Re:Why not make the fans bigger? (Score 2, Informative)

This is entirely correct: ask anyone from an aeronautics background: tip speed is king when you consider noise, and that's it. Huge effort goes into reducing the noise produced by the high blade tip speeds of turbo-prop engines.

If you want a quieter fan: slow the blade tip speed, simple as that. (although I think this new fan design does have advantages, particularly the increased air-flow near the fan axis).