Loudess= MIVEC
Pure beast!

 

ya, I made a thread on this a whle back. It does sound different I described it as a gurgling sound not as smooth sounding as the eight and I do not hear the turbo spool as easily as I did on the 8. I had the same assumption that it was a exhaust leak aswell.

 

first thing my g/f said when she got in my IX was that "this one growls more" than my 04 VIII.

 

like someone said earlier, the muffler was redesigned. They got rid of the flap in the muffler that would open and close.

My little stock exhaust sets off many alarms, haha

 

yea my IX has the vtech sound at high RPM

 

I noticed this as well, I figured it was a combination of mivec and the larger turbo.

 

 

Personally, I'd take a 4 over a 6.5 over an 8 over a 9- interms of growl.