Exhaust recommendation??

[zachhu]

Hello friends,
I have a 2012 a7 prestige that I put an ECS tuning x-pipe on, it was a recommendation from a friend with a b8.5 s4. However it hardly made a difference in the sound, whereas with my friends s4 it sounded a whole lot different with the x-pipe. So now I'm debating what to do to make my a7 sound a little more aggressive. I'm a big fan of the sound that the AWE touring exhaust and the magnaflow catback systems make, and I would like to replicate that. But I don't want to spend thousands more dollars and trash the x pipe, so I am wondering if anyone has had an x pipe and modified just the rear mufflers? I listened to my car without mufflers, straight out of the x-pipe, and it was way to loud and droned like crazy. So I would rule out a straight pipe. Has anyone cut in some sort of universal mufflers? There seem to be plenty of options, I would love to hear any opinions/recommendations.
Thanks.

[STXA7]

Edit: the s4 has quad pipe muffler , you can install a used pair of s6/s7 mufflers that can be had cheap from ebay etc. I haven't tried, but have read about the CETE controller that will enable use of the OEM valve controllers, otherwise they will be permanently open all 4 exit pipes.

Our cars have a almost identical, but slightly larger dimensions in the rear muffler, center resonator based on what I seen on the ebay used part photos. (possibly to keep the a6/a7 sound luxury quiet, same reason for having a single exit rear muffler too).

somewhere on audizine is a photo of a guy that drilled out the hole on his a7 factory muffler and welded on an exit pipe to make it quad tip, I wouldn't do that though.

some 2.5" downpipes could make your tone a bit deeper. JHM has an x pipe version and normal dual pipe version. I have their 2.5" integrated baffle dual downpipes with factory cats kept x pipes are known to change the sound of V-design engines by merging the left and right bank exhaust flows.
you can pick their 2.5" with 2.25" ends so that it will bolt up with your ecs center resonator delete pipes.
You would end up having a double x pipe design which would be pretty badass unique sounding i'm sure. It's been done on v8 cars like the mustang and corvette based on what i've seen on youtube.

I'm on stage 1 034 ecu+tcu which changed my exhaust sound note significantly. I had already upgraded my exhaust system before then. I got a used rs5 center muffler section which is 2.5" and has a Y merge single type design that splits back into duals after rear differental, so it was easy to get some custom bent pipe connecting to the s6/s7 muffler. hongkong carbon fibre rear valence looks clean better than s7 or rs7 IMO. the y-merge of both left and right downpipes into a single pipe under rear passenger seat into a single ~3.5" pipe also affects the exhaust sound. it has a marginally smaller cross-sectional area / interior pipe volume which should increase exhaust velocity which is important because exhaust gases naturally slow down as they get further away from the engine. less total surface area of pipe also means less heat lost radiating to the environment.

I had some packed bottle resonators installed under driver seat as the final design piece, which made me regret not ordering downpipes that already had it installed from JHM lol. You can fit vibrant ultraquiets down there in factory location since i've read that they're pretty large and extra nice if you've changed to aftermarket race catalytic converter or test pipes.

My system is fully wrapped from upper flange of downpipes all the including all 3 resonators + both rear muffler cases which was a labor of love lol. It's supposed to make the pipes radiate less heat so that they have higher exhaust gas velocity and adds some mass to the pipes which both in theory should alter the sound note and reduce pipe vibration/resonance.

After watching every youtube video and short of 3.0tfsi aftermarket exhaust cars, I knew I had to try something unique because they all sound like a farting trumpet that rasp and drone at different RPM ,atleast to my ear. My setup is very comfortable to drive with the windows down around town and only requires music at highway 85 cruising windows up. Max power A/C volume is more annoying TBH. Overall deeper tone that makes badass mild burble sounds when downshifting and eliminates the fart on 1-2-3 WOT upshifts.