NA first drive days for GR86 first week of August
 

Lol. No piped in engine noise or silly shift beeps (about the 2020)

Wrong and wrong.

Technically he's not fully wrong per se ... its not "piped through the speakers". Its just a sound tube lol but I get your point.

yeah isnt the beeps an on/off toggle?

and I'll take piped in real noise over fake synthetic video game noise anyday.
Plus i also like the sound of the FA20 over the FA24 at least from the vids.

No, it’s just piped through a literal pipe!:bonk:

Eh. I don’t really care either way because it’ll 99% sure get turned off on mine anyway.

Its not a video game. Not saying you like it, but video games do not compare.

Its the actual engine harmonics, live and all consistent with the real engine behaviour and stress from all of the dynamic real world shit going on.

Sure you might not like the pitch they have chose to translate the engine sound but as far as authenticity of you hearing what is going on inside that engine its perfect.

Everyone makes so much of this noise thing - its very meh for me but I sure as hell won't be focusing on it when I'm driving!

Can't wait. Can't wait. Can't wait. Must wait.

I’m surprised people like the sound of a stock 1st gen. I personally thought it sounded grating and made the engine feel less willing to rev.

Love the sound on my 2013 now after a few easy mods (sound tube delete, 2017 oem header, trans mount bushing). Much smoother overall. Makes me want to redline it just to hear the engine rev out.

The gr86 engine sounds a bit artificial but I’d have to hear it in person. I can already tell I like the sound better than a stock first gen though.

its cause it is. They have a dedicated speaker in-cabin to augment the sound :barf:

We have to make clear, are people talking about a 2017+ MY engine, or a 2013 engine?

These two engine are very different, at least based on my seat time in a 2017. My 2013 engine sounds like gravel in a blender. The catback helps to drown it out, though.

Based on the various videos we have, including one with the augmented sound turned off, I would agree that a 2017+ engine has a more interesting mechanical noise. The 2022, with both the augmented sound turned off and on, was a lot smoother and sounded more pedestrian. Like it belonged in the Outback or Legacy.

But I will have to hear it in person, obviously.

First generation engine was revised basically twice. Once at the end of production year 2013 for the '14 models and once for the '17 model refresh. I had a '20 model for around one year and there wasn't that much of a sound difference comparing to a '15 model. It might be as you say that first year engines sounded quite differently.

Second generation engine comes from another family of (Ascent-) engines and the decision to "hide" its real sound via a speaker might not seem of a surprise.

could actually be several reasons:

1. chassis could be quieter - hence the need
2. lighter weight to have a small speaker than an entire sound tube system (which also previously had many of its components on top of the engine/high side in the engine bay)
3. cheaper to produce one speaker, mount, and assumably an onspeaker amp than producing all the tubing/mounting/clamps for the sound tube system:

http://i.imgur.com/wyiTNJL.jpg

Sound tube system weighted 1lb 8.5oz. Not sure how much the new speaker(-s) system weights, but it looks to me more complex and requires additional battery consumption.

The FA20 sound itself isnt all that different, but because it got much smoother, refined and quieter during its latter years of existence it probably gives off a more pleasant sound vs at the beginning.