Greddy Spectrum Elite Single review
04-19-2011, 12:42 AM
#1
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Greddy Spectrum Elite Single review
Hey guys,
I wanted to start by saying my opinion on this may not agree with the opinion of the rest of you guys. I am quite aware that a single is going to be louder then a dual exhaust, and as much as I love the sound of the Spectrum Elite dual, it's not an option since my future plans for the car include a single outlet bumper.
My requirements for an exhaust system were that it had to be a 70mm, single and relatively quiet in that order. Originally, I had planned (in a somewhat distant future) to get the ASM 70 after hearing Justin's car (thes2kdude) and it was exactly what I wanted. However the past few weeks someone in the socal swap meet had the spectrum elite single for sale. At first I wasn't really interested since I've heard it and remembered it to be loud to me. As time went on and I kept seeing it, I began to itch to do something new with my car. Well as you can see, I eventually gave in and bought it. khonikal1 (Jeremy) was awesome enough to deliver it 5 hours away :thumbsup:.
Kudos to this guy for the nice pictures to help convince me to buy
https://www.s2ki.com/...ning-picreview/
One of the first things I did when I got home was clean the carbon buildup off the tip. I dont have a good picture of the before but I'll post all the pictures when the gallery decides to work again. I just used some cleaner wax to get the buildup off the tip and give it a nice shine.
I followed this guide to firstremove the exhaust
https://www.s2ki.com/...-your-comments/
The next thing I did was bolt the exhaust together, attach the hangers to the exhaust and position it to install on the car. This is NOT what you want to do. I found out the hard way that the middle resonator gets blocked as you try to lift it to hook in the hangers on the muffler. Instead what I had to do was break it back into two peices and install the center part of the exhaust first. What I did was bolt the center pipe to the cat, then hooked the hanger on to hold up the middle pipe. After that hook the hangers on the muffler to the car BEFORE you bolt the two pipes together. You need the extra wiggle room to hook the hanger on otherwise you won't be able to pull the hanger enough to hook it. Ask me how I know :/ . After that just bolt it all up and you should be done. The extra hanger hook installs on the last hanger by the middle pipe. You can see how they installed in the official pictures from under the car provided by GoTuning.
***One more thing I want to mention is the hangers that you use. I drive an 07 so I don't know if this applies for everyone but initially when I installed the exhaust, I used all the straight hangers I had and no triangle hangers. This resulted in a really hard time with the hanger install and the final result was that the exhaust sat about 1mm away from my bumper. I had to unbolt the exhaust back up at the middle section again and replace the hanger at the back of the muffler with a triangle one using the side of the triangle that would give you the most distance. This should be the middle hanger that I'm talking about. After replacing that the exhaust sat a nice 5-6~mm away from my bumper, much better.
Impressions
Finishing up the install my lady and I quickly jumped in and started the car. Like I said before I've heard this exhaust before, but holy eff this is loud during a cold start up. I know this is considered a quieter single exhaust so those of you guys who run a louder exhaust, I applaud your tolerance.
As I started driving and the car warmed up it got less loud but still quite noticeable. Under cruising conditions, like others have stated is quite pleasant with very little drone. However, under even light acceleration the exhaust is very bassy. With faster acceleration I can practically feel my eardrums vibrating and at certain times I can even feel the interior vibrate .I also get a strange rattle that I don't think is normal so if anyone can help me with that I'd appreciate it. I've read that the exhaust should quiet over time but since I bought it second hand I doubt this will be the case.
This is my impression after only 1 drive so if anything changes I'll update. I was hoping I would be able to use this exhaust permanently but I'm afraid that might not be the case. I hope this was helpful since I didn't see anything other than the above review on this exhaust.
*Ok, after another day of driving here are some updates. The exhaust seems to be pretty boomy and bassy especially upon acceleration. The only spot I found that I could accelerate (very lightly) without it making a ton of noise is around 2.5 to 3.4k~k RPMs. It really does sound nice and has the basic sound of the SE dual I like, but it has a lot more bass and boominess to it.
The other interesting thing is that as you climb RPM during accel it gets more quiet as you pass 5k into VTEC where it actually becomes really quite. Somewhat odd IMO but I feel all the exhaust that sound bassy do this. The boominess of the exhaust makes me a little nervous around cops and makes me feel like a bit of a ricer when I need to pass lol. Despite what sounds like complaints, I'm having fun discovering the traits of the exhaust. My only wish is that it could make all that sound without the boominess lol. Maybe I'm asking for too much ^^
**OK final impression. I grabbed some food and went a friend's house a bit earlier and when I came back out and started the car a lot of the boomy noise was suddenly gone. I don't know if I'm used to it now suddenly but I feel I can actually hear something other then the exhaust ringing in my ear now. Its not exactly quite still, but quite a pleasant surprise since I wasn't expecting a sound change since it was a second hand exhaust and I figured it was already broken in.
