Doing some geometry really helped me to make those decisions. I am planning to hang my hood really high to ensure no head bumping with my tall husband. But, I am building the hood out from the wall to increase the capture area - that will ensure that cooking smoke from a pan on the front burner can rise and expand approx. 10 degrees outward and still be captured by the hood. This approach makes sense to be as we never do smoke producing cooking on the back burners, so the capture area above them is less critical than the front ones.

I like Feisty's solution. Fan power is important, but so is capture area. I mounted my kobe insert 33" from the counter but it is up against the back wall. I like the way it looks and no one has ever bumped his head (ds and dh are 6ft). The lights aren't a problem as they are angled back. If I had to do it again, I might mount the hood a couple inches lower. People simply don't lean their head over the rangetop, so I think I vastly overestimated the head bump potential.
I chose the 42" insert but hood makes it 48"

It isn't isn't loud at low speed, and even at medium one would think they could hear others in the room....but one would be wrong! I can't hear anything from more than four feet away when I'm standing there! It seems to suck the sound quickly past my ears or something. I read somewhere that a lower hood is a quieter hood.

I may yet put something like a medallion behind the rangetop, it looks too big and plain to me most of the time (but sometimes I like that it is a calm place for my eye to rest).

Yes, higher = louder! Try it with any hood - just bend your knees/lower your head and you will see that you will perceive it as being more noisy.

(beautiful hood and kitchen kksmama)

Thanks, Feisty68!

Szruns, what did you decide on? I'd love to read reviews of the hood you chose as well as what height you decided on :)