Not really loving the Dynamax Ultra Flo mufflers so far

[Dino]

They are not horrible by any means, and there's no drone or anything, there's just something missing. Idle sounds pretty good. WOT sounds good. Cruising...meh. My Torino has cherry bombs and my 59 has stock manifolds and full length pipes without mufflers. Both sound better but I can hear the radio on n the Charger.    Maybe I should try something a little more open on the Charger. Or maybe I need to give these more time to settle in? Oh well. First world problems.

[Mike DC]

 
Mufflers are such a personal preference thing.  It's like asking what wheel/tire size looks good. 

Youtube is an easy place to compare A TON of different exhaust combos.  You can't really judge raw volumes in video clips but you can sample different tones.   

Old-school cherry bombs sound cool but they blow out in a few thousand miles.  You can buy Porters though (glasspacks packed with stainless steel wool instead of fiberglass).  Powersticks are another option to get a straight-through sound without fiberglass packing.   

[Kern Dog]

They are not horrible by any means, and there's no drone or anything, there's just something missing. Idle sounds pretty good. WOT sounds good. Cruising...meh. My Torino has cherry bombs and my 59 has stock manifolds and full length pipes without mufflers. Both sound better but I can hear the radio on n the Charger.    Maybe I should try something a little more open on the Charger. Or maybe I need to give these more time to settle in? Oh well. First world problems.

I agree with you on the opinion of these mufflers. I have them in my Charger along with 2" headers and 3" exhaust with an X pipe. I have a pretty rowdy cam but the car sounds too tame for me at cruise. There isn't that **snap** or **crackle** that this engine should make. The Ultra Flos cut out the sharps of the exhaust pulses a bit more than I like. I had Flowmasters before. I loved how they sounded at idle and at WOT. Even short drives were great. Long drives though...   
I like to take road trips in the car. I drove to Los Angeles and back in 2011 with Flowmasters and while it didn't drone, it reverberated a lot at freeway cruise speed. It wasn't as if I couldn't hold a conversation while on the freeway but the exhaust "noise" was too much for me.
Is there something in between?
I only went with the Ultra Flo because I read that they had less restriction and back pressure than any other muffler. I'd go back to Flowmasters if I knew of someone that had them on their car so I could hear them.

[b5blue]

Bone stock HP sound is best in my book. 

[Dino]

I have HP manifolds, 2.5" TTI with H-pipe, and the Ultra Flows. The manifolds are a big improvement over the thin sound the headers made under the hood, but the old worn out Wagner mufflers on stock pipes sounded great. KD I think you hit the nail on the head; it's like the high frequencies have been filtered out and I'm missing part of what makes a big block sound so good. I'll give these more time, but if they don't improve then I'll change them out. Mike I'll check those out. I wonder what it sounds like if I replace the mufflers with resonators, or cats.

[John_Kunkel]

Bone stock HP sound is best in my book. 

Yep, the good old factory Hemi mufflers are hard to beat. Any performance gain from the hyped mufflers won't be felt in the seat of your pants. 

[Mike DC]

 
I agree that aftermarket mufflers don't really make seat-of-the-pants horsepower gains.  For a street car you might as well just choose them based on sound alone.

It's always the compromise between cool hot-rod sound vs drone when you're cruising.

[Kern Dog]

There are surely some sort of charts that plot the sound waves that are generated by an exhaust system.
When people use the word "drone", I interpret that as a somewhat steady and even hum that drills a hole through your head when listening to it very long. It is probably RPM dependent as well as camshaft timing dependent.
I never had that with my car. I had a peaky and repetitive reverberation, a throbbing of sorts. All other engine speeds were met with a sweet exhaust sound...Idle, WOT, rpms climbing and falling were all great. It was the steady engine speed at freeway travel that the Flowmasters were terrible. I had the 42451 series.
As stated, the exhaust tone is a very subjective thing. You guys that prefer the stock mufflers might cringe at what I like. It is as subjective as a smell, a taste or the shape of a woman. Some dudes like a fuller figured woman, others may like a thin and athletic type. Neither are wrong.

[Dino]

Maybe I need to try the hemi mufflers. I bought these solely for the good reviews. I have only 2 rules: great sound, no drone.

[Kern Dog]

That "drone" that is a concern is heavily influenced by the rest of your combination. I have found that manifolds are far more likely to induce drone than headers are.

[marshallfry01]

Can you post a short video of how they sound? That's what I'm planning on using on my 69 with a really mild 383. I just want a good sound at idle and WOT. I don't want a drone at cruise. I do a lot of driving and loud exhaust gets on my nerves on long road trips.

[70 sublime]

My last Charger  had a very bad drone at cruise speed when you lifted your foot off the gas pedal a little once you got up to speed

It sounded great when you first started it and when you stomped on the gas but for any kind of distance trip it was no fun at all

What mufflers would sound like they did when the cars were built new ??

[b5blue]

They had a low gurgling rumble that increased to a steady roar with RPM's. 

[lloyd3]

I've had Cherry Bombs and the turbo-flow mufflers on earlier cars and neither sounded better to me than the stock hemi-mufflers.

As a much-younger man, my neighbors hated the Cherry Bombs on my Roadrunner (& probably for good reason).  For purely nostalgic reasons, I've kept the stock set-up on my car (H-pipe and hemis) and it really has been the best sounding one for me yet. There is a little 440 4-gear drone occasionally, but in general I really like the effect. You can have a conversation (both during idle and when going down the road) and you can actually hear the radio/tape deck without blasting it. The whole neighborhood still likely knows when I start it (the low rumble of that big block is hard to miss, you can almost "feel" it, even at some distance), but it isn't offensive, popping, or back-rappy. And finally, you can hear those 4428S Carter carb secondaries come open at full-throttle (love the "moan") and it sounds just like what I remember from my youth, which for me is still pretty neat.

