Just wanted to post a quick review on the Remus Sport + AA Res EL Midpipe combo. I guess you could say this is on the "quieter" spectrum of combos but don't be fooled, this combo transforms the car
but might not be enough for some members. Shout out to
mike@x-ph.com, Cynthia, and his team,. The Remus Sport took roughly 3 months after the whole supplier fiasco and him and his team were very responsive to my emails and my indecisiveness to switch from the single mid pipe to the resonated. I also want to throw some "facts" out there before diving in:
-I have had ASD disabled since pretty much picking up the car-I have a moonroof (if that affects in cabin sounds)-This is our only car and my wife does occasionally drive it so too loud of an exhaust was unfortunately out of the question. -DCT transmission-I park in an indoor community garage for both home and work
Ok so first the appearance between stock and this combo is night and day. As you all know, we get rid of the ugly diaper and now I can finally appreciate the diffuser. It's astonishing how much of the diffuser is lost due to the diaper and I now feel I get my money's worth from it. Second, the tips are huge and truly makes the car look more aggressive looking from behind or from the side. I went with the 102mm CF option from Remus because I had dreamed of them ever since my OG M2 but never got the urge to splurge on an exhaust then.
Now onto the sound. On start up, the cold start is more than livable. It definitely has a presence when turning on the car but you won't be setting off alarms. This for me is a huge plus especially with a 2021 model that (for now) is not tunable. Dies down after 30 seconds but if you're inside the car with windows up, you'll survive.
Efficient mode has gotten a nice little buff but the missus also admits its not a huge change in volume but more in tone. Much deeper tone and I'd say maybe 10% increase in volume in this mode. There is no drone in efficient or flaps closed.
Sport and Sport + is where you will notice the biggest difference. First, with flaps open there is now a grumbling sound while idling with the windows down and music off. This was not the case before. Very deep sound in all RPM's with WOT really screaming. Downshifts now have a nice sound where they were basically non existent on stock. There is the "VRRRAP" sound also when hitting the 6-7k RPM range which was also basically non existent on stock. Windows up I notice that I have to crank my music up a bit higher if I want to tune out the exhaust. But you can still easily have a convo or listen to music. Windows down is where you can really hear the exhaust sing. If you are looking for a setup that screams even with windows down, then the Remus Race is the option you are looking for.
Onto droning… There is drone present at the 2.5-3k RPM range when accelerating with flaps open in sport/sport +. In efficient or with flaps closed there is absolutely no drone. The drone is mostly present when accelerating in lower speeds around town, not so much on the highway. So in the end this setup is civil when you need to be and rowdy when you want to be.
I have tried burbles on and off for about a day each. Still unsure what I will choose as my default but for now I will say, the burbles can be annoying cruising around a neighborhood. They have significantly gotten louder and a bit longer. The day that I drove with them off though, I did find myself yearning for something after letting off the gas. Hopefully once a tune is available, I'll be able to customize a bit of burbles but that's an issue for the future.
Overall I think this setup has done everything I wanted it to do. There is no rasp, a much deeper tone, high RPM's sound great now, and the backend looks a thousand times better. Hard to quantify these things but I guess I would say this setup is 30-40% louder than stock.
The only thing I would say is that I do find myself maybe wishing it was a tad louder and with that, I may look into changing my resonated pipes for non resonated to compare. I showed some family and friends the setup and they can't see why I would want it louder but for several members here, I can see this setup not being enough. I may also try one of the controllers to set the exhaust flaps to always open and see if that satisfies my desire for a "little" more sound.
Below is a sound clip comparing stock to my setup. After hearing different setups around my area I can only say, videos never do these setups justice. It is louder in person as has been the case with the other setups I have heard from other forum members.
I will try my best to get sound clips of some fly-bys but due to the storm here in the NY/NJ area I didn't have time to find a good street to record.
And as always, headphones are best to hear the difference
