Do all Novi1200 units sound awful?
 

My old Novi 1000 whistled, as a supercharger should. It never sounded like a coffee grinder. Just whistled away happily.

The new 1200 unit just sounds like a bunch of marbles rolling around, just an awful awful sound especially at idle. It doesn’t even whistle until like 2000rpm. Makes my car sound broken, really annoying.

I checked the oil feed line and all is okay, so definitely getting the lubrication it needs.

Unfortunately, yes, from what I've seen. Some are quieter than others at idle in terms of the coffee grinder sound due to the internal gear lash; I'm assumming slightly varying tolerances between units as well as pulley size and idle rpm affect what level & type of noise you get at idle. What size pulley are you on? A combination of a smaller pulley and a slightly raised idle might get you out of sounding like total crap territory.

That was one of the main deciding factors in why I went with a TTS/Rotrex setup over using a Paxton Novi.

Good point on pulley size and idle RPM. I got her idling nicely at 800-850RPM where most tuners target 900-1000. At 850 it just sounded nice with Novi1000 and had a silent exhaust note inside the cabin. Now that the blower is back on, I might bump idle up a bit.

Pulley is 3.4” to limit belt slip, unsure I want to deal with 3.2 or 3.0” slip issues again but… for the SC sound change maybe I will one day.

Yeah the 1000 sounded nicer at idle.

I don’t think I’ve heard two 1200/1220’s that sounded exactly the same, they all seem to be unique sounding

Yes - not great sounding. I had the safety inspector at the local gas station try to diagnose what was wrong with my car based on that sound and had to convince him nothing is wrong.

I’d recommend a GripTec pulley to deal with slip. People swear by them and actually pick up some boost in the process.

Awesome feedback, thank you and to all others who commented.

Yes, my 1200 sounds like a pile of marbles in a coffee can. I figured that is just what it sounded like and moved on with my life. It gets quieter with more RPMs...

I believe it's by design that they gears fit together loosely at idle and tighten up as the rpm increases. Something to do with better lubrication or something.

Just finished rebuilding my unit due to overtightened belt, I believe sound greatly depends on what type of high speed ball bearing you have, some of the guys rebuild it using ceramic bearings without cage (separator) but with more balls inside, they will sound just like some guys mentioned over here while good bearing with plastic (or whatever material they made from) cage will sound nice and smooth...of course there are a lot of other factors playing the role, just some first hand experience..