I'm asking about lights here in the audio forum because I want to hear audio people's experiences with the fans in some of the lights on the market these days. Most of the reviews mention fan noise but I am not sure of the experience of the people doing the reviews. I would like to hear what people with good ears and audio experience on set think.

I'm contemplating getting a couple of the LED COB lights for use as background or hair lights. Since I do not work full time in the biz anymore, I am planning on getting something pretty cheap. I usually subscribe to the "buy once, cry once" philosophy and buy the best I can afford but these are mostly for personal projects so I am not looking to spend much. I have seen comparisons of the Godox SL60 and the GVM LS P80 as well as looked at the Genaray Torpedo BLT-60.

How loud are these? I can clean up a very low constant noise in the background for my own projects. I certainly could not rely on doing that for paid projects, though, especially the ones where you shoot and send them home with an SD card.

I appreciate your input, thanks!

I own a Godox vl150 the fan is virtually silent. Ive heard the lower models have louder fan noise. Youtube reviews are pretty good at getting idea how loud they are. Imhop fan noise has to be exceptionally loud for a light positioned 6 ft away to be picked by a lav mic on a subject.

I also wouldn't use a hair light that needs a fan. There is no reason for that powerful of a light that needs active cooling. A better alternative would be a led pocket light that is small and light weight making it easy to boom, and has wifi phone app allowing you to control it remotely.

I use lots of LED lights and the fans rarely seem to have any sensible figures attached. In my studios with the present setup the LED panels are silent. I have a cheapish Fresnel with COB source and it's nice and bright but a clip on lav hears it quite well. The other LED units I have available are moving heads for my stage stuff - and the fans on these ramp up VERY noisily.

I also wouldn't use a hair light that needs a fan.

Thanks for the info. I'm tempted to just pick up a Lowel Pro Light or Arri 150 to use as my go-to hair light. Just that one light wouldn't heat up the set too much and I like the light from them. But I sure like the weight - or lack thereof - of all these little LED lights!

Thanks for the info. I'm tempted to just pick up a Lowel Pro Light or Arri 150 to use as my go-to hair light. Just that one light wouldn't heat up the set too much and I like the light from them. But I sure like the weight - or lack thereof - of all these little LED lights!
In my experience if the subject sitting in one position, its far easier to use a small battery powered led light.

My current hair light is Yongnuo YN-216
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1302100-REG/yongnuo_yn_216_led_video_light.html/BI/2855/KBID/3801 (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1302100-REG/yongnuo_yn_216_led_video_light.html/BI/2855/KBID/3801/BI/2855/KBID/3801)

Ive been thinking of adding a pocket led rgb panel that I mentioned in the previous post. Here is an example of one.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1552705-REG/godox_rgb_mini_creative_m1.html/BI/2855/KBID/3801 (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1552705-REG/godox_rgb_mini_creative_m1.html/BI/2855/KBID/3801/BI/2855/KBID/3801)