What does modifier "far less than most other laserjet

can someone explain this concept ..I have a doubt too !!

i would try to explain what i have understood from the above sentences

A: a emits 45db less than all others
for ex A: 90B, say some other is 135DB...so we are saying 135-90=45DB less
B: a emits 45db, less than all others
here we say A:45DB, others 50DB, 60DB, 70DB...so A is 45DB less than all others..

hope my understanding is correct here....

Good one! Here is what I think:

Let's take an example:
a) Land Rover gives only 5 miles of mileage far less than most other cars. Here it seems that "far less than most" modifies the verb "gives" which is in the simple present tense form. This would mean that land rover gives only (one attribute) 15 mpg (instead of say 20 mpg) it doesn't give you anything (no other attributes) else such as comfort, pleasure, thrill, etc., that is far less than the features offered by a BMW.

b) Land Rover gives only 5 miles of mileage, far less than most other cars. Over here the adjective phrase "far less... " modifies the noun mileage. This statement would mean that we are comparing mileage of Land Rover with mileage of most other cars.

In a, there should be ‘which is’ before far less in order to describe the noise
In b, since there is a comma before far less, it is correctly describing noise
Quieter is not correct in this context as it is referring to 43 decibels of noise

Let us assume that other printers emit X db of noise.
a] CLP-300 emits only X-43 db of noise.
b] CLP-300 emits only 43 db of noise, which can be anything less than X db that is emitted by other printers.

please correct me, if I am wrong.

Sentence A is unclear because of the lack of comma, which makes it possible to be construed as if the printer emits 43 decibels of noise far less than most other printers. The idea is that the emission of 43 decibels is lesser than the emission of other printers. Sentence B correctly places the comma that indicates that far less modifies 43 decibels of noise.

If you change less to quieter, the sentence won't work, because the current sentence says that 43 decibels is far less that other printers (sound emission). However, changing this to far quieter wouldn't work because either you say that the emission of 43 decibels is far quieter, or that the printer is far quieter. For example:

CLP-300 laserjet printer emits only 43 decibels of noise, which makes it far quieter than most other laserjet printers
or
CLP-300 laserjet printer, which emits only 43 decibels of noise, is far quiter than most other laserjet printers

hi aviram,
you are correct in your explanation. just two points..
1) firstly, less is proper because we are talking of number and quieter is appropriate for the printer as also told by you..
2) just an observation on one of the sentence "CLP-300 laserjet printer emits only 43 decibels of noise, which makes it far quieter than most other laserjet printers"... here 'which' modifies noise, whereas it should be modifying printer. if you replace 'which makes' with 'making ' it will be more appropriate.
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