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In the design of Recreational Vehicle generators, a particular challenge arises from marketing and engineering teams' desire to ensure that their products meet “best in class” sound quality characteristics. Furthermore, it is desirable to know these characteristics in measurable engineering terms in the product design stage, preferably before prototypes are built and tested. Using a combination of product engineering knowledge and sound manipulation techniques, this paper shows how several generator sounds were produced. These new hybrid real/ synthetic sounds along with actual competitive generator sounds were then used for consumer jury tests to determine their preferences. The sounds include a target “best in class” sound based on mechanical design criteria. Since published A-weighted sound levels can be a useful marketing tool, in one study a few different sounds were presented to juries at varying levels of loudness.