What are the best engine sounds (and why)?

Here's a question: with the same exhaust routing, why would an equal stroke/bore I6 sound different than a V6? Or why would a 2.0L 4 cyl at 7500rpm sound different than a dual exhaust 4.0L V8 at 3750? (engines with equal sized/spaced power pulses)

In reply to svxsti: Pff... The LFA has melodically tuned exhaust by Yamaha. It may as well be Drake on auto tune

Idk what mods this thing has but one of my fav dyno videos.

https://youtu.be/tPCXGVTsNxA

88 FZR 400 with a Vance and Hines full race exhaust or so I have been told.

I was the last 400 on the track a loudon when the sv650 became the dominent light weight bike. Many sought me out to tell me how good y 400 sounded. One stated "like tearing a piece of paper".

Steve.

ProDarwin wrote: Here's a question: with the same exhaust routing, why would an equal stroke/bore I6 sound different than a V6? Or why would a 2.0L 4 cyl at 7500rpm sound different than a dual exhaust 4.0L V8 at 3750? (engines with equal sized/spaced power pulses)

If I had to guess:

In a hypothetical "all else being equal" V6 vs I6 scenario, I would think where should still be some difference, even if more similar than not. The necessary mechanical component differences might lead to different noises permeating from the engine itself. And while the combustion events themselves should otherwise 'bang' identically, the different block shapes would probably attenuate the various frequencies differently. Structural differences probably account for some of the sound differences between even engines of the exact same architectural configuration...Although even more so is probably variations of intake, cam, and exhaust tuning.

The 2.0L I4 at 7500rpm may produce the same number of firing events per second as a hypothetical "all else being equal" 4.0L (flat plane) V8 at 3750rpm, but everything is physically happening at twice the speed. So where as the V8 significantly overlaps exhaust pulses, the I4 forces each to essentially happen individually and in half the time. Now while the dual exhaust 4.0L flat plane V8 at 7500rpm might sound like two of the 2.0L I4's running 90 degrees out of phase, the dual exhaust cross plane V8 actually sounds like two V4's running 90 degrees out of phase. Thus even though the combined firing interval is the same between both V8's, they typically (naturally?) produces very different sounds...Except for the flat plane 2016 GT350, which still seems to sound more like a cross plane V8 for some yet undisclosed reason.

However, I don't think you'll have much luck finding a lot of engines with such major architectural differences that are still otherwise 'equal' to be able to make such a comparison.

Good point on the V8 being 4cyls 90 deg out of phase. Didn't even think about that for some reason.