If you want quiet, be prepared to sacrifice a bit of dry grip and get all-season tires. High performance summer tires have big blocks in the tread pattern that make as much contact with the road surface as possible. It's the friction of rubber against asphalt that causes all the noise. All season tires have smaller blocks to allow water to escape from under your wheels so less hydroplaning, but also less surface contact to the road surface.
But if you are not tracking your car and just doing some relatively safe spirited motoring, the grip from a good all season high performance tire should be fine. I really liked the Yokohama Avid Envigors. Continental DWS have been pretty popular all season amongst MINI circles.
When I was in university, I had a fairly wealthy friend who had a different set of tires for each type of driving he did. I think he had 6 sets of tires and chose which one depending on weather and how he was going to use his car that day. I briefly dated his sister but couldn't keep up with her spending habits.
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