Compak had (they may still have) a K6 and a K8 available in a "silent" model. Not sure, but I think the K6 silent is no longer available locally. We have a few of these K6/K8 silents and the non-silent's out in cafes from the good-ol FOL legacy days. I can tell you there is a noticeable difference in the noise between the silent and non-silent. Whilst it was not easy to pick the difference in a side-by-side comparison in our factory, the true test was when I changed silent for non-silent (and vice-versa) in a client cafe setting whilst we serviced the burrs and cleaned up the unit off-site before returning it the following week. The loudest noise came from the cafe owners............give me back my quieter grinder..........or I want to keep this new grinder, it's great. I also have an A8 on the kitchen bench at home - but it's not a silent model (not sure how many of the A8 silents are around). It's not too bad noise-wise and because it's quite fast, the noise is only for a short time. Obviously, the larger the grinder, the shorter the noise duration but then you run into retention issues. I cannot vouch for other model/types of grinders by comparison, other than to say our fleet of numerous commercial Macap's are really tough, but also very, very noisy compared to the Compaks. Using a doser adds to the noise levels (although home users do not tend to buy dosers). I also think Compak's are slightly quieter than their equivalent Mazzer, but I have no technical or field facts to back that claim up other than my personal assessment. Happy to be told otherwise. Grump's suggestion of a modern, high-end hand-grinder is the best solution for a home use situation - noise, grinds retention, cup quality, etc.
