Anyone spend decent time in both 6mt and 7at Zs?

[cruzmisl]

I have a 6MT G37. Before buying it I spent quite a bit of time in a 5AT G37, and more recently a 7AT 370z. I ask this because I'm trying to see if others can chime in on what I'm noticing between them, whether it's normal, or if I'm crazy.

Are our 6MTs just harsher overall than the automatics? I'm not talking about the challenge to drive them smooth (although that can definitely be a challenge), but just overall feel and sounds of the car.

I have not spent any time driving any other manual transmission cars to compare them to their automatic counterparts, so I don't know if most MT variants of cars are typically more..."unrefined."

The VQ sounds harsher to me in my 6MT than in the automatic G/Zs I've been in. I think that this is the result of not being able to hear the stock exhaust with the windows rolled up, and how loud 1st and second gear can be from the transmission. I feel like I just hear the transmission/clutch/flywheel and the raspy engine until late into second gear, when the special VQ exhaust note finally makes its way to my ears. It isn't until third gear that 6MT/AT sort of meet together and start to feel/sound similar to me.

Conversely, on the automatics I can totally hear the exhaust because the AT is pretty quiet. I'd say the stock exhaust in the auto is good enough. But in the 6MT, since I can only hear it with the windows down and stomping on the gas, or in a tunnel that gives me something to echo the noises to me, I feel like i need an exhaust upgrade to simply get over the other noises.

I'm not trying to rag on the 6MT at all. I love the car. I'm just wondering if I'm crazy in thinking that the 6MT feels and sounds like a very different machine than the automatics from the driver's point of view. Going into this, I thought the 6MT would be like the AT, but with the benefit of rowing our own gears.

It just seemed to come with a lot more than that--almost an entirely different personality.