i feel ya... i think the greddy evo II sounds real good and, assuming you have a turbo, a set of turbo header, down pipe, and a high flow cat... it will be sounding real good
just use 3 inch piping and use a muffler that has a large baffle so you dont get a raspy sound. The canister is huge on a GReddy EVOII thats why it sounds soo deep and smooth........small tanabe mufflers are usually pretty loud...just use common sense
for my exhaust, keep in mind i am turbo and if you use what i have your car will sound like a 1985 crx with no muffler. anyways, i used my stock down pipe which was greddy and put it into a hollowed out larger cat with 3 inch piping and i used a straight through magnaflow to take out some of the rasp, but honestly, with the turbo, there's no rasp.. anyways, goodluck
well i ran a thermal and yes its nice, not everyone has 600 bucks
kteller aka mike a local , sells nice piping and now sells 3inch exhausts..... you would just have to get a muffler
but his prices are very cheap, i liked the termal though it was a bit loud but what do you expect with 3in back and a test pipe.....
i used 2.25" pipe and a dynomax turbo muffler and had car-x make an exhaust system for it cost $90.00; with a high flow cat and no resenator it sounds f'n nice not too loud and not ricey its sounds like a race car i have no idea why people go out and buy a 600 dollar exhaust everyone of them do the same thing some just look nicer and last longer than others....
if you get the thermal 3" turbo exhaust, it does not bolt on directly to the stock cat. you will have to go out and buy a new high flow cat b/c this is a true 3" exhaust. anyways, just an fyi if you're looking into it.
imo, thermal has the best sounding exhaust for the best performance out there. it's a more mellow note for equally great gains.