Hi,

it's Black Friday-week and I wanted to finally get myself a projector. Yesterday, the Xgimi Halo+ arrived and ... I packed it up for return after less than 30 minutes. Its fan noise was way too loud. Even though most reviews praise how quiet it is. :/

So now I'm in a bit of a hurry to find another, more quiet projector before Black Friday-week is over. Can you experts please make some recommendations?

My requirements for a projector:

- less than 800$
- native 1080p
- brightness of at least about 600-700 ANSI lumen
- quiet, I'm sitting about a meter from it, where it's sitting on a table
- good for gaming (no worse than 30ms latency)

Also as a secondary question, why noise level is normal for good projectors? Xgimi claims the Halo+ is below 30db, but some tests I saw have it at 35-37db, which seems more belieable. But maybe 37db is normal? I don't know.

Thank you everyone!

Quote (AV_Integrated on Nov 20, 2023 7:32 AM): I like the HT2050a in low power mode. Understand the most LED projectors must be driven in HIGH power mode to get a usable image, this ramps up their fans to full power and they can be a fair bit noisy. Lamp-based projectors, for the money, just drive brighter than most of the competition. The HT2050a is incredibly well reviewed, and can be had for a reasonable price (typically). In low lamp mode, they can handle a 120" screen without issue and push out about 1,000 lumens or so in that low lamp mode. I still own the predecessor to that model, the w1070, and in low lamp mode it is quite reasonable. Not silent, but unless you get a Sony HW45ES, you aren't getting anything that is truly that quiet. The Sony HW45ES would be the quietest projector I have ever heard. It is, unfortunately, discontinued, and when in production, was above your budget.

Thx for the lengthy answer. Unfortunately, the HT2050a seems to be no longer available.

I took at look at BenQ's current offer and kinda liked the TH575, but it seems to be entirely incompatible with 4K-material which seems stupid. While I only want a 1080p-projector, I certainly want it display any video thrown at it.

Anyway, hope I can get more recommendations. What do you guys think about the Optoma HD146X? I see it recommended a lot, according to ProjectorCentral it's a quiet 26db. But then I read some user review on Amazon titled "very loud" :/

Quote (AV_Integrated on Nov 20, 2023 1:57 PM): The HT2050a is one of the best 1080p projectors ever made. You don't need 4K support in a 1080p projector. Your source will auto convert down to 1080p and playback just fine, so it shouldn't really be of much concern. You could also pick up the HT3550 from eBay for about $800 which is a 4K DLP pixel shifting model with a 2-year warranty. It's also discontinued, but that's what happens with electronics... https://www.ebay.com/itm/373463172169

Unfortunately, neither of these appears to be available in Germany where I'm from

That's why I asked whether you might be able to recommend a newer model that's still being sold.