I have a 2005 JCW that the previous owner installed a catless header, battery box delete, and straight piped it. Not a fan of the popping and prefer quiet performance. Would adding a catted header or a cat back system like the Megan Racing do more to reduce the popping and quiet the exhaust? Don't really have the budget to do both. I don't suppose anyone makes a cat as a direct replacement for the test pipe.

 

A cat will definitely help and so would some kind of exhaust can. I think there are quite a few threads on here and some with sound clips of the installed systems.
What you have now must be very very loud with an open straight pipe, too loud for the street and maybe too loud for some tracks.

I have a stock catpipe and Milltek with resonator and it is about as loud as I would ever want.

 

Have a local exhaust / muffler shop install a high-flow cat, a vibrant ultra quiet resonator, and a muffler of your choosing (or a second vibrant resonator), and you should be okay.

 

Thanks. I’ll try a local shop to fit a cat. I’m a DIY guy but don’t have a welder yet. Rarely use a shop but need to tame the noise a bit.