jerbarb,
i hear you talking!
I put the TOR (Triumph Off Road) exhaust on my new R3R last year. They do sound much better than the stockers; but, they are NOT loud. They do indeed look, and fit the same. The big difference to me was the weight as it was a huge difference. The R3R stockers have the cats inside and the TOR do not. The box connecting the two pipes to the header is hollow on the R3R, so I used it instead of paying the ridiculous price of a Staintune.
I recommend going with tripple K&Ns, a Power Commander V and Auto Tune with a Hanso map installed with the free Tune ECU software. The performance is a VERY noticeable improvement!
1olbull