the back of the room where you can build a false wall?
Can you put it into an sound insulation enclosure in it's current position?

[bsmith203]

If I move it back then I will have to buy a long throw lens to get the appropiate screen size. But given how loud this thing is I will still hear it. As for a hush box, no one in the metro Atlanta area wants to build one; they state that they have only had negative results from using then e.g. shorten bulb life, banding, and total equipment failure. I think for all the money I would have to spend to move it or get a custom hush box enclosure I would rather by a brand new low fan level db projector.

[skuzzyb]

To answer your first question, no, all projectors are not like that. The newer ones, and I am referring to something like the JVC RS1 you can barely hear the fan, it runs at about 27db which is less than a whisper (a whisper being approximately 40db), of course some are noisier than others. Projectors will always have some audible fan noise as it has to keep the bulb cool. So, for a quiet model under $3000 you could give the sony vplvw50 (pearl)a try, you can get it around that price on eBay and it is ghastly quiet. The new epson 1080p projector, I think it is the powerlight home cinema 1080 is supposed to be quiet although I have not heard it myself. The picture quality is not as good as the JVC but not bad none the less.

The above mentioned are good options to audition. Good luck.

[George Bellefontaine]

Your Studio Experience sounds like a Sony VPL400 lcd PJ I owned many years ago. I had an enclosure made for me by a chap named Dave Beatty who is an engineer and developed a hush box that controls air flow properly. I believe he is still making and selling them. Try Whisperflow.com.

[Burke Strickland]

The best solution is to get one of today's quiet yet (relatively) inexpensive front projectors. I haven't seen a hush box I'd want on display in my home/home theater when the lights are on, and as noted above, many of them introduce other problems while "solving" the "quiet" issue.

Amazingly, after producing the VPL400, which sounded like a vacuum cleaner in heat, Sony's current models are pretty quiet. The VPL-HS51 that replaced my VPL-400 is almost inaudible at the bulb-economy setting (which you would typically use anyway unless you normally wear sunglasses while watching your movies) :>) -- have to get real close to detect the fan.

Best thing to do would be to audition a projector for (lack of) sound as well as for picture quality. But unfortunately in most cities, too many of the handful of stores that actually have projectors on display are fairly noisy themselves, so a real test there is almost impossible. If they will loan one for a home trial, that would be ideal.

Burke

[DennisP]

If you consider replacing the projector, I would look at projectorcentral.com reviews. They feature accurate assessments of all of the projectors they review, including the fan noise. This is what I rely on since home trials of projectors are pretty rarely available anywhere.

-Dennis

[bsmith203]

Anyone ever used or currently own a sanyo PLV Z-5 unit. Looking at projector central it was one of two projectors to recieve 5 stars in all categories. However it does not really mention the fan noise in the review.

[George Bellefontaine]

I believe there are a few Z5 members here. Try starting a new topic. Example: SANYO Z5 Owners... help.

Then ask about fan noise. I do believe it is quite quiet. Most of the PJs in the past 5 years a pretty quiet.

[Dean McManis]

In addition to my current (read newer) projector, I still have my JVC G15 D-ILA FPTV, which sounded pretty loud even when mounted on the ceiling at the back of the room.

I bought a Whisperflow hush box and it did solve the problem just fine. And after running it most every night for 3 years (when I bought a newer, quieter projector) it did not cause any of those problems that you mentioned.

My current projector is also a Studio Experience (50HD) and it's very quiet.
I don't know about your specific model, but if it's older it could have a bad cooling fan bearing. Especially if it starts out quiet and then gets noisy after running the projector for a while. If possible, check out your model (or the Boxlight equivalent) somewhere locally at a store to see if the new one is quieter than yours. If it is a bad fan, and less than a year old it might be repaired under warranty. Or that particular model could just be loud.

[Fred333]

It has been nice to see over the years the fans becoming more quite. I remember the days when we had to have the projector in a separate room in order to hear the movie.