Sorry for dragging up an old thread, but seemed somewhat related.
My in-laws live in a fairly dense neighborhood with houses close together. While visiting them for a week a few months back, I noticed that their landscaper's backpack blower was noticeably quieter than the other landscapers in the neighborhood even though he was working right next to the house. He was using the only one using stihl while others had other brands I don't recall.
Based on researching online, I assumed he was using a br500, and asked my in-laws to ask him which model stihl next time he came by. At first he said he was using a redmax, but my in-laws already knew it was a Stihl from talking to me. He then appologized and said he was confused because he uses a redmax for commercial accounts. My in-laws copied the model number off the backpack blower he was using and surprisingly it was a br600 magnum.
Part of me is still skeptical that he was using a br500 a few months back and has switched models since then or uses a br600 for leaf cleanup. Are the br600s really much quieter than the other brands such as echo and husqvarna? My skepticism stems from not reading on the forum about the stihl being quieter, plus echo seems to have similar decibel loudness specs when researching online (around 75db)