Just throwing my findings into this:
As @CommunityUser5 can attest, I have been going through my own dust collection trials and tribulations.
I hope the following breaks it down in simple terms that took me a few months and dollars to get drilled into my head.
When it comes to workshop dust removal, there are TWO types of vacuum systems.
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High Pressure, Low Volume (HPLV) which are your Shop Vacs, and more officially referred to in the industry as “Dust EXTRACTORS”. Screamingly high pitched, noise demons that rely upon SMALL hose diameters (2.5") but extremely high pressures to move things around.
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Low Pressure, High Volume (LPHV) systems which are the “Dust COLLECTORS” like the 1HP, 2HP brushless inductive vacuum motors that use 4" hoses to move a lot of VOLUME (large diameter hoses) but at very low pressures.
My biggest mistake was to purchase a (Harbor Frieght) 1HP dust COLLECTOR and then drop the hose diameter down to 2.5". This caused an absolute collapse in performance and made it almost worthless to use the dust collector this way.
Watch this video to see the differences, and what exactly why this is the case:
Take away: if you have a 4" dust collector, you need to carry the 4" hose all the way to the tool, such as a band saw or table saw that has a 4" outlet built-in from the manufacturer. If you have a tool (i.e. Onefinity dust boot) that only offers a 2" dust hose port, then only use a 2" dust extractor.
Note, there is one main manufacturer of dust collectors, the name of which escapes me, that actually offers BOTH 4" and 2" hose ports and uses TWO different motors inside for each of them; a HPLV motor for the 2" and a sepeate HVLP motor for the 4" outlets.