Hi, When I had my aero 8 s3 I went to a local exhaust manufacturer (where the young ones go for the big exhausts!!).
I had him remove the rear section which includes the two rear silencers, he then made me a pair of straight through rear sections with a twin polished stainless tailpipe on each side, this gave the car more low down grunt on starting and a lovely growl when accelerating without being too noisy.
I had him use the original mounting points and I kept the original silencers and fittings so it could be put back to standard if required.
I was put off from side exits as they are right by your ear, I did not want to have to use ear defenders as this would spoil the sound of the V8, also as you have exit pipes both sides of the car the true V8 sound is lost.
When travelling long distances a loud exhaust can be tiring (I used to ride a loud Harley) so I found that the rear exits gave the best sound for my use.
Each to their own though, try and see what suits you, but as you say lots cheaper than the Librands set up.
Good luck,
Ian
