I haven't noticed much noise out of my new carbon bike compared to my previous steel Rivendell I had...honestly, the new bike is pretty sweet in every way and some extra noise would bother me. I would guess most of the noise is chain noise or shifting problems...cable stretch and the like.
I would bet dollars to donuts that your feeling that the bike is slow to accelerate is due to heavy wheels and crap tires. I don't know much about that wheel and tire combo, but every Zaffiro tire I've ridden has been crap, so that is why I call them that. It's possible that I haven't ridden them all though, so those pros could be nicer and rather exceptional.