4-strokes are naturally quiet.And that goes back to the days of the Homelite Bearcat 55,remember those?
A guy I fish with got a new rig with a 60HO E-TEC tiller,that one is a monster.But it is a lot heavier than any other 60HP.But a very pleasant outboard to use.Very quiet at cruising speed and idle.And not bad at full throttle.
I would have an E-TEC 50,but the local dealer is
which also sells Mercury and Yamaha.I went with a Honda because the dealer experience was much more pleasant and price surprised me.The Honda 50 is slightly slower at top end than my previous 50 Yamaha 2-stroke,but makes up for it with far less fuel consumption.
I am betting a lot of the E-TEC"issues"are dealer induced.A guy that I fish with has a 40,and ended-up taking it to a dealer that was about 60 miles away.Local dealer was not so savvy with them,they are very complex by nature.
So you can have a great product,and a crappy dealer can make the experience miserable.