Art Feierman's review of the RS1 (http://www.projectorreviews.com/bestprojectors/over5000.asp) mentions something about fan noise and high altitude usage:

"The JVC is also rather average in noise levels. But not noisy enough to be a problem, unless you need high fan power and are running in high altitude mode. (sorry Denver!)"

I'm toying with the idea of going front projection, and the RS1 is on my short list, along with the Sony Pearl and the Panny AE1000.

But since I'd probably be mounting the thing close to the viewing position, fan noise could be an issue. I know that the Sony would work for me, since a friend owns one and it is extremely quiet. Sony says the Pearl is 22 dB, Panasonic says the 1000 is 22 dB, and JVC says the RS1 is 27 dB.

Since I'm in Denver, would I need to use this "high altitude mode"? And would that be a lot louder than 27 dB?

Steve

Steve, I live in Denver and will have an RS1 in about a month (3rd batch). If you have not seen one by then, and are still interested, you are more than welcome to come check mine out and see if the high altitude setting bothers you.

Hi Steve,
I have an RS1. I'm using High Altitude mode on and it is not that much louder than High Altitude mode off. Really all you are hearing is the movement of more air and not the fan itself. That's my opinion. Some will say they can't live with it in the high fan speeds but it doesn't bother me. Now if you kick in the Higher lamp mode along with the High Altitude, then you can hear the fan noise.
If you want to see/hear the RS1, drop me a PM and we can arrange something. I live down in Highlands Ranch.

Steve,

I just completed some measurements of the SPL levels of each mode. Equipment used is a Behringer ECM8000 mic fed into DEQ2496 which has an SPL meter within. The results are C weighted and the mic was about 4 inches from the exhaust port but not in the path of the air flow. Here are the results which do bounce around somewhat but reasonably represent the average:

Normal lamp - 50.8 dB
Norm + H Alt- 53.6 dB

High Lamp - 52 dB
High + H Alt - 56 dB

So in a practical sense normal lamp with hig-altitude engaged is louder than high lamp mode without high-alt engaged and this corresponds to what I'm hearing anywhere in room.

Hope this helps.

Depending on where you sit. I placed it next to my years and found the noise disturbing. Otherwise it was hardly noticeable

Toe and keithsimp, thanks for the offers! You guys have PM's. :)

Hugh2, thanks for posting that. Would you say (subjectively of course) that if the unit was 3-4 feet from your ears that it would be distracting during quiet scenes?

mark_k, what would you say is the closest one would want to be to the thing?

I would also like to add that I have NEVER used a high altitude setting with my other projectors and never had any issues. I will most likely use it with the RS1 just to be safe, but maybe only for certain things (loud movies/games where it will not be noticed). For quieter movies, I most likely wont use it though unless I run into an issue. I would bet it wont hurt anything to turn it off for material more on the quiet side. I will find out soon! :)

The pj on low lamp high altitude mode is slightly louder than my SP4805 so yes, for me anyway, the JVC would be noticeable on quiet scenes and slightly distracting but there's a good chance you'd quickly get used to the higher noise floor and adapt quickly.

The reality is current measurements show the light only increases by under 20% based all the readings I've seen. My average of 5 different people measuring is 16% increase in light. Is high lamp mode even a worthy feature? not really.

You can double this brightness performance by just getting a 1.3 gain screen over a matte white 1 gain screen. This is a 30% increase in light. Even this is a negligible difference.


Now consider a Da-Lite High Power at 2.8 gain. This is a 280% increase in light or 17 times more light than what high lamp setting delivers.

The moral to this story? If any increase in decibels bothers you for a minuscule increase in light output, dont waste your time with high bulb mode. Buy the correct screen you need to get the brightness you want.

Hugh2,

Thanks for posting your results. My Radio Shack SPL meter can only go down to 50 db's and I was curious how low can your meter read? Have you done any measurements in normal lamp mode from 3' away on either side or front and back?

The reality is current measurements show the light only increases by under 20% based all the readings I've seen. My average of 5 different people measuring is 16% increase in light. Is high lamp mode even a worthy feature? not really.

You can double this brightness performance by just getting a 1.3 gain screen over a matte white 1 gain screen. This is a 30% increase in light. Even this is a negligible difference.


Now consider a Da-Lite High Power at 2.8 gain. This is a 280% increase in light or 17 times more light than what high lamp setting delivers.

The moral to this story? If any increase in decibels bothers you for a minuscule increase in light output, dont waste your time with high bulb mode. Buy the correct screen you need to get the brightness you want.

Tryg,

The OP is questioning how loud the PJ is using High Altitude mode which increases airflow but not lumens output.

If you wish to add another number for your average increase in light ouput I get 22% going to high but that's using the luminance output from my Eyeone display, not sure how accurate it is.

Keith gave me a demo of his home theater setup about a week ago, and I found the noise level in normal fan mode + high altitude mode on the RS1 to be acceptible. It kind of sounds like there's air moving from an AC or furnace being on, but in another room. It's actually pretty subtle.

But this is certainly one of those "your mileage may vary" things, since the fan was certainly audible while a movie was paused. If you spent a lot of effort on sound dampening and you're into a lot of quiet material, it very well could be an issue. But any level of audio from the sound system *at all* drowned out the fan noise.

It's impossible to say whether or not the fan noise would be objectionable to a particular person and home theater environment. It's like the Matrix. "Unfortunately no one can be told, you have to hear it for yourself."

On a side note, I was leaning about 75% toward the RS1 before seeing Keith's setup and that went to 100% after about ten seconds of Casino Royale. :) Every type of scene (bright, dark, mixed, colorful, black & white, whatever) was just eye melting. Um, in a good way though.

I experimented with the high bulb and high altitude modes on my RS-1 when I first got it to hear the max noise output of the RS-1. It is significantly louder than the normal bulb mode that I use. In my HT it would be bothersome and I would probably look for a way to quiet it if I had to run it in those modes.