Printers are a rare category on this site: several makers publish an acoustic figure, and two of them name the test standard. The trouble is that the figures do not all measure the same thing, and a sheet that reads "48dB" next to one that reads "6.6 B(A)" is not a comparison, it is two languages.
We read specification pages and datasheets for twenty two printers from six brands: fifteen lasers, seven inkjets, twelve all in ones. Here is how to read them.
Our 7 picks are listed above, with full specifications for each.
Three kinds of number
Sound pressure is what a microphone picks up at a stated position, typically one metre from the machine, in dB(A). Xerox, Epson and Canon publish it. It is the number closest to what you hear at a desk.
Sound power is the total acoustic energy the machine emits, independent of where you stand, in bels A-weighted, written B(A). HP publishes it on its North America datasheets and adds pressure on its international ones. Epson publishes both. A 6.2 B(A) machine is quieter than a 6.8 B(A) machine, but neither figure is a dB(A) you can hold up against Epson's 48.
An unlabelled dB. Brother publishes "Machine Noise" as "30dB" ready and "48dB" printing, and never says whether that is pressure or power, whether it is A-weighted, or where the microphone was. Lexmark publishes "53 dBA (Print)" with no quantity named either.
For the general problem this creates, see why you cannot compare dB ratings across brands. The practical rule here is narrower: compare labelled pressure with labelled pressure, power with power, and Brother with Brother.
One maker did it properly
Xerox's B230 disclosure reads: "The following measurements were made in accordance with ISO 7779 and reported in conformance with ISO 9296." It then gives "1-meter Average Sound Pressure, dBA" for three states: 53 printing one-sided, 50 two-sided, 16 ready.
That is a named standard, a named reporting standard, a distance, and three operating conditions. No other maker in this guide publishes all four. Canon cites ISO 7779 and gives simplex and duplex separately, which is close. HP footnotes its test configuration, "simplex printing, A4 paper at an average of 27ppm", which tells you the speed but not the standard.
The B230 is not the quietest printer here on the number. It is the one whose number means the most.
Canon's unit trap
Canon publishes both quantities, which is good, and writes sound power in dB, which is confusing. The MF275dw's sheet gives "Sound Power: Active: 69.3 dB or less". Set against HP's "6.2 B(A)" that looks like a different class of machine. It is not: 69.3 dB is 6.93 B, a little above HP's 6.8 B(A) OfficeJet and well within the range here.
We have recorded Canon's figures as published, with the conversion noted, because a reader scanning a spec table will otherwise draw the wrong conclusion.
The ready state matters more than you think
A home office printer spends almost all its time waiting. Xerox publishes 16 dBA in ready. Brother's mono lasers publish 30 dB, its colour lasers 40 dB. Canon publishes "Standby: Inaudible". HP and Epson publish no ready figure at all.
If the printer shares a room with you, the ready figure describes most of your day and the printing figure describes a few minutes of it. It is worth asking for both, and only a few makers give both.
What nobody publishes
Quiet Mode. Several printers have one. Canon lists "Quiet Mode: Available" for the PIXMA G3270. Not one maker here publishes a figure for it, and not one says what it costs in print speed.
A Brother quantity. Seven Brother printers, one format: "Machine Noise", ready and printing, plain dB. The brochure PDFs carry no figure at all. Within the range it is consistent, so Brother against Brother works: the HL-L3280CDW at 47 dB printing is Brother's lowest, and its colour lasers idle 10 dB higher than its mono ones.
US prices from Canon. Canon USA refused every request on the day we checked, and its Canadian shop returned a server error. The Canon figures here come from Canon Europe for the same model numbers, and we have recorded no US price rather than guess one.
We did not measure any of these printers. Every figure here is the maker's own, quoted as published, with the quantity, condition and standard attached wherever the maker attached one.
