Are you looking for a quiet tire? Today's tire manufacturers know many drivers want something they can drive, not hear. That's why they spend many resources designing tires that try to minimize it. Take a look at some quiet options from a few popular performance categories.
Generally speaking, if a person stresses they want a tire that is quiet, I would direct them to a Grand Touring, Standard Touring or Passenger all-season tire. In the case of sport utility or truck tires, I would tell drivers to consider options in the Crossover/SUV Touring All-Season or Highway All-Season categories. Tires in these categories tend to prioritize low noise through optimizing their tread design.
As an example, the Bridgestone Turanza Serenity Plus uses specially designed grooves to reduce acoustic tones. If you compare the Bridgestone to a Michelin Pilot Super Sport (Max Performance Summer) tire, you can see the tread design differences. The Michelin's focus is wet and dry traction, along with handling. It's designed to maximize those qualities at the expense of others, such as tread noise. Pilot Super Sports aren't noisy, but they won't be as quiet as a tire like the Turanza Serenity Plus.
The same thing would apply to SUV and truck tires. An On-/Off-Road Commercial Traction tire, like the Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac, with its large tread blocks and open spaces won't be as quiet as something like the Michelin LTX M/S2, which is part of the Highway All-Season category.
Bridgestone Turanza Serenity
Plus
Michelin Pilot Super
Sport
Goodyear Wrangler
DuraTrac
As tire technology improves, so do the products. Most modern tires have good road noise levels, therefore the differences between categories is getting narrower. An easy way to look at how different tires rate in their category is to look at our tire survey results. After selecting a category, you can sort by attributes, such as noise comfort, to help you decide which tire is best for you.