What to change a 7.5 for?

[Watts]

Not sure if yours was an an Akrapovic TCR? But was initially disappointed with my TCR Akrapovic, excited to get it as a freebie, and was extremely happy had not paid for it when it was pretty mute out of the box. But there definitely was a bedding in period, and not sure what that is technically? but sound track really changed by time did a few thousand miles and had some amazing overruns and pops/cracks by time it was returned with 24000 miles.

Also, remember moving some of kids stuff from digs and had an empty car with seats down and you realise how much the sound is dampened in the cabin with all seats up etc. So that might be a test in the CS.

Mine was a pre-akra car but the exhaust sounded good for a gpf, nice and deep and audible to some extent nearly all the time. This CS is just not like that which is a bit of a shame but you do gain with it being quieter for cruising.

I had my parcel shelf out and seats down in my MK8 clubsport to transport a push-bike, I can confirm it's is noticeably louder like this, and I took full advantage once the bike was dropped off   

I may give that a go

[Exonian]

My previous TCR was also a pre-Akra model and it was constantly vocal, where the mk8 Clubsport that followed was definitely quieter as far as pure exhaust sound was concerned. Those that then upgraded to 8.5 Clubsports such as Joe have reported that the facelifted car is even less vocal than the mk8.
 
Being as I was spending much time running kit around in my mk8 Clubsport the back seats were almost always folded down and the parcel shelf was never in the car. In that mode the exhaust could be heard a little more and the downside was a slight amount of chassis flex on bad roads.
Bumbling around to work and supermarkets in 30 and 40mph zones I didn’t quite notice the improved centre of gravity that Benny Leuchter reported on in the Ed50 but there may well have been microseconds shaved off my commute…

[Hertsman]

Not sure its acceptable that the MK 8 and 8.5 have reduced note, if spent all them ££ on Performance Pack and the Akrapovic, the Akrapovic do look really nice and are lighter, though not to any difference that notice.

Having a decent note over and above the standard is part of their USP and reason folk spend the money. Reality is, note is very close to stock and you really spending the money to just have something nicer looking.

There should be more transparency at point of sale but no chance of that is there.

The Akrapovic spiel on sound.

An exhaust system is like a musical instrument, converting rough pressure pulsations from combustion to sound, which defines the overall character and appearance of the vehicle. Akrapovič is taking the sound of the exhaust system to the next level, while a team of NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) engineers carefully tune every tube, muffler, and tailpipe to a specific vehicle. Prototypes are designed with attention to detail to extract the best-possible sound potential. Every prototype is measured with state-of-the-art measuring equipment, which measures the sound of the vehicle’s interior and exterior.