At its lowest setting the cooler is very quiet: 31.8 dB(A) is nearly inaudible, depending on room noise levels. At full blast, however, the noise volume reaches 38.7 dB(A), a level that most people would find annoying.
Even at top speed, the Big Typhoon has noise emission level of 35.5 dB(A), barely above the room noise level of 33 dB(A). In other words, the cooler is almost inaudible.
Zalman, god, whatever, that's your wording, I'm atheist so I could give a crap less about that.
But I have never been disappointed with a Zalman product. In my experience they have been cheap, extremely durable, and excellent quality. My headphones really take a pounding and are awesome for gaming. And to be honest I have the zalman 7700-cu cranked up to full speed and I never even hear the thing, I don't know why in the review he says that some people will find that annoying. I can only hear it when I get right up close, and that's with 21dba thermaltake case fans. And the I like the design better than the tower designs. It just kind of flowers out so that is doesn't stick out too much and really doesn't take up that much space.
IMO the 7700-cu is the best cooler...