exhaust recommendations

I've been thinking about doing some stage 1 modifications to my 2003
Civic LX and I'm not quite sure which exhaust I should be looking at to
suit my needs. I'm not very technically minded when it comes to cars so
I've been asking a couple of friends if they can recommend a good
exhaust for my car. I'm not looking to create the biggest, baddest car
around. I'm just trying to improve my car's efficiency a bit. I've
already replaced the stock air intake with an AEM short ram, with good
results. My goal with these modifications are just to get air in and
out of the engine as smoothly as possible. After the exhaust, I plan to
replace the headers with 4-2-1 headers to provide a little more power at
the low end.

Like I said before, I'm not trying to build the craziest car out there.
The exhaust I'm looking for would be one that doesn't have an
absolutely outrageous tip (no coffee cans for me), has a nice throaty
sound to it without being too obnoxious, and is from a reputable
manufacturer. I'm not sure if what I'm looking for actually exists.
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Tony

 

You should probably get the headers at the same time as the exhaust so you
can match the performance specs. Otherwise you may buy an exhaust now with
xyz specs and it could limit your choice of what headers will match it in
the future.

 

That's pretty good advice. I'll make sure I take that under advisement.
Thank you for your reply.

Tony