Started out with new MarkT glass pack exhaust at the beginning of the riding season this year.
I now have a couple thousand miles on the exhaust, so it has mellowed slightly since it was first installed. (That has been my experience with other exhaust as well. I'm assuming it's the result of some carbon buildup.)
With the silencers in (picture above), the sound is slightly louder than stock, but much deeper. I love the sound, no drone, and I can ride all day without any problems. This is my "default" setup for most days.
I tried the trombones (pictured above), even cut them down, but it turns out I'm not a fan of the straight pipe sound. Just a bit too harsh for me. You lose the pretty sound of the glass packs, which is what I prefer. They will get people's attention from a long ways away though!
The next option was to ride without the silencers. This is great for when I'm in a "disturbing the peace" kinda mood. It is loud. In comparison, slightly louder than cobra pipes. On the gas at red line it sounds like a screaming banshee. Only downside is the pipes would drone a bit in my helmet.
To address the droning, the next experiment was to try the rex marine exhaust baffles. (actually ordered from cpperformance.com) They bolted in using the same holes for the silencers. But, the sound was really "muted" (kinda like a muted trumpet) and it felt like the bike lost a lot of power. One ride and I set those aside.
I see others have been using the rex marine baffles without modifiying. I suspect the muted sound and loss of power I encountered was because the baffle was too close to the end of the glass pack causing too much back pressure. (the exhaust has a cross over pipe that relocates the glass pack further towards the rear of the bike)
Next experiment was to cut a 1" hole in the center of the rex marine baffles. (pictured above) 1" is the same size hole as the baffles on my magna pipes, so I figured it was a good place to start. Put the modified baffles on yesterday and what a difference! No more drone. Exact same sound as no baffles at low rpm. Very throaty. No loss of power. Still has great sound when getting on it. A tad bit quieter than "screaming banshee" when on the gas.
The hole I made was just a touch under 1", probably between 7/8" and 15/16". I got tired of grinding... If someone else wants to try this, I would guess that you could easily start at 5/8" or 3/4" for a quieter high rpm sound. (the added hole seems to have no effect on the low rpm sound) On the other end, I suspect 1" or just a touch over is probably near as big as you dare go.
