Exhaust Setup Help

Exhaust is a personal preference, really. I'm not a big fan of Mac headers because of the individual primary tube flanges, but it may not be a deal breaker if the price was right. Lots of guys swear that you have a huge fight on your hands if you ever need to do header gaskets again because they never line up right after being heat cycled multiple times. BBK has a solid flange that avoids that issue and should be close in price.

For the H pipe, I do prefer Mac's three piece design. You can really do a good job getting the fitment to the undercarriage nice and close, so you're not dragging everything as you're driving. Your muffler choices start getting more limited if you want to exhaust before the rear wheels. You need a muffler that has both the inlet and outlet on the same end. It's not a very common setup, but it can be done. Running a standard setup gets you a lot more options, but then you have to pick your poison for mufflers.

I do like Flowmasters, but you're right about drone. Very few mufflers don't have it, and the ones that don't are usually expensive (think Magnaflow, Borla, etc.). Hit YouTube for some exhaust clips and see if anything had a good tone that you like, then search reviews and see what people think.

The forum is always in a state of flux. Some days there are a dozen guys foaming to offer their advice,...then other days it's a ghost town.
And as it's been said already,...how you think your exhaust sounds, and how I'd hear it are two different things,..... so differing opinions really mean squat when you're the one driving it.

But since you asked:

1. Leave the cats on. (or at least invest in a better set) If you remove them, a blind person will know it when you enter the room as you'll smell like exhaust (even more so than you might already) We'll just call you Henry Hydrocarbon from now on.

2. Do Not exit the exhaust tip in front of the rear tires. (a) you'll further exaggerate the above condition, (b) it'll be even louder in the cockpit, and (c) nothing says "Hey Bo! Lets jump that river gorge so's we can out run the PO leece" faster than a set of exhaust tips hanging out in front of the rear tires.

3. Getting an off road H will only make it louder,....which kind of goes against the implied goal of your thread.
Personally, I hate loud.
Loud says I'm under 30.
Loud says "Hey cop,...look at me,...Are you sure I don't need a ticket for violating the noise ordinance?"
Loud get's a shoe thrown at your car when you are trying to get home after the bars
close.
I prefer to be able to talk to the person in the front seat, and hear the audio system w/ o it having to be turned up to drown out the noisy-assed exhaust.

There now,......did I sway your decision one way or the other?