I just went through the same exercise. I assume being in Chicago and from your post that you're looking for that holy grail of tires...the sport all-season? I was too.
My list included:
Sumitomo HTR+
Continental ContiExtreme
Pirelli P Zero Nero M+S
Kuhmo Ecsta ASX
Obviously price and value were a big deciding factor for me. I ended up going with the Sumitomo HTR+ in 205/55/16. They were on sale at Tire Rack for $59/tire with $30 shipping and $60 to have them mounted and balanced. Hard to beat the price.
While I haven't driven them in the winter yet, so far the dry driving has been about 80-90% of the tires I replaced. I used to have 225/50/16 Toyo Proxes FZ4 that the previous owner put on. They handled dry and even wet exceptionally, but were horrible in the winter.
I had originally ordered 225/50/16 of the HTR+ too, but Tire Rack suggested not ordering that size again because of the shape of the sidewall on the HTR+ might rub more than the Toyo's did (which wasn't much usually). Now that the 205/55/16 are on, the steering is a lot lighter and I like that. The HTR+ are a little 'looser' than the Toyo's, but I expected that. It was worth the compromise to me (especially at the price). The car is still so capable that tires are only one factor.
I had not looked at the Dunlop's, Goodyear's, etc. because the price seems so out of line with the gains. That's my two cents on my similar situation.
