We all know that 'loud' is a subjective term, but what constitutes a loud exhaust to you? Does a vehicle have to be loud to sound good, or can a moderate or mild car sound good too? What are you running?

 

I'll play.


open header is loud Hopefully you don't mind me mentioning other brands in your thread. I've had a lot of setups.


yes, moderate or mild can sound good. My tow truck has a gigantic dual in dual out magnaflow. it's quiet but deep. probably my favorite exhaust all around considering outside tone and interior drone (for a DD type vehicle anyways).


I typically run dual 3" with 18" body dynomax bullets dumped on my toys. it's loud to my wife, moderate to me (for a toy).


I love the flowmaster sound I currently have some of the larger flows on the Camaro. I'm not sure what series they are, but they are quieter than I like for a toy. to fix that I'm changing it over to a 3.5" dual system with dynomax 12" case mufflers.


a buddy puts the 10 series flows on all his toys and they always sound wicked! not for the faint of heart on a DD ride

 

Typically loud exhaust is what TXSilverado said, open headers, lol! Straight pipes are typically loud and unpleasant. So, no it doesn't have to be loud to sound good.

I've heard plenty of cars that weren't that loud, but sounded great! I've owned several different setups from full-length headers to true duals with flowmaster mufflers with dumps before the axle, to full length headers to a single 4" with a straight through style muffler, and plenty more.

I'm currently running probably the mildest/quietest sounding exhaust I've ever had right now, with stock manifolds, cats to a single flowmaster dumped before the axle which was on the truck when I bought it.

Just curious, but why do you ask Mike?

 

I have always been a fan of louder than normal (civics with Busch lite mufflers don't count) I think other milder set ups work and sound good as well too though really anything with a nice time will get me to look over.

I do have to say I enjoy setting off car alarms on occasion with my current set ups (usually on the above mentioned civics lol)

I think true duels sound the best with the slight humming of the exhaust pulses over y pipes. I currently have on my truck in sig lts into duel 3" with x pipe into two borla ovals dumped before the axel it has some drone but always get complements on it.

My bird has lts to 3" y with a 16-18" long round magnaflow dumped before the axel. This was a temp fix because the old catback was way undersized and a joke robbing hp. This set up is barely quieter than open headers but I could dd it all day lol. I am about to try the tsp duel kit they have hopefully soon just to tone it down slightly.

 

Although I love the sound of a healthy engine, as I get older I am less tolerant of "loud" exhaust on my own vehicles. Even as a young man I have run open headers and cutouts and didn't care for the loudness or tone of them. At this point I prefer a more mild interior tone and refined exterior tone. I do like to hear the engine though. My current 4" straight thru setup with a large muffler and rear corner exit is about 79dB at interstate cruise speed and 89dB wot in the cab. Exterior loudness is not as much of a concern to me but I would like something that would draw a little less attention if I were to do some spirited driving in town.

 

One of the best trucks ive ever heard had i wanna say a cherry bomb muffler that at idle sounded stock, but when you got on it it opened up and had a tone that would conpete with my 44s on my silverado, which i love if i could just find a decent set of side exit tailpipes......that actually utilized the stock hanger on passenger side and preferably a hnger exactly opposite the stock one on the driver side... Without having to spend what the shops around here want for a set of tailpipes.....

 

Loud sounds good only if it's not being magnified by the muffler at certain frequencies (take a Super 40 for instance, it tends to thump obnoxiously whereas open headers have a crisp sound). A good sounding exhaust carries all the engine profile without altering the actual frequencies, just the amplitude. Having a truck that kidney punches your next door neighbor in his bathroom is just annoying.

 

LMAO! Good description

 

On the 01 Silverado I bought just 2 days ago, it's running a dual setup, but it still has the cats on it, but it's straight piped after the cats. To me, it's really not loud at all. I do also have a cammed/true duals 02 WS6 which I think is really loud. I wish the truck sounded more like my car. I plan on doing 1 7/8" headers and changing up the exhaust. I like the Flowmaster 10 series mufflers, so maybe I'll run two of them on a custom dual setup. That should be pretty loud I'd imagine.

 

uhhh yea it will be loud lol. it sounds sweet though if you can handle the noise.