Color me slightly interested.
In general, if one wants to charge Noctua prices or more, they'd better be offering competitive performance or hitting a niche that Noctua doesn't.
In the case of the Silent Wings 3 fans, well, they moved less air and were louder than the equivalent Noctua. They're quiet if for some reason you need a fan that doesn't move all that much air - but then what's the point?
The last sentence above is a bit of sarcasm - airflow, pressure, and both SPL and noise characteristics for particular usecases are all a balance, and some folks do find be quiet!'s current offerings to be effective - just at lower airflow levels. For the kind of case testing that we do, using be quiet! coolers, low airflow isn't in the cards. Further, be quiet! has stated that their Silent Wings 4 fans are focused on increasing static pressure while controlling noise, which may put them in a different category.
