I bought my car a few years ago and it had some Magnaflow muffler with a weird single outlet into two silverline tips setup going on, I was never crazy about the look or sound of it but I figured it was fine for the time.

I finally came around to picking up a coupe midpipe and an HKS axleback, expecting some improvement. I much prefer the look, but the sound is weak. The HKS is deeper, but has much less "character" than my car had before, it's just a dull, droney tone. Is there anything I can do to improve this? Straight pipe in place of the coupe mid, upgraded Y pipe/catless? Kindof regretting the "upgrade" at this point.

Really just want to know what I can do to make my car "purr" and not drone. I really like the backpressure pops/growl that my previous setup had, does anyone have any advice here?

Vids:

Before (OEM 05 Midpipe/magnaflow muffler)

After (Coupe Midpipe/HKS axleback)

 

Motordyne art pipes

 

Hell to the yeah! OP trust me, I tried 11 different combinations of intake, mid pipe and muffler trying to get the right sound. And that experimentation didn't even address potential power gains. I, like you, thought the HKS was the answer, it gets a lot of positive feedback here. But the drone for me was unbearable and I tried it with 3 different midpipes and 3 intakes. Droned like hell with all of them. So I sold it for more than I paid and eventually ended up with a MD VQ (sounds great and was good for a 12/14 bump in hp/tq with just the exhaust).

There are still a few aftermarket systems out there available, my favorite for sound is the Tanabe (given used VQ's are impossible to get) but I wasn't fond of the look with the single outlet on the muffler. Back then no one had caught on to something as simple as a Magnaflow muffler, I always loved the company for my muscle cars in the 70's and they still make great stuff today. Don't expect any significant power gain with just a muffler but if you like the sound go back to it, you can always have the tips cut off and replaced with some you like.

Just my .02.

 

Great choice but won't cure his drone issue, they will only make it worse.

But, oooh that sexy sound, makes me wet thinking about it lol.

 

To be honest, I could probably deal with the drone if the muffler itself made a more unique sound. It really just has no character to it, just a low low hum, like a civic with a can. Maybe the ART pipes are the answer, but I'm really liking how these generic Magnaflow mufflers sound in the exhaust thread...

 

I could not contain my curiosity on how the MD VQ sounded so I searched youtube. I know this isn't always an accurate representation of the real world sound but........damn. Now I am wet too.

 

It really is the shizz. I ended up with Tony's prototype because I resisted buying one when he rolled them out. About a year later after trying multiple system set-ups including the HKS I got a wild hair and called him. Asked if by chance he had 1 more lying around and he said yes but I don't think you'll want it. When I asked him why he said it wasn't as pretty as the production models, a little banged up and MIG welded, not TIG welded. He even said he was pondering trashing it IIRC because it was "just taking up space in my shop".

I told him I wanted it no matter what and how much did he want for it. I'd be embarrassed to post how much I paid because it was a ludicrously low number. My dad taught me that if you never ask a question the answer is automatically "No" but if you do, even how ridiculous the question might be, you might get a yes. Guess he was right.