I switched to air in my ITX case after the AIO got gunked up for the 3rd or 4th time. The PC actually runs quieter now. If I was to do water cooling again, I’d go with water cooled GPU instead of CPU. The GPU is the noisiest part in the machine.
That’s very similar numbers to my Noctua NH-U12A.
This was also a pleasant surprise to me too. Much much quieter than liquid cooling.
A lot of it comes down to the pump. Some pumps are noisy because they’re run at 100% speed.
I actually want to try de-shrouding my GPU and replace thee 3 stock fans with 2 bigger fans. A lot of people have gotten their systems to run nearly silently by doing it.
Passive liquid cooling would be great. Based on evaporation chambers that would boil off an cooling liquid and would re-condense in a radiator… and wouldn’t require an pump to actively pull water through the system.
Anyway, based on the most recent build video of billet labs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qN130ySBqE
I’ve got the urge to throw together a hard lined water cooling loop… without really needing one.
AIOs would be the most logical choice… but that wouldn’t be as rewarding as the pleasure to have built an functional system all by myself. Thus, I choose the lazy route and fiddle around with my fan curves instead 
Years ago, my Intel CPU used the stock ventirad (90mm fan), I replaced it with one with a 120mm fan, it was much more comfortable for my ears when the CPU was 100% loaded.
I’m a little surprised more companies don’t make it easier to replace the fans. This seems like a great idea if you can stomach the fact you’ll probably never be able to sell it after
The concept is called planned obsolescence.