First, a description of my exhaust system:

Lethal Off Road X pipe (no cats), stock over the axle pipes (resonators still present) to Flowmaster Hushpower axle backs.

My car is a convertible GT/CS, and has 3:31 gears. I'm not sure if either of those can affect the presence of the dreaded drone, but I included the info just in case anybody wants to compare.

Love the sound of the HPs, but the drone was too much for me.

Well, I put them on last night, and here are my impressions of the Roush vs. the Hushpower:

My very first thought on startup - disappointment. Then my next thought was, I guess they're OK as long as the drone goes away.

It's hard to describe, but the Roushes sound hollower than the HPs. Maybe thinner is the word to use.

the Roushes are deep sounding, but not as deep as the HPs.

the Roushes pop and snort when you rev it up and let off the gas, but again, hollower or thinner sounding than the HPs.

They are both loud, I think the Roushes are a tad louder, but it's really tough to tell.

There is still a slight drone at times, but the Roushes are 99.99% better than the HPs in regards to drone.

Appearance-wise, both the Roushes and the HPs are attractive on the car. Both are well built and both fit perfectly.

The body of both mufflers is about 5 inches in diameter, but the body on the HPs is about 3 or 4 inches longer. I think that is why they have a deeper sound, and is also probably why they have the drone at around 2K.

Personally, I like the black body of the HP over the polished stainless body of the Roush. With the HP, all you see is the tailpipes when you look at the back of the car. With the Roushes, you see both the tips and the muffler body.

So, here's a chart as to how I rate the Roush vs. the Hushpowers:

Fit, Finish: HP = 10 Roush = 10
Installation: HP = 10 Roush = 10
Looks: HP = 10 Roush = 9
Sound: HP = 10 Roush = 7
Drone(Higher = less drone): HP = 5 Roush = 9
Overall: HP = 45 Roush = 45

So for me, no clear winner, and no clear loser.

Hands down, the Hushpowers sound better at idle, at part throttle and at WOT. They also sound better when you back off of it.

But they drone badly under load at around 2K.

I would probably be very happy with the Roushes if I had gone to them straight from stock. But I didn't

I was going to sell my HPs, but I think I'm going to hang onto them now.

I'll run the Roushes this winter, but if they don't sound better after they wear in, I'll probably put the HPs back on this spring and use some dynamat in the trunk to try to eliminate or at least minimize the drone.

 

If you don't like the polished mufflers on the Roush, just get some ultra hi-temp black paint and make them black. There are a couple of brands of that kind of paint out there that will stand up very well. Check www.eastwood.com

 

i debated on the Roush or Flowmaster and went with the Hushpowers

based on youtube (which doesn't represent sound in real life), the HPs sounded deeper

the Roush had to much blat,blat, blat for me but was close. i added a Magnaflow x-pipe and new it would be quieter, smoother and deeper but still the HPs created the closest sound i was looking for

i have MT and 3.73 coupe and tried 6th between 1500-2200 rpm and different throttle (constant, slight, full), don't hear or feel any drone, maybe because i still have cats?

also, no rasp when goosing throttle (light or heavy) at any rpm, i kept resonators in place

only noise that popped up is when idling down from goosing throttle(`800-900 rpm), the center console storage door has a ~2 sec vibration under the chrome latch. if i push down on the latch with smalll pressure it goes away

 

Do you feel like you lost any low end power by adding the x pipe?

 

I had the drone before I put the X on, so it has to be related either to the 373s or the convertible body style.

All the HP owners who report no drone are in coupes with 373s, AFAIK...

Now I'm toying with putting a set of the gT500 mufflers on and selling the HPs and Roushes...

 

I didn't notice that at all, but I installed the CAI, X pipe and tune all at the same time, so all I noticed were huge gains everywhere from stock...

 

Where are you located?

 

I'm in the Minneapolis area

 

ahhhh to bad. If you were anywhere local to NYC. We could have met up and compared and maybe swapped. I would love to see if the 4.10's I have would keep the HP out of the drone.

The GT500 muffler are nice though. But deeper would be nice.