Hi, I did get them. I then sold my house. The windows did help with noise, but there were a few problems: The house was almost 100 year old and had a crawl space, so noise and vibrations still came up through the floor. I could feel car stereos, etc. It had the original glass front door and matching front window that added a great aesthetic value, so I did not want them replaced. They also faced the busy street and therefore noise was still quite loud in the living room. A front bedroom also facing the street but with all new windows was noticeably quieter, but you could certainly still hear outside noise. Third, I am extremely sensitive to noise. Much more so than the average person. So what others might not even notice, I often find intolerable. Other issues encountered: Most of the windows installed did not stay open upon installation. The Brothers installers believed that the windows did not have the correct balances, i.e. the "sound package" glass was heavier than the usual glass, but that was not accounted for in the manufacturing, so the windows were too heavy to stay open. After reading the horror stories of trying to deal with installers and manufacturers, I was not going to wait months just to get the runaround, so I refused to pay the rest of the bill until they fixed the problem. Brothers was helpful, but Simonton reps were a pain. I insisted that the Brothers supervisor come out to oversee the Simonton people when inspecting and adjusting the windows, which he did. They were then fixed, but that should never have happened. Shortly after installation I found water pooled in one of the window frames. There was a ton of rain this year, so maybe it would have eventually drained/dried. I don't know, but it was a bit concerning. The light filtering properties, which I had been told were not noticeable, were very noticeable to me. The light coming in had a greenish cast and made things darker. I think most people wouldn't notice, but again, I have sensory issues. To me it felt like I was wearing polarized sunglasses in the house. I asked about it and was told it was unavoidable in the energy efficient windows. So that's my experience. I did NOT get triple glazed, so those might really cut out noise more. I personally would not buy these again just because after installation I didn't feel the noise reduction was sufficient to warrant the hassle. I will say it was quieter in my bedroom, BUT I like to sleep with my windows ajar, which defeated the purpose of noise reduction.

As usual, Patricia's advice is spot on! Go with whichever look makes you feel better. If you like French doors and your 69" width is not set in stone, maybe you could consider a narrower set of doors - reducing the space needed for in/out swing. We're in the process of installing these two Milgard sets that are 46" wide each. We like the look and very little space is needed for the doors to swing in. Just a thought....

"But it turns out that none of these windows are ideal as I would like the exterior of the windows to be dark brown, which I understand is a problem with vinyl windows." A quality vinyl window with a Bronze or Brown exterior is not an issue at all. Anything Pella would be a non-starter in my opinion (CR reports not with standing). Andersen 100's are a decent window. Milgard as a whole gets plenty of good reviews from the western part of the country so I would not be afraid of them (only thing that scares me is that they were purchased by MI recently).

" from somebody who has access to the actual Super Secretive Price Sheets. " Not everyone (meaning different distributors) will have the same discounts nor the same markup. " And FWIW the "elsewhere" that I heard it from was ANOTHER PERSON AT THE SAME COMPANY. " Maybe that was a quick off the cuff price, I know personally I have had to do more than one mea culpa over the years but shooting an off the cuff number. But at the end of the day it is up to you. If you feel they are being deceptive or bait and switch maybe mention this or think about pulling out of the contract.