Hey CL, its been a week now since I've had the ark exhaust on my 2014 AWD IS350. Here's my review of it after driving around town and cruising with it on the highway. I haven't had any of the other exhaust systems that are out for our 3Gen IS but based it solely on video sound clips for which exhaust I wanted.

First lets start with the sound, it sounds great. Real deep sound with no ricey after sound as the car shifts into the higher gears. No raspy sound as you cruise around town just a nice low growl as you drive. As for the start up it rumbles and growls hard once you turn her on but dies down after a minute when she idle's. It's so quiet when the car idles that people don't even know there's an aftermarket exhaust installed until you start driving. I notice the low rumble when I'm idling but it sounds awesome and doesn't get annoying. The exhaust does make you feel more of a slight vibration in the car and steering wheel as you drive. As for highway drone it is real minor. At 2000rpm you can hear a slight drone but barely enough to make it annoying. I always listen to music when I drive so its easily droned out by my music.

Second is the install of the exhaust. Perfect and easy installation. Wish I had the lift and tools to do it myself but I wanted an expert who knew what they were doing instead of giving myself a headache. I watched them install it and safe to say I now can definitely do it myself. Everything is just unscrew it and bolt it back on. It comes with all the bolts and gaskets you need for installation.

As for looks of the exhaust you can tell its made of high quality stainless steel. As for the tips I'm not a big fan of the big round tips and the burnt blue tips just don't match with the look of my car especially for a silver car. Wish I got the polished tips but I thought it would look good. It will be changed to a quad exhaust setup later with a skipper diffuser. Anyone know if changing the tips will affect the sound of the exhaust system? I like it how it sounds now so I don't want to negatively affect it.

All in all, great exhaust system and highly recommend it to everyone. Will post a video sound clip and pictures if anyone wants any.

 

Thanks for the honest review!

I know someone here changed the tips to dual for diffuser as well, don't remember the user ID though.

 

I think the sound is mostly from cats, resonator, and mufflers so changing to quad tips shouldn't affect the sound; tips are usually cosmetic to my knowledge so I think you're good to go!

 

Thanks Eric and Ark for the awesome exhaust system!

Yea I've been told also that changing the tips shouldn't affect the sound of the exhaust. Although I did notice some kind of fiberglass padding in the tips so I thought maybe it'll affect the sound? Still loving the exhaust and definitely the best mod done to my car so far! Loud when you want it to be and perfect sound when you're cruising.