Well, the best summer tire you can buy is the Potenza S-03(quoth tirerack.com). They are extremely quiet(quiter than the stocks on all road surfaces) and are amazingly good handlers. Just read the owner reviews on the S-03's in tirerack. What I do is, I put crappy all seasonals on in winter. I really don't care about winter driving performance. Then when spring comes it's like Christmas come again when I get the S-03's on. This is my favorite route because you just cannot come close to the performance of soft and sticky summer tires with all seasonals.

And BTW, I'd estimate my braking distances from 60-0 have increased by a good 5-10 feet...and probably .2-.4 on the 1/4 mile. Very pleased.