Makita 2012nb Dust Collection & Noise

Yet another set of planer questions…..

I am looking to purchase a planer for my workshop and thinking about getting the Makita 2012nb as Makita claims to be quieter (83 db at idle) (Note: the Woodstore.net review http://images.meredith.com/wood/pdf/173benchtopplaners_chart.pdf shows it at 100 at idle, so not sure what to believe).

Criteria: weekend woodworker, liftable by one person, minimize noise as using indoors, good dust collection, <$600

So two questions….
1. Is the Makita actually any quieter than other benchtop/portable planers? My wife likes to work in the workshop with me, but is pretty sensitive to noise. We obviously wear ear protection, but if the Makita is truly ~10 dB quieter than others then this would be a big plus.

2. Dust collection - The Makita and its 3" dust port seem pretty odd. I have read that people without much trouble made adapters for the 3" to either 4" or 2.5" hoses. I also read that the 4"<->3" adapter such as the one made by Woodstock (http://www.amazon.com/Woodstock-W1011-4-Inch-3-Inch-Reducer/dp/B0000223YI/ref=pd_sim_469_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=1CCB3ZG2YBBCE67CXZN1) doesn't actually do the trick. So I wanted to know what people did to get to work with their 4" dust collector hose?

And I also wanted to know how well the dust collection works on it as I saw the Dewalt 735 includes a fan to help get the dust and chips out, while the Makita doesn't. How much of a difference does this make?