The sound of the Nismo y-pipe is still superior in my estimation. I have the early ceramic cats without the braces and After a year of hard driving there are no cracks. I changed out the y-pipe to JIC and a Tanabe. They sounded good no doubt but the Nismo y-pipe and Berks and the cat back nismo still sounds best. I will ride these til they bust or crack but they haven't yet and I drive the Dragon fairly regularly hard. Since they are now past the warranty if they crack I will have to buy a set with braces. If I had the braces, I would not worry about breaks at all.