My final concern on the exhaust now is that although the tip sits centered in the exhaust, I feel the muffler itself is slightly tilted so its higher on the inside. I'm wondering if this is the result of me using the longer hanger in the middle portion but I don't see an alternative since it sits wayyyy to close to the bumper with a normal hanger. Anyone have any ideas? Maybe switch to the triangle hanger for the rear most hanger too?
Also, the rattle seems to have gone away on its own or at least I haven't noticed it.
I'll try to put up sound clips later but it'll have to be from either my camera or phone
-Nam
I wanted to start by saying my opinion on this may not agree with the opinion of the rest of you guys. I am quite aware that a single is going to be louder then a dual exhaust, and as much as I love the sound of the Spectrum Elite dual, it's not an option since my future plans for the car include a single outlet bumper.
My requirements for an exhaust system were that it had to be a 70mm, single and relatively quiet in that order. Originally, I had planned (in a somewhat distant future) to get the ASM 70 after hearing Justin's car (thes2kdude) and it was exactly what I wanted. However the past few weeks someone in the socal swap meet had the spectrum elite single for sale. At first I wasn't really interested since I've heard it and remembered it to be loud to me. As time went on and I kept seeing it, I began to itch to do something new with my car. Well as you can see, I eventually gave in and bought it. khonikal1 (Jeremy) was awesome enough to deliver it 5 hours away :thumbsup:.
Kudos to this guy for the nice pictures to help convince me to buy
https://www.s2ki.com/...ning-picreview/
One of the first things I did when I got home was clean the carbon buildup off the tip. I dont have a good picture of the before but I'll post all the pictures when the gallery decides to work again. I just used some cleaner wax to get the buildup off the tip and give it a nice shine.
I followed this guide to firstremove the exhaust
https://www.s2ki.com/...-your-comments/
The next thing I did was bolt the exhaust together, attach the hangers to the exhaust and position it to install on the car. This is NOT what you want to do. I found out the hard way that the middle resonator gets blocked as you try to lift it to hook in the hangers on the muffler. Instead what I had to do was break it back into two peices and install the center part of the exhaust first. What I did was bolt the center pipe to the cat, then hooked the hanger on to hold up the middle pipe. After that hook the hangers on the muffler to the car BEFORE you bolt the two pipes together. You need the extra wiggle room to hook the hanger on otherwise you won't be able to pull the hanger enough to hook it. Ask me how I know :/ . After that just bolt it all up and you should be done. The extra hanger hook installs on the last hanger by the middle pipe. You can see how they installed in the official pictures from under the car provided by GoTuning.
***One more thing I want to mention is the hangers that you use. I drive an 07 so I don't know if this applies for everyone but initially when I installed the exhaust, I used all the straight hangers I had and no triangle hangers. This resulted in a really hard time with the hanger install and the final result was that the exhaust sat about 1mm away from my bumper. I had to unbolt the exhaust back up at the middle section again and replace the hanger at the back of the muffler with a triangle one using the side of the triangle that would give you the most distance. This should be the middle hanger that I'm talking about. After replacing that the exhaust sat a nice 5-6~mm away from my bumper, much better.
Impressions
Finishing up the install my lady and I quickly jumped in and started the car. Like I said before I've heard this exhaust before, but holy eff this is loud during a cold start up. I know this is considered a quieter single exhaust so those of you guys who run a louder exhaust, I applaud your tolerance.
As I started driving and the car warmed up it got less loud but still quite noticeable. Under cruising conditions, like others have stated is quite pleasant with very little drone. However, under even light acceleration the exhaust is very bassy. With faster acceleration I can practically feel my eardrums vibrating and at certain times I can even feel the interior vibrate .
This is my impression after only 1 drive so if anything changes I'll update. I was hoping I would be able to use this exhaust permanently but I'm afraid that might not be the case. I hope this was helpful since I didn't see anything other than the above review on this exhaust.
*Ok, after another day of driving here are some updates. The exhaust seems to be pretty boomy and bassy especially upon acceleration. The only spot I found that I could accelerate (very lightly) without it making a ton of noise is around 2.5 to 3.4k~k RPMs. It really does sound nice and has the basic sound of the SE dual I like, but it has a lot more bass and boominess to it.
The other interesting thing is that as you climb RPM during accel it gets more quiet as you pass 5k into VTEC where it actually becomes really quite. Somewhat odd IMO but I feel all the exhaust that sound bassy do this. The boominess of the exhaust makes me a little nervous around cops and makes me feel like a bit of a ricer when I need to pass lol. Despite what sounds like complaints, I'm having fun discovering the traits of the exhaust. My only wish is that it could make all that sound without the boominess lol. Maybe I'm asking for too much ^^
**OK final impression. I grabbed some food and went a friend's house a bit earlier and when I came back out and started the car a lot of the boomy noise was suddenly gone. I don't know if I'm used to it now suddenly but I feel I can actually hear something other then the exhaust ringing in my ear now. Its not exactly quite still, but quite a pleasant surprise since I wasn't expecting a sound change since it was a second hand exhaust and I figured it was already broken in.
My final concern on the exhaust now is that although the tip sits centered in the exhaust, I feel the muffler itself is slightly tilted so its higher on the inside. I'm wondering if this is the result of me using the longer hanger in the middle portion but I don't see an alternative since it sits wayyyy to close to the bumper with a normal hanger. Anyone have any ideas? Maybe switch to the triangle hanger for the rear most hanger too?
Also, the rattle seems to have gone away on its own or at least I haven't noticed it.
I'll try to put up sound clips later but it'll have to be from either my camera or phone
-Nam
04-19-2011, 07:33 AM
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Hm. I planned to purchase either this or the Ti-C single. Would prefer this SE over the Ti-C though. Can you post pics of the exhaust on your car as well as personal sound clips?
04-19-2011, 09:26 AM
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Are you using the stock cat, a HFC or a test pipe? I used to have a Greddy SE Dual and the HFC cut the drone out almost completely.
I currently have an ASM 60mm single with test pipe and it just wasnt loud enough for me now that my S is no longer a daily driver. So I have a Greddy SE single on the way, ordered yesterday as well as a 70mm test pipe.
I currently have an ASM 60mm single with test pipe and it just wasnt loud enough for me now that my S is no longer a daily driver. So I have a Greddy SE single on the way, ordered yesterday as well as a 70mm test pipe.
04-19-2011, 12:35 PM
#5
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Are you using the stock cat, a HFC or a test pipe? I used to have a Greddy SE Dual and the HFC cut the drone out almost completely.
I currently have an ASM 60mm single with test pipe and it just wasnt loud enough for me now that my S is no longer a daily driver. So I have a Greddy SE single on the way, ordered yesterday as well as a 70mm test pipe.
I currently have an ASM 60mm single with test pipe and it just wasnt loud enough for me now that my S is no longer a daily driver. So I have a Greddy SE single on the way, ordered yesterday as well as a 70mm test pipe.
04-19-2011, 12:42 PM
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Are you using the stock cat, a HFC or a test pipe? I used to have a Greddy SE Dual and the HFC cut the drone out almost completely.
I currently have an ASM 60mm single with test pipe and it just wasnt loud enough for me now that my S is no longer a daily driver. So I have a Greddy SE single on the way, ordered yesterday as well as a 70mm test pipe.
I currently have an ASM 60mm single with test pipe and it just wasnt loud enough for me now that my S is no longer a daily driver. So I have a Greddy SE single on the way, ordered yesterday as well as a 70mm test pipe.
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04-19-2011, 12:44 PM
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Originally Posted by UC Gordon' timestamp='1303233971' post='20483479
Are you using the stock cat, a HFC or a test pipe? I used to have a Greddy SE Dual and the HFC cut the drone out almost completely.
I currently have an ASM 60mm single with test pipe and it just wasnt loud enough for me now that my S is no longer a daily driver. So I have a Greddy SE single on the way, ordered yesterday as well as a 70mm test pipe.
I currently have an ASM 60mm single with test pipe and it just wasnt loud enough for me now that my S is no longer a daily driver. So I have a Greddy SE single on the way, ordered yesterday as well as a 70mm test pipe.
Well the ASM is definately loud above 6k, but I miss the growl that the Greddy SE provided as well as the burbling sound when shifting and deccelerating. Plus there is some rasp that I do not like around the 5k range.
04-19-2011, 02:19 PM
#9
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Ok, after another day of driving here are some updates. The exhaust seems to be pretty boomy and bassy especially upon acceleration. The only spot I found that I could accelerate (very lightly) without it making a ton of noise is around 2.5 to 3.4k~k RPMs. It really does sound nice and has the basic sound of the SE dual I like, but it has a lot more bass and boominess to it.
The other interesting thing is that as you climb RPM during accel it gets more quiet as you pass 5k into VTEC where it actually becomes really quite. Somewhat odd IMO but I feel all the exhaust that sound bassy do this. The boominess of the exhaust makes me a little nervous around cops and makes me feel like a bit of a ricer when I need to pass lol. Despite what sounds like complaints, I'm having fun discovering the traits of the exhaust. My only wish is that it could make all that sound without the boominess lol. Maybe I'm asking for too much ^^
Also, the rattle seems to have gone away on its own or at least I haven't noticed it.
The other interesting thing is that as you climb RPM during accel it gets more quiet as you pass 5k into VTEC where it actually becomes really quite. Somewhat odd IMO but I feel all the exhaust that sound bassy do this. The boominess of the exhaust makes me a little nervous around cops and makes me feel like a bit of a ricer when I need to pass lol. Despite what sounds like complaints, I'm having fun discovering the traits of the exhaust. My only wish is that it could make all that sound without the boominess lol. Maybe I'm asking for too much ^^
Also, the rattle seems to have gone away on its own or at least I haven't noticed it.
04-19-2011, 03:45 PM
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Here's a quick iphone video of the se single with stock cat and k&n fipk.
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=530197364021&id=95001796# !/video/video.php?v=725064438498&comments
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=530197364021&id=95001796# !/video/video.php?v=725064438498&comments