I think everyone shares your trepiditation...one person's "balsy" is another's nightmare. There are a lot of alternatives, but not a lot of good comparative info...just that old forum culture thang I've run into for every car I've owned since 199X....certain products get one or two good reviews and then there is a lot of piling-on, often from folks that don't have direct experience. I think Bostondriver's input and results are both great. (How do you like the PZero Neros, by the way?)
In poking around, I've found 4.2L exhausts offered (according to websites at least) by the aforementioned, and also Supersprint, Cargraphic, B&B, Brullen (may be out of business), MTM, BBautotechnik (Big bucks), Eisenmen and Oettinger.

 

If you are local to eastern MA (assuming the "capecod" part fo your screen name indicates your location), maybe you'd like to hear the RS6 exhaust in person somethime? It does sound great, although admittedly, I do not find any performance gains with this setup. It was more for the GROWL factor!

Oh, and I love the PzeroNero M&S tires, although I experienced a bit of unusual wear on my rear tires last season due to over-inflation. I was trying out different tire pressures for comfort/handling.

Anyway, let me know if you local andinterested in seeing/hearing the car. Shoot me a PM.

 

Hey boston driver, that exhaust looks awesome, audi should have done that from the factory. Question, have you lowered your car or is that the stock sprot suspension height? Those are 18's you are running ringht??

 

The exhaust rumble is intoxicating, especially now sinceit has even MORE growl with the warmer temps!!!Definitely not too loud, but just enough to remind me that I've got a V8 under the hood.

That is actually stock OEM sport suspension height. The wheels are OEM RS6 (18x8.5" ET30 offset) with 255/35/18 Pirelli PZero tires. The only suspension mods on the carare the H-sport swaybars. The combo of OEM sport and the H-sport sways is great!

 

Hey psx2dude

I agree that $1800 is a little steep...

There are many tuners listed here that have exhausts for the 4.2: http://www.vaglinks.com

Cheers
Massboykie

 

I had my center resonator replaced with straight pipe. Well, actually, I had high performance resonators installed initially. It sounded perfectly stock, so I went to the scrap bin and checked the OEM center muffler. It was straight-through, nothing but daylight. Dam##! So back to straight pipe. Even that made only a shade of difference in tone and volume. No easy way to go, I guess. Some seem to be marketing the Flowmaster Hushpower units to replace the OEM final mufflers. THey are roughly the right shape but are supposed to be fairly loud and utilize internal baffles which will add backpressure. Ah well, good enough for now. $150.