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So I am in search of what to do to my 3.0R Sedan...I have been talking to many Subaru owners of the 2.5 , 3.0 and 3.6 for exhaust sounds , did a bunch of research and am stuck on how bad the drone is on the 5'' nameless ABE. All the research I have done says drone can be bad from 2K-3K RPM....which is 75% of normal driving conditions. I could correct this with softer bushing for a slight improvement...however I am debating going to a shop and picking out something custom that will have no drone...Really like Perrin sound but for ABE im trying to keep it under $600....which nameless is close already...dunno if I can find a shop to build an exhaust around Michigan either....

 

any advice would be appreciated....and thanks to @housemusic for the help you have already provided.

 

Buy the Nameless, if you have too much drone, get a resonator welded into the system somewhere. If it is still too loud, take them off, put them on the classifieds, sell them, and start over. Exhaust projects are trial and error.

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hmmm, I never thought about adding in a resonator to cut down on the drone of my 5" Nameless mufflers. I love the sound, but the highway drone is a bit much.

 

Any recommended resonators out there?

 

http://vibrantperformance.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=1022_1033_1055

 

I believe the 1141 should match the stock Outback diameter (2.5").

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I'm toying with selling the set of Cobb mufflers (catback, actually) that I have that currently have turn-down tips welded on for use on OBKs. I'm starting to not see the time to play with 'em really, might be time to let them go.

"Bullet-proof" your OEM TMIC! <<Buy your kit here>>

 

Not currently in stock :(

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I'm toying with selling the set of Cobb mufflers that I have that currently have turn-down tips welded on for use on OBKs. I'm starting to not see the time to play with 'em really, might be time to let them go.

 

IIRC, you had Nameless at one point too, correct?

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IIRC, you had Nameless at one point too, correct?

 

I did. I had the 4" if I recall. They sounded AWESOME at idle, but the highway drone was awful. That was with a Cobb catted DP and stock mid/y w/ resonator.

 

I currently run Prodrive mufflers with stock mid/y. I wish it was a bit louder, but overall I'm happier with something that is a bit too quiet rather than a bit too loud. With two little kids running around and umpteen other projects going on I just don't have time to muck with it at the moment!

"Bullet-proof" your OEM TMIC! <<Buy your kit here>>

 

Not currently in stock :(

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@housemusic1 ... Thanks again for all of the help. I believe I am going to order the nameless 5''. Just making sure the funds are all in order now. Wonder if I should wait till after winter though....They would be put on to see salt immediately :(

 

 

Probably looking at a 4-6 week lead time right now anyway. Those are usually made to order. Any idea how well stainless steel holds up to road salt? These are high quality, so you might be ok. My set will be here tomorrow, and will be installed this weekend. I can try to get a video of the drone. Maybe I'll put my daughter in the back cargo area with my phone, and see if we can get a decent idea of how bad it is. My take is: you don't buy aftermarket exhaust to keep things quiet. Some drone is inevitable, but the 5" will be a lot quieter than the deletes. Talk about loud!!!!

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Yeah , I am not terribly worried about the drone and have a lot of ideas on pushing the resonance frequency to a higher RMP and increasing the damping (flex)of the bushing.... I believe that with a weight decrease....i.e. spare tire removal....and it sound in theory be very quiet internally. Check out the stuff I posted into the outback forum.

 

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/109-gen-3-2005-2009/297825-3-0-nameless-exhaust.html

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How come you didn't just buy the outback mufflers from Paul?

 

I got extended hangers and it didn't solve my problem. You'll probably need 5 hangers.

 

 

 

no exhaust out there will give you "no drone". Even the stock exhaust will emit a soft drone. Stay stock, be happy.

 

The LGT sedan ones were an open box special from Paul when someone else ordered the wrong set. I probably should have just gotten the ones already with turn downs, but I wanted to see how these would fit/look.

 

I did order 5 extended hangers. These would have been needed either way considering the lack of clearance with my RSB.

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  • 2 months later...

Aaaannnddd, comparison videos up.

 

Did three of the exhaust videos yesterday, but the Stromung decided not to cooperate very much. As you can see, it is much darker in the third video with the stromungs. Ended up with two zip ties on one of the hangers before giving up. Went to a local muffler shop today to get a resonator installed and the hangers moved around a bit. Everything was recorded with a Samsung Galaxy S6 edge plus from on top of a Home Depot 5 gallon bucket at approximately the same distance.

 

In case anyone is curious how the mid/y pipes are different between the systems. Stromung on bottom.

http://i.imgur.com/stjvpiH.png

 

Below is my mod list that is consistent across the videos that might make a difference.

