^^^ Thank you!
I'm 3 days in now, with some hard acceleration on the freeways, cruising speeds, city stop-and-go driving, etc. A few more impressions:
Cold/warm start-ups: Very nice sound when firing it up in the morning. Gurgles nicely and is not intrusive in the cabin. You can definitely hear the intake more when revving under zero load... so, for those who are into parking lot battle-of-the-BOVs/intakes, it sounds pretty good. Me, I'll skip that.
Warm start-ups are nice and perfectly smooth. You can definitely hear it, but I think the cold start-up is louder and more raw.
Idle: With the fans running, idle is a touch louder/rougher than I'd like, and the muffler makes its presence known. It's buttery smooth with a subtle, deep tone when they're not blowing, though. Pretty quiet overall, and it does get more mellow once the motor/exhaust are hot.
City driving: As mentioned earlier, the system gets pretty loud when you hit 3500rpm+. If you're not flooring it, you can control the sound output pretty well rowing through the gears. Moderately heavy to full acceleration through the upper rpm band yields some pretty loud sound levels. Nothing N1/straight pipe-style, but I think it draws a little more attention than I would like (I'm 34, and I don't really want my exhausts to be setting off alarms and waking up the neighbors
).
Highway driving: Here's where I think the upgrades shine. When accelerating to highway speed, the increases are welcome. 3rd and 4th gear feel especially good, and once you're up to cruising speeds of 65-75, it's very quiet. No drone whatsoever, and the car feels like it has that extra needed pep to get around slower drivers. During actual heavy acceleration, the sound balance between the exhaust system and the intake are grin-inducing. Extremely nice!
I do get the occasional pop or two when downshifting in heavier traffic, usually between 4th and 3rd, but it's not happening regularly. Would like to hear if anyone else is experiencing pops with similar setups.
Additional thoughts: If you do a lot of stop-and-go driving, or aren't used to aftermarket exhaust systems, I'd recommend riding around with someone who has the setup you're interested in. Some folks love all the sounds cars make, some people would rather aim for Lexus-level isolation. I fall somewhere in the middle. There are days that I drive with the stereo off so that I can enjoy everything about the car itself, and then there are days where I like to just chill on my drive home with some nice jazz. This setup falls somewhere in the middle, too, which is what I like about it.
Anyway, looking forward to messing with this setup in other scenarios, so I'll be back with more thoughts later. Thanks for reading through this.
-Mike