I am absolutely pleased with Vibrant exhaust products. For the most part they are compact, quality made, and they are packed well which helps them last. They have a "class" sound with little drone and are cold start "neighbor friendly" for the most part.
For home owners, I want to design a sound catch cylinder that can be left in a driveway. Basically a thick tube (sch 40-80) that's height is centerline to the muffler exit positioned so the sound is directed into it.
I agree. They're definitely a pack leader in many respective product categories, certainly exhaust parts among them. Their build quality and fit and finish are top notch, and their sound is refined. I've never done a full system with their mufflers, since I'm old and tend to want to keep a lower profile in the looks and volume department. 😅. I have put Ultra Quiet resonators on a couple cars, though, and they certainly punch above their weight class. Their sizes and configurations are somewhat limited, though.
I'd always been a fan of Dynomax stuff, historically, but their products haven't evolved over time and their fit and finish can't compete with Vibrant. They're also on the rowdier side, which younger me liked but now me doesn't love as much.
Magnaflow...looks nice, but I've put their stuff on 3 or 4 cars over the years and always ended up changing it because the sound was bad, too loud, or they had bad drone problems.
Borla, I like. They tend to have a mellower tone, which I appreciate. Prices are a little high, though not prohibitively so, but every part I've had of theirs has been considerably heavier than the competition...which I don't love.
Flowmaster...is Flowmaster. I know, I get it. Not straight through, FlowFX excluded, and signature sounds you won't necessarily love. Their "wonky" designs that look good on paper until you try to use any sort of math with the "we don't believe in flow benches because exhaust is delivered in pulses" and minimal data otherwise. Nevertheless, they don't tend to kill perf on dynos any more than any other non-straight-through mufflers, and their louder designs even tend to keep pace with max perf straight through stuff. Their quieter designs tend to do their quieting job well, though, and their build quality is great.
I've still been toying with the idea of a streetpower instead of the Flowmaster out back. I've got till Friday when I go to the exhaust shop to shake it up, and still might. I really wanna overshoot on lowering the sound level, if at all possible, though. If it ends up "too quiet", which I don't have a ton of faith in, I can always consider it afterwards.
My main holdup with any Vibrant mufflers back there right now is that I need to get the pipe over the rear lower control arm inboard a couple inches. I've got a 5x9 oval center inlet muffler on now, which just clears the mount for my bar, but the pipe taps the links with them as short as I can go and is closer than I'd like to my rear brake lines. I'd have to go with a 6 inch round street power, which likely would not muffle as much as I'm wanting.
Oh my, and there I went making a wall of text. 😂 I like Vibrant. I really do. I've got a bit of a fitment pickle, though, and they don't seem to have anything that'll help me and still be as quiet as I want.
--Matt
