Exhaust Question???

By strait back, you mean without any crossover point? You will want something (H or X) to allow the pulses to even out, just for efficiency. Otherwise it will sound out of balance, because it will be. As long as you have cats on there, it will be up to the mufflers to try to make it loud, and the mid pipe won't make a whole lot of difference volume-wise; an H or X pipe will just change the tone. I have shorties with an H and Flowpaths and no cats, and it is insanely loud. Too loud, IMO. It's so loud, it doen't even sound that great, more like something's wrong. Put the stock cat pipe back in though, and it purrs nicely- with no balls. Don't know how your hi flow cats will affect it, I'm sure they're better than the stock 4 and tiny pipe. With LT's and some hi-flow muffs, I don't think you'll have to worry about being loud with either mid pipe as long as it and your tailpipes are 2.5". I had my H custom bent for under $200 and it was a tricky application, if yours is normal you may save some good money having your guy weld it up. Good luck