Not sure what the standard exhaust maxes out at but i've had a few resonated aftermarket exhausts of a couple of golf's and they aint too bad, I'm not a big fan of loud exhausts either, which is why i've taken the 3" turbo back off mine to get a cat and a decibel reducing insert welded in. The blueflame resonated system I had on my edition 30 sounded pretty much standard until you stamped on the go pedal.