After months of stupid 1st-world problem, self agonizing consternation, I decided to pitch any 18" wheel ambitions and get a set of these Coopers. Between these and the Goodyear Duratracs, the whole speed-rating thing on the Duratracs had me hesitate, and the Coopers seemed like a slightly better choice for a vehicle that spends the majority of its time on pavement.
I came from a set of Michelin Premier LTX tires, which are probably the best street tires you can get for these Rovers. No idea how many miles were on them. They were installed by the PO and on my LR4 when I bought it 22,000 miles ago, so I'm going to guess they had around 40,000 miles.
First thoughts are that the Coopers are slightly noisier, but not obnoxiously so. Just an audible high-pitched whine at speed that wasn't there before. The Michelins set the bar here as they were drop-dead quiet.
Surprisingly, however, the Coopers feel a bit smoother on the road and soak up the bumps better. My guess is that the Michelins (which don't have much tread depth to begin with) just didn't have a whole lot of rubber to attenuate the vibrations. The Coopers have about 10x the tread depth as the Michelins did.
I'll post more thoughts as I have them longer. So far, I like them and they'll probably be perfect for what this Rover is for me and what I will do with it.
I actually off-roaded the Michelins, so I'm excited to see how better the Coopers are at that.