Experimental studies are carried out to reduce the jet noise using co-axial swirlers in the form of curved vanes fixed in an annular passage. The swirl numbers considered for the present work ranged from 0 to 1.31, and the corresponding swirl vane angles ranged from 0 to 60°. The nozzle pressure ratios studied ranged from 1.8 to 6. The acoustic far field study at subsonic conditions revealed the presence of transonic tones for the non-swirl jet. However, swirl eliminates the transonic tones and a weak swirl is most efficient for noise reduction at subsonic conditions. The centerline total pressure measurements indicate the reduced core length for the swirl jets compared to the non-swirl jets. At supersonic conditions, the non-swirl jet emits the highest noise at all the emission angles compared to the swirl jets. The swirl jets are free from screech tones, and have lower amounts of shock associated noise, even at high nozzle pressure ratios. The centerline total pressure measurements and schlieren visualization studies show that shock cell spacing and the number of shock cells are reduced in the swirl jets compared to the non-swirl jet. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd