I was thinking the same thing.

i cut off my stock mufflers but left the stock resonator (small muffler after the cat. Weight savings was significant and I needed to be able to hear my car during autoX. It also didn’t cost me anything. It’s loud but doesn’t drone. I’m thinking the dual q300 will be quieter than this. Think the db limit at AMP is 98db.

as usual, Chuck has me second guessing myself. Now I’m looking at the Tanabe

 

Did someone call me? An oldie but goodie thread.

I'm still dumbfounded by the claims the horrible Invidia Q300 exhaust isn't excessively -- even dangerously -- loud or even sounds good. OK, there was some "performance sounding" burble when lifting the throttle. Also on the plus side: I was able to replace the Q300 with the Medalion Touring in less than an hour total time all by myself once it was on the lift.

The Q300 was much louder than 98dbA. Looking back at my note (post #3 above) from 8 years ago indicates it was in excess of 105dbA. Exposure to 105dbA for more than 1 hour in an 8-hour shift is illegal per USA occupational health standards making hearing protection mandatory.

There is a protocol for determining exhaust noise levels. A $2000 certified noise meter isn't necessary although I used one for my measurements because I had one in my office to check the noise levels in my factories. An App on my iPhone was close enough.

The Tanabe Medalion Touring is a different exhaust from the Revel Medallion Touring in more ways than just how they spell Medalion or Medallion (one L or two), I've not heard the Revel version but believe it's the louder of the two.

-- Chuck

 

I don't know about the US, but in Europe there are two types of Q300s: homologated and non-homologated. The homologated version is a bit louder than the standard version, but nothing crazy. Unhomologated, it's quite loud, and with a test pipe, it's outrageous. In my car, I measured 129 dB at full throttle.

 

From my experience when i ran it with stock header and stock cat it had a very annoying drone at 3,000-5,000 rpm, especially being in a higher gear at lower speed and giving throttle, almost sounded like it was clogged but was nice in V-tec range, however when i ran it with stock header and a test pipe, no cat at all it got rid of most of that drone and sounds pretty good, however V-Tec is pretty load now but I don't mind at all, so if you want it with less drone I would say go stock headers and test pipe but if you want a quiet exhaust maybe look at something else because drone is really bad with stock cat and header