This is my first printer and I've never handled a metal one but I don't think I've had any issues with vibration or harmonics. What is it you think that makes noise in the wood? The loudest components are the stepper motors. Wood absorbs noise better that metal so I don't believe your noise is coming from the wood. I just measured mine printing a part and it's 67 dB (it ranged from 62dB to 69dB) which is about the volume of an average conversation. It was printing octagonal infill which is the noisiest part. That's pretty quiet.

As with all things, extra components raise price. I'm sure Makerfarm could design and sell a chamber but that would drive up the price. What the Makerfarm i3 is good for is to get into 3D printing with a smaller budget yet deliver a high quality machine without frills. Then if you find you'd like or need a printer that has more features, you can buy another one. Many guys into 3D printing have several printers. And after all, we are all using the same hot ends, Arduino (I know RAMPS and Marlin aren't the only ones but you know what I mean) and stepper motors. All the different designs are really only frames. The rest of the hardware we all pretty much use is the same all over.

What I didn't want to do was spend $2000 to find out I didn't like 3D printing. So for less than $1000 I feel I got a fantastic product on which I can learn. I've modified mine a bit and I feel like it's a great investment. I don't even treat it like a starter printer. I think I'll buy another brand one day but for now I have nothing bad to say about it. I have a few friends with more expensive printers and I can print nicer looking prints than they do.

I'm not a spokesman for Makerfarm just so you know. But, since this is the Makerfarm Forum, we should probably not talk too much about what we "wished" it had or what we "wished it was make of" because it is what it is. If we didn't have Makerfarm i3's we be reading a different forum.

What we should talk about here is how we can make them as good as they can be. We should talk about mods or retrofits or upgrades. It's just like if you own a Ferrari. You really don't complain about it because you are proud of it. What you talk about is how you treat it, how you interact with it and how you make it better.