TXiceman wrote:
You also need to look at the conditions that the sound level is measured.  Some measure a 5 feet, some at 3 meters.  Sound level drops of drastically with distance.
Often 7 metres or ~ 23 feet which more realistically represents a real world situation, as no one is going to want to stand for any length of time anywhere near a genset when it's running ... "quiet" or not that noise is still foreign and an intrusion into natural surroundings.  Comparing the measured noise level of a genset to that of human speech is meaningless as the nature of genset noise is completely different ... and irritating, even at so-called "quiet" levels.