So I had a full 3" system....cat, and crossflow style Aerochamber muffler. ...now...I'm using most of the same 3" pipe, but no cats and Hooker's best flowing, straight flow through "Max Flow" muffler. The sound is similar, which makes sense being both mufflers were Hookers, but this new set up is a little deeper, which is nice. However......it's quieter! A friend (who's fluid dynamic knowledge isn't exactly world class) said that while the muffler effect is probably less, the lack of turbulence can actually quiet down the system because there are less disruptive sound waves bouncing randomly all over the place within the system. That may be total crap. -but....the system does flow more, and it IS more quiet.

Thoughts?

 

Well, here is an example. A past neighbor of mine told me this story years ago.
He had a car that had virtually no exhaust sound.......... with NO MUFFLER.
Add the muffler and he had exhaust noise. It seems that the size of the exhaust
tubing, the bends, and the length completely cancelled out the noise of the engine.
The muffler disrupted that and the exhaust made noise when added. Even though
the DMV inspector agreed, he would not pass the car without the muffler installed.