Ok, I am no expert in turbo cars. Never owned, never ridden. I took out the airbox, slapped on a K&N cone filter, clamped it all down. No heat shield yet.

Now, for my complaint. I expected a nice spool up whine, and a whoosh every time I shift (automatic manual mode). However, in the 10min drive around the back roads, I heard little whine until I hit 5k RPM, and the whooshing was more of an annoying air whoosh that was very long and drawn out, with some fluttering of valves changing the woosh. Mostly when I was going slow, say 20mph, and finally stepped on it slowly.
Did I miss something here? Obviously an ECU retune would be in order, but....it's almost like I just opened a can of air once and awhile. I would imagine if I was driving in town, people would wonder what is wrong with my car! Should the sounds of an CAI sound solid, or kinnda....annoying whooshy?

info: 2012 CMS All4, automatic. I drive 98% of the time in "manual mode" with Sport off. (wife hates the throttle roll-off thumps, and i think it's kinnda weird) I did try sport and automatic mode with the intake mods, but did not notice anything except more blowoff/bypass noise in Sport mode on.

 

That sounds normal to me. You just hear air-related noises with the turbo and open air intake. My wife says it sounds like Space Mountain.

The 1st Gen cars with superchargers have a really great whine with an open air intake.

 

+1 on the r53 sound with an open cone. WAYY better with the reduction pulley as well