Cat-Back Exhaust: Perrin vs Invidia Q300 vs Borla
 

I bought my car about two and a half months ago thinking I was getting a Borla cat-back on it. It turns out it's an axle-back and I'm getting it removed and my money back ($699). I liked the sound of it, but $700 for an axle-back is ridiculous especially since I can get Borla's cat-back system for less. I'm looking at replacing it with a cat-back. I'm trying to keep it around the same price range and so far have settled on three.
I want to avoid anything louder than the Borla axle-back was since I live in an apartment complex and don't want to give anyone any sort of desire to mess with my car.

Invidia Q300 ($667) - I like the burnt tips and it sounds nice. Sound levels sound good too. Not a fan of the fact that it actually weighs slightly more than stock.

Borla ($697) - I like the mid-line muffler on this one and the fairly high amount of weight shaved off from the stock system. My one worry is that it might be louder than their axle-back system (waiting to hear back from them about the noise level difference).

Perrin (waiting on quotes, hoping for $750 or less since $800 seems to be a regular sale price, $790 is lowest quote I have so far) - Perrin seems to get a ton of love in this forum. And this [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bxGu3PckI8#12s"]youtube video[/ame] seems to show that it isn't much louder than stock, but has a nicer sound. Looks like it weighs the same as stock.

Any suggestions based on real-life sightings? Is the workmanship quality noticeably different for any of them?

Perrin is an excellent system for quieter catbacks, the Borla is loud and raspy (unbearable with a header installed!) and the Q300 also sounds quite nice on its own but gets a bit raspy with a front/over pipe on it.

My personal preference of the 3 would be the Perrin

When I was considering a catback I was going to go w/ the q300 for DD. I had gotten quotes of under $600 on the forums. Check prices on the forum vendors.

Got my Perrin installed this week. Very happy,I too did not want anything crazy loud.

I will throw a vote in for Borla. All reviews seem to be positive. Mild and deep sound. I have never heard of it being described as "raspy." And FYI, any cat back with a cat delete and/or header will sound raspy. Even the over priced (ya is said it) perrin system.

Another thing to note: the stock muffler acts as a "diffuser," smoothing out air flow coming from the under side of the car. When you replace it with something smaller the rear bumper acts as a parachute, catching all the air the should be smoothly existing the rear of the car. There are only two exhaust systems on the market that take this into account. One is the TRD R spec, and the other is the Borla system. They make add on diffusors to smooth out the airflow and keep the cars stellar aero from being compromised. This may be a consideration for highway gas milage and stability. The effect may not be drastic, but certainly something to consider.

Not all catbacks with header/cat delete will be raspy. I have Borla UEL headers and put an Agency Power catback on. It was way too loud, but had a lovely deep tone to it. Took the catback off (back to stock) as it was too loud and droned at highway speeds. I will buy another one as soon as this one sells :D

I had seriously considered the Borla catback, but just not convinced that it will have a nice deep tone and be quiet enough for my liking.

The Perrin one is far from overpriced, that territory firmly belongs to HKS ;)

I would personally like to be able to afford an ARK Grip system as I believe that will be the best sounding one for my needs, but it is a bit pricey :(

Oh, definitely going to have to hunt around then. I have asked for quotes for it from three vendors on here. I've found it for $560 + $65 for burnt tips + $42 shipping.

That's the thing. My Borla axle-back sounds really nice, I'm just worried the cat-back might up the volume by a good margin.
The ARK Grip is so nice looking and sounding, but no way am I ready to spend $1200+ on a cat-back.

I have seen that for the Borla system. I wasn't sure if the fact that the Q300 and Perrin system were shaped similar to stock meant they were fine without the diffuser though. Part of the reason I'm not looking at any other systems of that shape.

Love my Perrin 2.5 resonated.