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Displacement, number of cylinders, firing order, valve timing, angle at which cylinder banks oppose one another... all of those variables before we even get to headers and exhaust, the items most people modify first. I personally believe the "right sound" starts with the vehicle you decide to purchase.
Ahhh, the overlooked V6. They power a great deal of cars (and trucks) on the road today, yet most people choose them for their smoothness, quietness, and combo of fuel efficiency and even performance. But stick a V6 in a pony/muscle car or truck and they become laughing stock because they don't sound right or are underpowered. Which brings me to this: name your best sounding V6 and worst sounding V6 (stock or modified exhaust, doesn't matter).
Best:
VQ35 (with stock exhaust) out of the 350Z/G35 - nice and rumbly engine sound with a smooth exhaust note
V6 (I forget its engine code) out of the old Acura NSX - delicious sounding
V6 from first gen Taurus SHO - higher pitched but sounded good throughout the entire rev range
Flat 6 from the 911 GT3 - exotic sounding almost
Inline 6 from the E39 M3
I've heard some of those. You forgot the flat-six on most Porsche 911s, like my 991.1 with sport exhaust (from the factory, whatever they call it). Definitely sounds damn tasty on the boil, or even puttering around, or so others tell me. Sounds great from the cabin, too.
Then there's the GT3 RS version, 500hp and a lot of different engine fundamentals from standard 991.1. That thing roars. On the boil, it truly howls in non forced induction fashion. YouTube does not do it justice.
My 4.0 Liter V6 Toyota truck sounds good with supercharger whine at full blast, stock exhaust. I may get a pipe, at long last, to wake up the sound a bit. It will never be a true classic like the above, though: too vanilla for that. Any normally aspirated engine not making at least 100hp/liter is suspect to me.
I've heard some of those. You forgot the flat-six on most Porsche 911s, like my 991.1 with sport exhaust (from the factory, whatever they call it). Definitely sounds damn tasty on the boil, or even puttering around, or so others tell me. Sounds great from the cabin, too.
Then there's the GT3 RS version, 500hp and a lot of different engine fundamentals from standard 991.1. That thing roars. On the boil, it truly howls in non forced induction fashion. YouTube does not do it justice.
My 4.0 Liter V6 Toyota truck sounds good with supercharger whine at full blast, stock exhaust. I may get a pipe, at long last, to wake up the sound a bit. It will never be a true classic like the above, though: too vanilla for that. Any normally aspirated engine not making at least 100hp/liter is suspect to me.
I drove around a 2017 911 GTS with Sport exhaust few weeks ago. Loved it, such a blast launch control’ing it Sounded awesome especially at full throttle. Can’t wait to get into a Turbo S. The new GT2RS is showing up for delivery this week. Can’t wait to see it/hear it. 720hp flat 6 turbo!
You can’t have true dual exhaust on a straight 6 it only has one exhaust manifold it’s not like a V6 we’re y have 2 cylinder heads. You can put a cheater y pipe on a straight 6 then run 2 mufflers that way but it’s still only a single exhaust. But you can take off the stock exhaust manifold and put on one we’re 2 sets of headers are welded on, but stock I6 are single exhaust, this discussion was about stock I6 engines not modified, you can modify anything on a vehicle but the average person on this forum can’t do those type of modifications. So bringing up things like that is not what people want to know.
Actually the BMW small 6 of the late 80's came out of the box with what old-school hot rodders would have recognized as a "split" manifold - the 3 front cylinders into one short manifold, the 3 back into another. Although this joined in a "Y" pipe a few feet from the manifolds.
Few V-6 engines came stock with a true dual exhaust.
I guess all this is somewhat germane, because the handling of the exhaust system does make a difference in the sound.
I would not put installation of a Clifford header beyond "most" of the people on this forum, in fact there are a few who could probably build a header like that from scratch, if they wanted to. Much easier than putting headers on most V-8's in most cars or trucks.
I personally like the sound of my '08 Acura TL-Type S. It's factory and it has a nice growl to it when I give it some gas, especially once it hits that 5000 RPM mark!
Right now Jag makes the best-sounding V6 around. The exhaust tune on the Camaro V6 sounds sharp too. The 90 degree V6 in the Alfa Giulia Quadrofoglio sounds gnarly at full boil but below 2500rpm or so it sounds like a truck motor.
I've heard some of those. You forgot the flat-six on most Porsche 911s, like my 991.1 with sport exhaust (from the factory, whatever they call it). Definitely sounds damn tasty on the boil, or even puttering around, or so others tell me. Sounds great from the cabin, too.
Actually that was one of the engines I mentioned. Look at the one second from the bottom.
The 90 degree V6 in the Alfa Giulia Quadrofoglio sounds gnarly at full boil but below 2500rpm or so it sounds like a truck motor.
Oooh, that's a good one. I forgot about the Quadrofoglio. Thanks for the reminder!
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Sounded awesome especially at full throttle. Can’t wait to get into a Turbo S. The new GT2RS is showing up for delivery this week. Can’t wait to see it/hear it. 720hp flat 6 turbo! 
