Yeah that was the result in my opinion. I had a canyon with ultegra di2 with the crankset. I built a new bike with di2 but used an easton crankset and gravel rings and it was dead silent comparably. The thing that made it obvious is that it was quiet in the small ring but loud in the big ring. Your friend could swap the rings so see if that fixes it. There could be a chain lube issue, worn chain or rings, etc. that might make his a little louder. Also could have a slightly different chainline to the hub as well which could cause more noise. Agree on shimano stuff. I was really surprised at how loud it was for that level of crankset. I now run a Power2max gravel crank, red 22 chain, ultegra cassette, and clutch di2 ultegra RD, with praxis chain rings. Night and day quieter than the ultegra full group.
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