Definitely not Kobe - made in China (hence the lower price tag), and EIGHT SONES??? Whoa. You'll never use it on the high speed. Well, rather, you'll use it once, and realizing just how loud 8 sones actually are, you'll never use it again.

@derrickthecrane: the RA02 is made in Taiwan. Yes, ROC, but made in China means in mainland China. Build quality is quite good too.

As explained many times before, sones is still a very arbitrary marketing term, with a weak correlation to the actual noise level experienced in real life.

I'm pretty sure that moving 1100CFM with an in-house fan will produce a fair amount of noise. If you see a similar hood (not inline or external) boasting far less noise at a similar airflow, you'll know they're lying.

I agree with gigelus2k13. Hood noise is not a big deal. Most of the time when you are in your kitchen, the hood will either be Off or Low. The few times it will be on high it will either be an emergency or a short period of extra heat/smoke during intense cooking. During either of those times, I don't think hood noise will be the first thing on your mind.

If you want to minimize hood noise, make sure the hood and ducting are installed properly, and don't buy more CFM than you need. In this case, I am really questioning whether you need 1100 CFM for a 36" range. Will this range have a grill on it?

I am also going to mention makeup air as I always do. If someone is talking about a new hood install and they don't mention makeup air, I always assume they don't know what it is, just to be safe. If you have that planned already or it is being taken care of, just tell me and I'll shut up.