I feel like 90% of the current big-box-store vacuums sound the same these days. I used to be able to tell the exact model of a vacuum by sound but not anything made in the past 10 years. Are they all just a similar Ametek motor now? Many of my friends have stick vacs for their apartments and I don't feel any emotion towards them. I'd take the sound of a 12amp Elite over most of them.