sat in a friends sedan with stillen gen 1 this weekend, and another friend with the HKS rear section, as I was trying to decide Stillen gen 1 or 2 or HKS. The stillen gen 1 sounds sick, but way too loud for my taste, and there is some serious drone at highway speeds. You have to feather the throttle to get it to quiet down. Don't know much about a gen 2, but given my experience with the Gen 1 I am going to go HKS and same soem cash. Less drone, and a nice tone to boot with very minimal drone at highway speeds

 

I have Gen 2 and there is still some drone in the exhaust. However, I have learned to overcome it as it does make good power. If sound is more important, then I would look else where.

 

It all depends on what matters most to you.

 

I have had a Gen 2 installed for about 3 months now, and I love it. It sounds awesome, and as far as droning on the highway, you don't really hear it. If you're on a flat, level highway cruising at a constant speed, the engine won't be under much of a load, therefore, you barely hear it. So my verdict is droning is pretty much insignificant on the gen 2 on the highway

 

IMO, if you're having ANY doubts about noise and drone, then stick with the stock exhaust or just get an HKS muffler. I was in the same place you were last winter and after talking to people on this site, I was convinced that I would be able to tolerate the Borla TD exhaust. I was wrong and my wife absolutely hated it. I also had major concerns about the drone in the back seat where my 18 month old son sits. FYI, drone in the rear is far worse than up front especially if you have any weight back there. Another thing I didn't take into consideration was the fact that since I have an auto, the car spends a majority of it's time in the heart of the drone rpms. With a 6MT, the sound and drone probably wouldn't be near as bad since the rpms vary a lot more, even during normal driving. People aren't lying when they say the Stillen and Borla exhausts don't drone on the hgihway, BUT once you give the car any gas or light load up a hill, etc, it will drone a bit. Another thing that bothered me was the transient vibration of the exhaust while under light load. This is largely due to the fact that Borla (and Stillen) Y-pipes/cross pipes don't employee felx sections like the stock exhaust. The vibration wasn't horrible be any means, but I had grown so accustomed and fond of ultra smooth character of my G35. I felt like I had turned my G35 into my old 94 Z28 with it's 3" Flowmaster catback that caused a similar cabin vibration. I ended up selling the exhaust for loss. Later on I got a coupe midpipe and it to caused a very small vibration thanks to the completely different exhaust pulse through the much smaller resonator. The coupe midpipe sounded great, but I wasn't willing to compromise any driveability. Vibrations, even the smallest ones, bug the hell out of me. I yanked that off too and sold it.

 

Speaking from a stillen gen1 owner..

If you want a mean-sounding VQ, go for the stillen, it screams like a muscular bxtch on the track..

Yet, if you want sth quiet, where you may want to take your clients around with you G; stick with the stock exhaust..

As of droning, you can do alot of stuff to cure it..like sound dampening the whole car..yet, the problem is: is it worth the headaches?


In conclusion, if I have to choose again, I would still go for stillen

 

How are you liking the GEN 1? I am about to buy one, found a deal and want to know any info on it. I keep hearing that it is too loud, but when i get on it I want to hear it, but when crusing i wanna be able to enjoy the ride too. thanks

 

Gen 2 here on a 2004 G35X. A little drone with a z-tube and plenum spacer. Went back to the g-tube with the gen 2 and love it, especially with manumatic downshifting!

 

Former Gen2 owner here...pretty loud and the drone was too much to take for daily driving, especially on an AT car. I sold it and went with the Z middy (same as coupe, only shorter). I was considering doing like slider and replacing the resonators with mufflers, but in the end felt it wasn't worth the trouble.