One thing to note, is that the glowforge definitely lets you know its doing work…that fan moves some air (and thank god because my k40 didnt and my house filled with smoke every time I used it).
I found that a significant amount of the noise generated by the machine comes from the fan, and standard ventilation tubing is not designed to muffle sound. I highly suggest wrapping your tubing with sound dampening materials along with an outer sheath of metal or harder material. This will cut down on noise SIGNIFICANTLY.
I used bubble wrap from the proofgrade in the meantime until I can fashion something more functional and durable, but it helped a LOT.
