I am pretty sure that anything you put in place of the Cat is going to make things louder. I would venture to say that a resonated pipe will muffle the sound a little bit more than a straight pipe. Depending on how many resonators you have to go through before you exit the exhaust will make the sound louder or not.... They act more as sound tuning rather than muffling though. A straight pipe is going to be loud combined with an open CatBack either way. I would get the HFC first and just try it with your stock (or look on youtube for different soundbites of different setups). I was just going to put my test pipes on with the stock exhaust at first but then the greddy fell in my lap. My car is loud as hell and there is no nice way to say that. I think a test pipe or HFC with a stock system will give you a little boost in power. The ultimate goal for me is to let the car breathe. For someone else it might be about getting a good high RPM note vs. a low rev note (so when they open it up it roars and when they are cruising in town it doesnt). Guess it pretty much depends on what your goal for the exhaust is.
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