What I did was had the cats cut out and had them weld pipe in their place and installed resonators so it wasn't obnoxiously loud all the time, and the resonators fixed the drone. With your choice of mufflers, you can get a pretty good sound out of that for cheap. Probably $300 bucks to have that done to your car. I'm running that with hi flow Ford headers and Super 40s

 

I'm in Texas and running off road. I'm using the spark plug non-fouler trick to pass inspections.

 

I decided to just do a cut and clamp Pype's X pipe and a SCT Bamma tuner. If I decide to later I will remove the cats......

 

^That was a good choice. I ran o/r and honestly didn't like it. It made too much noise in the cabin. Windows down in the summer it was great, but it just sounded like *** with the windows up. Made the motor sound harsh and made the car feel like a POS. The drone was insane too.

My favorite sounding is the stock H with hi-flow cats welded in. That's what I'm running now. It's still a little loud with the windows up, but I'm just holding out for spring. It's a symphony from outside the car/with the windows down.

 

exactly what I wondered in my post, why people go with aftermarket o/r pipes when stock H sounds fine. I have stock H and its loud as hell when i'm waking behind my car, but fairly quiet inside. Perfectly level of loudness. But of course when I get on it, all hell breaks loose.. you can hear it from a mile away

 

did some reading and it seems that the factory H pipe may be leading to some of my drone inside the car. if it still does it i will add some resos stagered about 8-9 in after the X. this should help change the frequency of the exhaust note just enough that both mufflers arnt singing at the same frequency and causing as much if any drone. We shall see

 

^Keep us updated on that! I am curious if that splice-in x will cure some of the drone.

and +1 Jas

 

My exhaust truly sounded like sh*t until I got some resonators welded in after the offroad H pipe. This cured all the trumpeting and drone. I can adjust the overall volume now by swapping out the rear mufflers. I have three sets. Stock, Nxt Step and SSS Adrenaline. SSS are the loudest and have the best tone. For me the flow though type muffler sounds the best. With FI, cams, headers, O/R H, the chambered types just got overpowered and sounded like crap. With the stock cats removed resonators are a must since the mufflers are so far back. The exhaust gases make all kinds of weird noises (trumpeting) because of that.

 

It was threads like this that lead me in a different direction regarding replacing the stock H. To gain more sound I replaced the front end of the exhaust (header) and left my mid stock.
The shorty header gained more volume and pulse to my exhaust note without all the problems associated with changing the mid (tone, emissions, ect). If you can do the install yourself, not bad on the wallet as well @ $350.
I know i'm giving up a couple of ponies with the stock mid as the cat's are the choke point in the exhaust, but for my DD needs it was well worth it. Combined with the violators a/b's there is virtually zero drone in the cabin, no trumpeting and produces a wicked sound out back that can be personalized with muffler selection of choice....add some cam's down the road and it gets even better

 

I'm pretty happy with my x, I think of it more of a snarl than a rasp sound.