I just bought a 2007 turbo with an AWE exhaust. I live nearby and drove over to their plant to check them out. Mike took me on a tour of the factory - very impressive. Clean, well laid out, lots of machining tools, professional-looking machinists busy at work.

I wish I could help on the sound comparison, but this is my first turbo and I just got it - it replaced a 996 C2 - the cars are so different, I'm stunned. Still picking lint off my tongue from the first time I went full throttle - I had to valsalva to clear my ears from the pressure change. That's never happened to me outside of an airplane.

The AWE exhaust sounds awesome. My wife isn't a big fan, but she's a good sport. I bought a blue ant noise canceling headset for the phone. Works just fine.

 

I installed the AWE mufflers first and sounded great. Then added the Cat and headers and the sound got better as well as the overall performance.

 

With a C2 or C2S.... Save your money, forget about buying AWE mufflers..... The best sound and performance up-tick was with 200 cell sport cats and stock mufflers.....

 

Actually the BEST set up is 200 cell sport cats with tubi mufflers.