its definitely louder than stock... inside the car is only louder if your windows are open...theres no drone and if your windows are up its fairly quiet.

 

[QUOTE=aHero4Eternity]c'mon hai, you and i both know those dyno numbers mean absolutely nothing. it's all a hype (and yes, this goes for everything out there, lol - including HKS).
QUOTE]
Which means that the gains from either exhaust are going to be minimal at best, and won't have a significant difference, so I see no conclusive evidence ANYWHERE that says they don't perform similarly. So the only real differences between the two exhausts are the looks and sound, it has now an exterior mod more than anything, so people can make a choice based on that. Nowhere did I say that te x02 is better than the hks, just that they are different and both appear decent in quality based on the information gathered. A person should then decide if the looks of the replica and sound are what they are looking for at that pricepoint and decide accordingly, but not to write off an exhaust and say it must have ****ty quality because it doesn't come with titanium tips. They are stainless, so what? So are majority of the exhaust tips out there for the G, yet those don't get written off either. My only point in joining this thread was to say that each piece should be evaluated by the individual based on all the information gathered and make their own decision, whether its a replica or a authentic piece. Its like the difference between the OEM z-tube and the stillen z-tube, one may perform better than the other, but the difference is so small how can anyone tell? So buy whichever one you like better.

 

I wouldn't necessarily say that HKS is top quality material either. I have worked closely w/ different mainstream manufacturers and you would be surprised. As far as R&D and etc. a lot of time isn't put into it. HKS over prices their products not because theirs is a lot better than others but because of their name. HKS likes to use mild steel in a lot of there exhaust systems over stainless steel but for some reason its the same price range as greddy and apexis exhaust. I am not trying to edify the xo2 exhaust or anything but imho i don't think the xo2 exhaust is bad at all. they come w/ 1 year manufacturers warranty and etc. we decided to carry this exhaust because we wanted to give the forum members a choice over the HKS for more than half the cost. if you do take a look at all the products we sell on my350z.com or s2k, evo, wrx, sti, celica, 240sx forums, you would be able to see that all parts we carry are JDM parts and name brands only except for this one. we are taking a risk on carrying these because if something does go wrong w/ this exhaust then it wont look too good on our image. just wanted to say, keep an open mind.

 

no one ever said anything about the gains being minimal. there's no evidence that they do perform similarly either. we can't trust manufacturers' dynos and we can't trust single dynos - even by independent parties. as far as i know, this xo2 has never been dyno'd and posted on the forums. hks, however, has been dyno'd several times. this is where statistics comes into play - the law of large numbers. the gains from the hks system have been replicated time after time. don't get my argument wrong, here. i'm not saying hks is the best performing exhaust out there.

even if they did perform the same, i'm still betting that the materials they use inside aren't the same as hks and are of a lower quality. obviously they are...since this exhaust sounds different from the real thing...it's much deeper/throatier. that alone should say something about the internals of this. thus the mentioning of the materials inside diminishing over time and the exhaust potentially getting louder and louder over time (quicker than other exhausts). honestly, the primary argument is not whether if it will perform the same but that it will take a crap earlier than the other exhaust systems out there.

sorry, but your opinion is biased. you sell this exhaust and thus you have reason to promote it. sure, i have hks. but i'm not selling it to anyone. i could care less if people buy hks or not...in fact, i promote all sorts of exhausts. as far as dru goes, he is not here to sell hks either. if someone wants it, he can deliver. but selling hks is not his intention.

================

economically speaking..the fact that so many people want hks but dont want to spend the money on it tells me that the demand factor for this is not enough to justify its price. if this were true, hks would need to lower their prices in order to meet a supply/deman equilibrium (cost). since so many people want hks but cannot afford it, hks would (if they could) lower their prices. sure, they may not make as much from each system sold but overall they should make more in profits. yes, this is making the assumption that hks uses quality internals. assumption because no one knows any real facts about what either uses in for the internals...so we have to work with that's given to us.

 

IMO:

Performance>Sound>Looks on the G, because it already looks fine to begin with.

So if this knock off doesnt perform as it should FOR AN EXHAUST, then its not worth it.

Sounds great, looks great, and even if it performed great, I'd have a tough time buying it.

.

 

true i am bit biased but we sell both the hks td exhaust and the xo2 td exhaust. right now we are having no problem at all selling any. the xo2 is selling out before we even get them into stock and we have the lowest hks price on the net.

 

Is this the quality internals you speak of?

 

i think hero was referring to the internals of the resonators...like what type of sound absorption material hks uses (in the resonators), if any...alot of replicas

have inferior sound absorption material which gets burned out and quickly, goes from loud to deafening. I also read the thread from which you got those

pictures...i believe there was speculation that he got a fake hks exhaust...hks makes alot of these exhausts and it's not unbelievable that a few bad ones

can get through and that that guy got one of them...i've seen some hks exhausts with bad welds but that doesn't apply to mine...the welds on mine

are top notch...someone get hks' email address so we can ask them what's inside those resonators...i tried looking but i can't find it

 

HKS acknowledged that it was a bad batch and was willing to warranty it, my point is that the HKS isn't free from defects, and I've see more than enough pictures of poor welds on the HKS. So just because its genuine doesn't make it a good exhaust and because its a replica make it a poor exhaust, you have evaluate each individual piece on its own and decide the quality. I have yet to see any evidence that the material used on this specific replica is of inferior quality, so until such issues are addressed, I won't make that assumption.

 

ah, whatevs guys. everyone will have their own two cents on this...

and it's my birthday so i don't feel like getting into anything.

happy posting.

to the OP: i'm glad you're happy with your purchase. the hks was not worth the money to you, and this way. ultimately, they may not be the same but you may not weigh the pros of the authentic hks as heavily as i an others do and there is nothing wrong with that. you spent your money on something that you thought was worth it and you came out happy and that's what matters. cheers.

 

dang. this seems like it went toooo far.

again, congrats on your purchase bro.

 

Exactly

 

got to hear pepers exhaust yesterday and I must say it sounds good and lookgs good. I have a jwt tt on my other wise stock Z and from hearing and seeing this exhaust in person I will be ordering it. lets just hope I can get it for the same price he did. 575 shipped if not then I will just wait untill someone sell me a used HKS for around that price.

 

Congrats! I trust that you are enjoying your new exhaust set-up.

 

Congrats on the new exhaust, glad you like it. Don't know why people have to come in on every x02 thread and make it into a huge hks. vs x02 fiasco; but whatever. As long as you like it and youre happy w/ your purchase, more power to you. Even though I love the HKS, personally I don't think its worth 600 bucks for slightly better baffling material in the resonators.