 

Snail Performance custom stage 2 tune

Grimmspeed LGT intake

Stock catless uppipe

Cobb catted downpipe

 

Cobb mid pipe with resonator

Cobb Y pipe

Stock outback mufflers

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV9cZSDQkNU]Outback XT with aftermarket downpipe, mid, y, and stock mufflers - YouTube[/ame]

 

Cobb mid pipe with resonator

Cobb Y pipe

AVO unadjustable tip LGT sedan mufflers

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaadqWbcV1w]Cobb catted downpipe, Cobb resonated mid, Cobb Y, Avo v1 unadjustable tip LGT sedan mufflers - YouTube[/ame]

 

Stromung V1 unresonated tips

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49kwFVUkUSA]Outback XT with Cobb catted downpipe, stromung exhaust - YouTube[/ame]

 

Stromung V1 unresonated tips

Vibrant Ultra Quiet Resonator 1142

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gtqko9gP18]Outback XT with Cobb catted downpipe, stromung exhaust with Vibrant Ultra Quiet resonator - YouTube[/ame]

 

Final thoughts? The stock mufflers are nice for long road trips. Which is why the wife made me put them on initially. The aftermarket mufflers made me much happier around town but were a paint\ for my old man ears on the highways from 65-75. It didn't seem as bad after that, maybe the wind noise just drowned it out.

 

I honestly couldn't tell much difference from inside the car between the cobb/avo setup and the stromung. A friend said the stromung sounded louder though from the outside. After installing the resonator, it got rid of that raspy sound from when coming down in revs. I much prefer the interior noise from the stromung resonated setup, so I'll be keeping that. I'll have to figure out how to do the bumper cutout and trim to make it look nice though. I'll cross-post this into the exhaust subforum and the outback exhaust forum.

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And thanks for posting these videos btw. I have the Stromung V2(?) on my 06 without any resonator, matted to my invidia hi-flow catted DP and invidia catless UP. That thing is pretty loud. I like the idle sound and when I accelerate, but I don't like when I am cruising around 3k. Way too loud. With your last video where you combined the stromung with the resonator, it looks like it is the best of both worlds. Tempting to do that now.
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And thanks for posting these videos btw. I have the Stromung V2(?) on my 06 without any resonator, matted to my invidia hi-flow catted DP and invidia catless UP. That thing is pretty loud. I like the idle sound and when I accelerate, but I don't like when I am cruising around 3k. Way too loud. With your last video where you combined the stromung with the resonator, it looks like it is the best of both worlds. Tempting to do that now.

 

Embedded. I personally prefer links since I can have a separate window while reading posts, but I guess those guys can just hit the youtube in the corner and have it open up. When researching my exhausts, it was such a pain and waste of time and money to try to figure out what I liked most. I know you can't capture what an exhaust really sounds like from videos because of differences in both the recording device and speakers/headphones used, but I thought this would give a nice comparison for people to see a relative difference between different setups. The same recording device and car is hard enough to find, but to see an resonated and unresonated version is really helpful too.

 

I really had the same thoughts as you. Loved my aftermarket mufflers around town, but driving on the freeway was annoying. I really think a resonator is what you need. I can't tell you what kind will be better, but I heard good things about the ultra silent, which is why I got it. I is also shorter and gave me space to add another one if I decided I wanted to.

 

Before the resonator, I still found highway speeds (60+) annoying with a deep bass type "feeling." In real life, the resonator has dulled that significantly, as well as taming what I feel are unrefined noises like those ticks/clicks when the revs come down from 5k+. I haven't been able to watch the videos very much to listen to see how the sound differences made it into the video. I'll try to add more thoughts after I get some time this weekend to watch them.

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Yeah you're right. I jusg don't want to cut that beautiful exhaust though. I actually don't mind it too much cause I only drive that car to go to work (20mn drive each way). The 05 is also stage 2 but still uses the stock catback with resonator. So that one is super quiet but misses idle rumble. Great sleeper car though ;).
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im about to put the nameless axleback on my 05 OBXT. at the moment i just have the wife's vf52 which i swapped due to the stock turbo blowing up. the sound is already different just from the swap of her turbo to my car. now that i will be adding this exhaust i wonder what its going to sound like. I'll be taking pictures of the install as usual and post them up here.
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I'm still super excited to check it out. Need to find a block of time i can wear headphones.

 

Because phones and camera microphones' auto level balance, you're really not going to get a comparison of loudness, just tone. That's all I would be expecting, because who has high-end recording equipment anymore?

 

Speaking of... there's a fantastic YouTube video taken at a Boxster / Cayman meet where they set up a quality microphone and have a decibel meter and have a dozen different cars go through with different exhausts. They added text with the exhaust model and decibels at idle and revving. The difference in tone from the same engine with different exhaust was amazing in that video.

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I'm still super excited to check it out. Need to find a block of time i can wear headphones.

