The longer pipe, or lack thereof, will not change loudness much if any. I have 2 inch pipe on my 91 suburban. At first, I had it installed without a muffler, just a cat and ran the pipe all the way past the rear wheel. Boy was she loud. I had to go back and put a muffler on it it was just toooo loud.
Now on my 79 pickup with 383 stroker I had new exhaust, a little smaller diameter than 2", whatever that is, and had a new cat (round cylinder type) put on without a muffler. From the cat it split to duals to both sides just in front of rear wheels. She sounds great, not too loud because of the smaller diameter of the pipe. She sounds perfect.
The moral of the story: I don't think the length of the pipe makes it sound louder/quieter, more importantly, it is diameter of the pipe. It also depends on type of cat and whether you have a muffler or not. SgtDel
aka "Andy"
www.delbridge.net
1979 Big 10 383 stroker
1991 Blu 'Burb 3/4 ton 4x4