[rdorman]

Well I ended up buying the Sears 30 gallon, 6.5 horse vertical compressor that comes with a 1/2" impact, 3/8" ratchet, air hammer and one of those stupid coil hoses for $297. It is noisy but not to the point of being painful! For the home garage, if you are not going to paint a whole car and do major body work it will work just fine. Plenty of CFM to run a small paint gun like a HVLP touch up gun for small projects or a small blaster. You do need to watch the CFM rating on some of the more air consuming tools such as grinders, DA sanders and paint guns but over all a very good value. I have run the air tools that came with it, air nailers and a small die grinder and it doesn't really even break a sweat. It is ready to run out of the box the only thing I would buy on top of it is a real hose, air line filter and oiler. The regualtor is built in to the unit so no need to buy one. I may eventually mount a box with some sound deading material (and proper venting) over top the motor to reduce the sound level a bit. I would compare the noise output to a push mower or a roto drill.
Rick