This is a gas-fired, downflow forced-air furnace situation.

House was built in 1957. Furnace is in a centrally located hall closet
with louvered bi-fold doors. My issue is noise.

The original Rheem, with the big long cast iron burners made barely a sigh
when the burners came on. More noise, of course, when the blower kicked
in.

In the 80's, it was replaced with a new higher efficiency model. It's a
Bryant. Spark ignition w/pilot, inducer blower, that sort of thing. The
burners are like 4 blow torches. That whole setup is so noisy that you
barely even notice the uptick in noise when the blower comes on.

It's time for replacing it. The inducer bearings are going bad (I replaced
the inducer maybe 10 years ago). I had to replace the heat switch by
the pilot earlier in the year. Seems like it's constantly needing
something. Anyway, I'm looking for a replacement.

Looking for recommendations for a brand or general type that would be
quieter since this is located right in the middle of living space. I am
not necessarily looking at super high efficiency but might pony up for it
if they are inherently quieter. A salesman said a variable speed type
might be quieter but I think that's only going to affect the blower noise
and even with the blower off my present machine is too loud. But that's
80's technology so I don't know how loud or not loud even a regular modern
furnace is.

PS: It's 90,000 BTU/H input. I realize greater efficiency would allow
downsizing that but I'm concerned about going too small if I keep the same
A/C since that's gonna need a certain air flow volume. Have not decided
whether to do both but that's another issue entirely. I don't want weak
cooling because of undersized air handling capacity of a new, smaller
furnace and have them say I "told you so" regarding how I should have
replaced both).