NWS4Guy

First I want to thank everyone who came for their patience and time, this wouldn't have worked without your participation! We ahve a turnout of FIVE 2010 B8 S4's and a nice Sprint Blue TTS. The 5th was someone who heard about this 3rd hand from the local Audi dealer and came to see with his brand new (dealer plates still on the car) Quartz Gray.



Second I want to apologize for not getting this posted up sooner, but life is what happens when you are planning what you want to do. The videos all came out very well, I have them all uploaded in full HD 1080P stereo sound to Youtube (watch them here embedded at 360p, but click the movie again to open a Youtube page and you can change it to 1080p HD). Not the same as being there, but since the same decive did the recording of them all you can at least get an accurate comparison.

Here is the first section, where a decibel meter was used centered between the exhausts in the center of the car, 3' from the bumper. Each car then did several revs in neutral to determine max decibel levels. You also get a nice feel for what each of these sound like at idle, and once again, the overall sound, which is something subjective

First up - mellow_sparky with his 100% stock Meteor Gray 6MT

The stock exhaust maxed out at 104 decibels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chq24T8I5wc



Second is the APR on my car, Quartz Gray, DSG with Stratmosphere intake.

The APR peaked at 106 decibels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxZUhYErwhY



Third comes Dr Volkl's Imola Yellow with the Milltek, non-res and Stratmosphere intake and 6MT.

The Milltek grabbed the loudest title at 114 Decibels and I think everyone was in agreement that it has the deepest growl and grumble, pulling the best V8-like sound out of such a small V6.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uug6VglaQ38


Finally, we have WAZZU_STU in his gorgeous Deep Sea Blue with the Stasis Challenge Edition exhaust mated ot a 6MT.

The Stasis came in at 109 decibels with a nice low bass note.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5L30rPcGCE



Now for part 2

We did 2 driveby's once in each direction through at least one gear change and at WOT, attempting to get shifts near the camera for best effect. Each car had a driver and passenger - the passenger held the decibel meter to record max noise inside during WOT accels with windows UP.

First again is our stock car (mellow_sparky) who came in at 92 decibels but with the caveat that his windows were down some.

Run 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU0BwhQjvjE


Run 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shngp0BAuUc


Second is my APR, I had the car in Dynamic and ESP off, and somehow traction light came on at the shift to 2nd on the first run so there is not even a shift sound. The second run all went well, and you get a sense of the "fart" from the shift, though nothing comes close to how loud it really is when you are there - it's rather raw and loud. It peaked at 95 Decibels.

Run 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mubjXcXMKIM


Run 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3y0N1o4Fco


Next is DrVolkl's turn, coming in at an awesome 100 decibels!

Run 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zdBGZOPdjA


Run 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1hZ8oTDcrM


Next we have WAZZU_STU with the Stasis Challenge Edition, which matched the stock sounds of 92 Decibels.

Run 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLd-elaHEcg

Run 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVYiPhuiwhQ

Finally we have BrandonB with the AWE Tuning, this came in at 84 decibels at idle, and 108 decibels revving like the others were done. Brandon was good enough to meet with me this morning (2/12/11) at the same location with the same recording equipment to allow as close to a recreation of the originals above.

Run 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK6voefOsc4

Run 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6jPDwfRLiY

rktskicar

Neal- that is very cool! looks like alot of fun.. did you guys have your esp off in neutral? my car will only let me rev to 4K with ESP on.

Bruce

NWS4Guy

ESP was on, all cars revved to 4K only in order to keep it as even as possible (who sits around revving their car to over 4K anyway?)

voltrons_head

Bravo!

Too bad I'm all the way across the country or you could have an AWE as well. All of them sound great and have their respective place in the market. Can't really go wrong.

I expected the Stasis to be the quietest of the group but it has a quality sound.

voltrons_head

What's the deal with resonated non/resonated in the group?

rktskicar

DrV's is non-resonated. I believe the rest are resonated.

Bruce

sakimano

Milltek dominates the sound contest. Wasn't even close.

just a thought...back in the early days of the 4.2 there were a bunch of exhaust offerings but most of them sucked the bag performance wise.

Anyone done any extensive testing of these exhausts before buying?

i.e. Fast Intentions was the only company to figure out that the 4.2 needed 2.5" all the way back, perfo-core mufflers and an x-pipe crossover for exhaust scavenging performance. This after Milltek and APR fukt up by going 2.25" and the guys like Stasis included NO crossover.

Anyway, great job putting the info together for the forum. Now you'll have a real easy way to tell noobs what to do when they start 'what does xxx exhaust sound like?' or 'what exhaust sounds best' threads.

p.s. add a poll for 'which one do you like best'

NWS4Guy

Good call Sak, feel free to make a poll

As for res, I know APR (mine) is, and they have 2.5" all the way back. Most if not all of these are catback only. This exhaust as headers, then cats, then downpipes, then central area with a crossover/X-pipe, then some have additional resonators (APR has the long cylindrical ones here), then center muffler, then rear split mufflers.

mellow_sparky

Awesome stuff NW Guy - thanks for pulling this together and compiling the results. It was pretty unique to hear all those different exhausts together. Personally - I liked the sound of the Milltek the best - but I think the APR has the best looking tips.

We'll have to get together again sometime - be fun to do a drive somewhere.

PyroInc

This is pretty awesome to have so we can compare. I did notice on the "track runs" there was a high whinning noise that came from all of them except from the stasis exhaust...any ideas why that is..?