One thing to keep in mind is the human ear is a very poor detector of how loud a sound is, what people do hear is variation in sound, like the sharp pulsating note of a one cylinder engine vs. the smooth rumble of a big inline 6. People may think the pop-pop-pop of the one cylinder is louder until they try to talk in the presence of the big smooth roaring inline 6 (12, 16 whatever) and they realize they can see peoples lips moving, but can't hear anything even when shouting. Secondly some people are a lot more sensitive than others to long time exposure to constant sounds like generators running during multi-day power outages, or while they are trying to go to sleep. An easy test of this is try running a lawn mower outside before sunrise on a Saturday morning if the neighbors / wife does not complain about that then chances are you are safe running a 5-10KW generator without the ASK the larger MEP-003 generator is, the louder and therefore the sound will travel more, but also make the smoother sound which will be somewat less anoying. In the end its up to you, I know I personally would not want a MEP-002/003 with or without an ASK running outside by bedroom window, a hundred or so feet away behind the shed in the back yard is another matter. If you have plenty of land and decide the non ASK version is too loud, that $400 will buy a good bit of wire to move it farther away from the house at a later date.
