i hate it.. cabin noise is way too loud i am thinking of going back to stock. i hear that adding a resonator may tone down the noise, but how much does adding a resonator tone down the noise? The sound i am looking to achieve is a deep growl only when i step on the gas not constant droning while driving normally. What if i go back to stock and remove resonators and all those stuff.. how much louder can removing those things get?

 

We need more information on your setup. Did you just install the muffler? If that is the case then you would have two sets of resonators that came with the car. Two cylindrical resonators upstream and one rectangular pne before the muffler. Did you remove all resonators and install the muffler? Is this a quad setup or one muffler? I have an 04 545i with a custom quad setup. I left the two upstream resonators and removed the rectangular one before the muffler. In it's place I installed a Magnaflow Resonated X-Pipe. I am very happy with the sound. When I stomp on it, it sounds great. There is some droning between 1500-2100 rpm but it is minimal. Cruising on the highway, there is virtually no exhaust noise at all.

 

That's interesting... I left all resonators in my car, and I don't have constant droning. Granted it's loud when you step on the pedal during heavy acceleration, I don't get a constant on-going noise. How's your set-up? Can you post additional information? Removing the resonators can get really loud, even with stock muffler.

I do have to admit, it is a bit aggressive from the outside..

Here's a sound clip from inside the cabin:


Here's a sound clip from the outside..

 

it was just a muffler swap no resonators removed.. nothing. could it be the hangers/mounts ?

 

Did they replace your hanger mounts? On mine, they left the rear original one in place -- and replaced the one near the bumper; the center portion of the new mount is rubber wrapped by the metal mount. It appears to be stiffer than the orginal rubber portion.

Also, I've noticed that the sound has tamed a bit since installation. Not sure if this due to a little more wear on the muffler or me being more accustomed to the changed sound.

Anyway, I took more sound/vid clips from the interior this morning (city/hwy driving) and will try to post them tonight.

 

I had the same issue you are experiencing, a constant drone which gets worse when you accelerate at higher gears.
The mounts that my installer used were rigid and also part of the problem was that the muffler body was too close to the body.
Most of the noise disappeared when i took the stock rubber mount and used it to mount the magnaflow.
The piece i used is highlighted below and i did the same for the one behind he muffler also(just pull it off carefully).
Also the v8s will have some drone around 2k rpms, i don't think anyone has gotten around that.

 

I wish you would've searched the forum before you bought. Also check the bimmerfest.com forum too. I posted on bimmerfest with pix and sound my Magnaflow 862 and 816 experience. It is the loudest muffler you can buy for the BMW. I just picked up a stock muffler for my 528i 97 yesterday at Autobahn in San Diego, Ca. They are a salvage yard and have everything. I even got a M sport steering wheel for 150!!! in great condition.

Can't wait to get my stock muffler back on. Every muffler shop I went to said Magnaflow is not the muffler for the BMW cars. If you want sound get magnaflow, if you want quiet get something else or leave it stock. My cell phone simply jumps around when I sit it on my console with this magnaflow.

 

how many hangers are you using? they only used 1 hanger which is mounted to the stock mounts.

 

They should have used 2 hanger mounts. There are 2 stock mounts: one near the bumper and another further in (near the tire of your car). It would be best of they used the stock mounts in both cases. In my situation, they changed the one near the bumper (still, it's a rubber-center for vibration absorption).

Check under your car and let us know...

 

i have two hangers, one closer to the tips welded to the outer edge of the muffler body and one welded onto the pipe coming into the muffler.