Subjective -- of course. There's something about the wail of my S65 at 8000rpms through its Dinan exhaust and the intake wail out the hood intake vent that is just magical. There won't ever be a super high revving naturally aspirated V8 coming out of BMW again, so I plan to keep this one a long time. Same with the S62 in the E39 M5 -- amazing soundtrack. No need in either of these for synthesized exhaust noise to be played through the sound system.
When we get the M2C, the first thing I'll do it is code out the active sound. My wife hasn't even heard an active sound setup but already wants it coded out just on principle
. That it isn't an option in iDrive to shut off the fake noise is simply poor design imo.
Re S55...way back when the F80 was just out in 2014, I was at a BMWCCA autox event at the Perf Center. I was in the pits attending to my E90 M3, checking pressures, rechecking lug bolt torque, etc, and I heard this wicked sounded braaaatttt, braaatttt, going on in the background. I didn't actively pay attention to it at first, but my mind was thinking back to my motocross days in the 1970s, and I was thinking big bore 2-strokes: Maico 501? Yamaha SC500? Penton 400? Good thoughts, wicked sounding engine revving out hard through the gears multiple times continued, memories of racing guys on these back then, getting pelted with dirt and rocks from a friend's Penton 400, etc...about that time the F80 M3 comes into view with Mike Renner just getting on it good, pre-running the course for the day. That brought me back to the present. F80 M3, M-performance exhaust...sounded great to me.
It is what it is. Not an S85 or S65 wail but a whole different chorus.
M2C on order for my wife; coding asd off planned, hopefully won't need M-perf exhaust.
Regards,
Chuck