Maybe the best part of it all is that 440 sound at idle...pure music!

[Kern Dog]

One thing that I wish I had was that growl on the down-rev in between gears. If you need an example, the soundtrack of the Mustang in Bullitt had that sound in the highway scene before the Charger went off the street and into the gas pumps to explode.
That rasp, the gurgle as the engine revs down when the transmission is UPshifted just sounds great to me. The Ultra Flos don't have that. Flowmasters might but I don't know. I had a 727 in the car when I had Flowmasters.

[timmycharger]

I am still running Flowmasters that I had installed in the late 1990's.  They sat on a shelf for 15 or so years while I restored the car and since I removed them so cleanly, I just welded them back on.

I wouldnt say that they drone or anything like that, they actually sound really good and I absolutely love the sound it makes when I downshift or let off the gas while in a lower gear, sometimes get that light popping sound. Its just too loud for my opinion for cruising and highway travel.

My plan is to go a quieter exhaust system after I build my  next 440.  Right now I have an H pipe with cutouts that have not been uncorked in 20+ years with the flowmasters but I will be going for the Hemi mufflers and H pipe setup in the future.

Future plans for this car will include long distance driving and the loud exhaust simply won't work for me, maybe when I was in my 20s when I installed the Flowmasters in the first place but now I am over 50 with really bad tinnitus in my left ear so I need to make it as enjoyable as possible.

[Dino]

One thing that I wish I had was that growl on the down-rev in between gears. If you need an example, the soundtrack of the Mustang in Bullitt had that sound in the highway scene before the Charger went off the street and into the gas pumps to explode.
That rasp, the gurgle as the engine revs down when the transmission is UPshifted just sounds great to me. The Ultra Flos don't have that. Flowmasters might but I don't know. I had a 727 in the car when I had Flowmasters.

That Mustang sound is why I'm still trying to get a 5 speed behind the 440. That sound is hard to beat.

[Kern Dog]

The sound of a car before catalytic converters is unique. Converters take out the sharps of the exhaust tone. The glass pack type mufflers like the old Cherry Bombs, the MagnaFlow and Ultra Flo take the bite out of the tone. If you like that, good for you. I don't. To me, it sounds neutered.
I tried to accept the milder tone with these UFs after dealing with 42451 Flowmasters for 12-14 years.
When I hear a rumbly exhaust on a car, I feel an excitement similar to when a woman with sweet perfume walks by. It amps me up and I want in on that.
Reading from guys that are happy with OEM style mufflers makes me shake my head. I see these as performance cars and to me, that means a rumbly exhaust note, not a gentle hum.
I modify the exhaust on every vehicle I own. The 2007 Truck has a Flowmaster, the Challenger the wife drives had the middle mufflers removed and replaced with straight pipes.
I don't care for open exhaust or exhaust cutouts though. Some guys LOVE that but for me, it goes too far.

[Back N Black]

I have the ultra flows on the charger and flow masters on the Dart(383). The Dart sounds way better than the charger, louder but better.

[timmycharger]

The sound of a car before catalytic converters is unique. Converters take out the sharps of the exhaust tone. The glass pack type mufflers like the old Cherry Bombs, the MagnaFlow and Ultra Flo take the bite out of the tone. If you like that, good for you. I don't. To me, it sounds neutered.
I tried to accept the milder tone with these UFs after dealing with 42451 Flowmasters for 12-14 years.
When I hear a rumbly exhaust on a car, I feel an excitement similar to when a woman with sweet perfume walks by. It amps me up and I want in on that.
Reading from guys that are happy with OEM style mufflers makes me shake my head. I see these as performance cars and to me, that means a rumbly exhaust note, not a gentle hum.
I modify the exhaust on every vehicle I own. The 2007 Truck has a Flowmaster, the Challenger the wife drives had the middle mufflers removed and replaced with straight pipes.
I don't care for open exhaust or exhaust cutouts though. Some guys LOVE that but for me, it goes too far.

Ha! love the perfume analogy but I don't know man, just because its loud doesn't really mean its going to be fast. I hear loud cars all the time around me and I feel like these guys are posers and want to show off.

Even with stock exhaust, a properly built big block with a lumpy cam will sound great without the "hey everyone, look at me!" part.  The car attracts enough attention as it is haha.

 

[Kern Dog]

I am not as concerned with impressing others as I am with impressing myself. I love a rumbly exhaust.
I was a kid once and the LOUD seemed really cool back then.
My 2007 Dodge truck came with 3 catalytic converters, a muffler the size of a trash can and a resonator. It was as silent as a Prius. I hate that. No V8 should be that silent, man!

[Mike DC]

         
https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/money-company/story/2008-09-05/study-maserati-appeals-to-the-basic-instinct

           

[Kern Dog]

I don't like links that expect viewers to disable ad blockers or to subscribe to read the article.

[Mike DC]

   
It's an article about a study on engine noises and Testosterone levels.  A revving Maserati V8 sound elevated the women's Test levels (read: made them more horny).  The sound of a VW engine reduced it.   

[lloyd3]

KD: I get it. I got laid alot in that old Roadrunner (still probably have a dent in the top of my head from the window crank in that backseat).  Lime green and loud works (at least it did back then). My 20-year old son tells me that doesn't work quite so-well nowadays (at least with modern [read liberal & woke] college girls). I keep telling him to find a nice farm girl (for lots of reasons).

Oh well...