Quiet tires=soft tires?

Hi there
I had a debate with a co-worker about tires today. I have 4
Michelin Pilot MXM4 (All-Season P205/55 R16 89V) and I find them
loud. My co-worker told me that the road noise is mostly from
these tires and that low-rolling-resistance tires are hard, so
they're loud.

Is this true? First are these Michelin Pilot low-rolling
resistance tires? And Second, are low-rolling resistance tire
hard? If so, what tires do you recommend for me?

thanks

 

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Michelin.com or Tirerack.com has the answers about the noise / longevity
questions. It's impossible to recommend anything since we can't tell if
you're in Hawaii, or Alaska. General rule . . Noisy Honda factory tires
tend to be very poor snow / ice tires. Moot point if you're in Hawaii.

'Curly'

 

Here in Arizona, at least, the roads vary so much in quality that my stock
['04 Accord-4 cyl] Michelins are very quiet on some roads, noisy on others.
So who's to say whether it's the tires or the roads? While I'm sure some
tires are quieter than others.... ?

 

That makes sense to me. The less a tire deforms, the less the rolling
resistance should be. In a train, the wheels have extremely low rolling
resistance, and they are definitely very hard.

 

That's cuz they're made out of metal! ;-)

 

....as are the rails...

 

the only good point about the firestone FR680s was theyd last a long
time. mine were only halfway worn before i replaced em. however, each
one had been plugged at least once, and one was full of slime.

 

That's probably not it exclusively. I'd think the tread pattern
and rubber compound would have more to do with road noise.
A tire that's worn would also be louder. There are too many
variable to say that only one thing (like rolling resistance)
is the primary cause of tire noise.

 

The only thing of importance about low-rolling-resistance tires
(original equipment on our Insight) is that they're high anxiety poor
road holders. Replace ASAP with real tires...