 

Because phones and camera microphones' auto level balance, you're really not going to get a comparison of loudness, just tone. That's all I would be expecting, because who has high-end recording equipment anymore?

 

Speaking of... there's a fantastic YouTube video taken at a Boxster / Cayman meet where they set up a quality microphone and have a decibel meter and have a dozen different cars go through with different exhausts. They added text with the exhaust model and decibels at idle and revving. The difference in tone from the same engine with different exhaust was amazing in that video.

 

^link?

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Aaaannnddd, comparison videos up.

 

Did three of the exhaust videos yesterday, but the Stromung decided not to cooperate very much. As you can see, it is much darker in the third video with the stromungs. Ended up with two zip ties on one of the hangers before giving up. Went to a local muffler shop today to get a resonator installed and the hangers moved around a bit. Everything was recorded with a Samsung Galaxy S6 edge plus from on top of a Home Depot 5 gallon bucket at approximately the same distance.

 

In case anyone is curious how the mid/y pipes are different between the systems. Stromung on bottom.

http://i.imgur.com/stjvpiH.png

 

Below is my mod list that is consistent across the videos that might make a difference.

 

Snail Performance custom stage 2 tune

Grimmspeed LGT intake

Stock catless uppipe

Cobb catted downpipe

 

Cobb mid pipe with resonator

Cobb Y pipe

Stock outback mufflers

Outback XT with aftermarket downpipe, mid, y, and stock mufflers - YouTube

 

Cobb mid pipe with resonator

Cobb Y pipe

AVO unadjustable tip LGT sedan mufflers

Cobb catted downpipe, Cobb resonated mid, Cobb Y, Avo v1 unadjustable tip LGT sedan mufflers - YouTube

 

Stromung V1 unresonated tips

Outback XT with Cobb catted downpipe, stromung exhaust - YouTube

 

Stromung V1 unresonated tips

Vibrant Ultra Quiet Resonator 1142

Outback XT with Cobb catted downpipe, stromung exhaust with Vibrant Ultra Quiet resonator - YouTube

 

Final thoughts? The stock mufflers are nice for long road trips. Which is why the wife made me put them on initially. The aftermarket mufflers made me much happier around town but were a paint\ for my old man ears on the highways from 65-75. It didn't seem as bad after that, maybe the wind noise just drowned it out.

 

I honestly couldn't tell much difference from inside the car between the cobb/avo setup and the stromung. A friend said the stromung sounded louder though from the outside. After installing the resonator, it got rid of that raspy sound from when coming down in revs. I much prefer the interior noise from the stromung resonated setup, so I'll be keeping that. I'll have to figure out how to do the bumper cutout and trim to make it look nice though. I'll cross-post this into the exhaust subforum and the outback exhaust forum.

 

Kids and wife asleep.

Deep bass IEMs

Eggnog and brandy

 

Stock muffs and the cobb stuff : boring. Unless it has a power advantage, why bother

Avo: oh yeah this is the one! Then it warmed up, the idle came down and when you Rev ' it. .. no magic

Stromung: good stuff! And even better with the resonator! Really like it! Rumble, deeeeeep, body, anger!

 

I think the phone's recording makes the with resonator clip sound more. .. ballsy, bc it's not trying to suppress the high frequency rasp , thus letting more deep bass rumble through.

 

Good stuff!

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It's all too quiet. Needs moar loud :)

 

http://youtu.be/hfsieBpdsrE

 

3" non resonated mid and eBay muffs. Tons of turbo whistle, lots of snap crackle pop, and sounds like it wants to eat me! Considering getting nameless deletes in place of the mufflers for even more loud. I really like unrefined, raw exhaust notes.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

MTBwrench's Stage 3 5EAT #racewagon 266awhp/255awtq @17.5psi, Tuned By Graham of Boosted Performance

 

Everyone knows what I taste like.
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Sounds good... but how much drone is there on the highway?

Current: 16 Crosstrek Premium w/ Eyesight & 05 Outback XT 5MT

Past Subies: 14 FXT Premium, 14 WRX hatch, 06 Legacy 2.5i SE 5MT, 98 Outback wagon

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Sounds good... but how much drone is there on the highway?

 

 

....a lot. :( Around 80mph passengers become uncomfortable. I'm convinced it's from the cheap eBay mufflers, they sound nice on the outside but that's about it. Guy at the exhaust shop said its because they're made out of such thin wall steel, and that over time carbon will cost them and they'll become more bearable. I'm fairly convinced I would have less drone with muffler deletes! But come spring I'll install a 4" magnaflow resonator and I guarantee it'll be fine after that.

 

And, I won't lie, drone doesn't bother me at all.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

MTBwrench's Stage 3 5EAT #racewagon 266awhp/255awtq @17.5psi, Tuned By Graham of Boosted Performance

 

Everyone knows what I taste like.
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