I had MAC's in teh Notch when I first bought it. They droned like a mofo. The exhaust note wasn't too bad, but the drone totally killed my interest in them. Not only that, but they were beginning to rust through ... which is pretty pathetic out here in Arizona, as there's cars from the 70's and 80's still rocking their stock exhaust systems.
I can see how Magnaflows might be considered too mellow by some because at idle and cruise, they're deep and VERY mellow, whereas most chambered muffs tend to have the same tone all the time (and, more often than not, they drone). The only exception might be Flowmaster Delta-series muffs, which Frankenstang has in her Capri - they have a good tone behind an off-road X-pipe, but they're not that loud, and their flow characteristics SUCK because the exhaust has to pass through a friggin' maze to get from one end to the other. Even the Dynomax Super Turbos I had tended to drone a little bit, which was really annoying considering how they were otherwise almost as quiet as stock mufflers.
Straight-through mufflers tend to have a variable tone, which is very nice for DD cars. However, even for non-DD rides, I'd think they would be preferrable because unless you're one of those "look at me" types that wants to advertise your car's presence the entire time the engine is running, the only time folks care to be loud is when they're romping on the throttle. If you just want full-time obnoxiously loud, go with a set of SLP Loudmouths or some Dynomax Race Bullets, both of which are basically the same as running straight pipes - no tone crafting whatsoever in those.
I was really, really hardcore sold on Pypes Violators for a long time, but I guess I'm getting old or something, or maybe the mufflers' sound has changed over time. They're still perfectly fine behind a cat'ed X- or H-pipe, but behind an off-road crossover, they tend to be a little too loud at startup and mild throttle input. They don't drone, and they're not God-awful loud at idle, but unless you keep the RPM's under 2k, it's kind of hard to avoid attracting attention ... which you don't want to do if you're cruising by a cop or visiting relatives that live in a community full of old retired folks. It would be one thing if I had a beastly H/C/I motor that would be loud ahead of ANY exhaust setup, but since I'm running a stock long block and intake, it just seems silly to be this loud. Revving it up or going WOT, sure, I wanna hear the thing open up and roar; otherwise, I oftentimes wish my car's exhaust would just STFU. They have a straight-through design like other mufflers, but instead of a perforated core it has a fluted or louvered core tube and little to no packing material inside the muffler - before I put mine on, knocking on them sounded like you were banging on the side of an empty propane tank ... BONG! BONG! (whereas most other muffs will just go THUNK THUNK) ... and they were really light, no mass to them whatsoever. I think what little packing WAS in mine has long since disintegrated over the past few years.
Some similar straight-through alternatives to Magnaflows would be Hooker Maximum Flows or Dynomax Ultra-Flows, which are pretty much identical to each other but don't have the upper-RPM "rasp" that Magnaflows have (especially behind an off-road X-pipe). These mufflers have a "break-in" period, actually, as I've found that over the course of about a month they will louden up a bit, but they stay about the same from that point onward. I was almost pissed when I first bolted on a set of Hooker Max Flows and they sounded so quiet most of the time, but after awhile, it opened up and finally sounded right.
Just curious.
