Where does the tone of your exhuast come from. Is it a combination of parts or strickly you muffler?

 

Its a combination of lots of parts. The cam your using, the size of your engine, exhaust piping diam. Size/type of resonator. Type of muffler, how much hp your making

 

Basically everything from the engine block and back makes the specific tone.



Engine: different displacements, internals, etc. will create different exhaust tones

Header: yes, headers do affect exhaust tone. Just not all that much

Catalytic Converter: Running a straight-pipe is going to sound different than running a stock cat. Just don't do it because I like to snowboard and would like to still have snow in 20 years.

Resonator: Deepens the tone of the exhaust, makes it less raspy. General rule of thumb: the longer the better.

Muffler: different styles (flow-through, twin-loop, etc.) will create different sounds. Also, I'm not sure, but I think different outlet sizes would have an affect on sound

Piping Size: will affect the tone. I think it would be the bigger the piping, the deeper the sound. I'm not 100% on it though.

 

I would say most important thing if you get a cheap muffler have a good resonator or no resonator with good muffler!
I got 2 1/4" pipe ran and let me tell you they cut my resonator off and it sounds like crap. I hate my exhaust and im sure everyone i around me when i drive hates it too!