"Loudest" as far as which mode? WOT, idle, or cruise? At WOT, they're all pretty loud.
If you go by decibels, the straight-through design mufflers tend to be the loudest at WOT, but also among the quietest at idle and cruise. Comparing straight-through mufflers, I'd have to say the order goes, from OVERALL loudest to not-as-loud:
1. "S-mufflers" (basically just two 45* bends welded together, plus a hanger, essentially NOT a muffler at all ... yet they cost like $50 apiece through Summit)
2. Dynomax Race Magnum Bullets (hardly even qualifies as a muffler)
3.
Pypes Violators
4.
Borla XR-1
5. Magnaflows
6. Dynomax Ultra-Flows/Hooker Maximum Flow (almost identical in design/sound)
7. Glasspacks of any type (Thrush, Cherry Bomb, Patriot, Summit, etc.)
Of course, pretty much all straight-through mufflers with lots of insulation packing tend to get louder as they "break in" with time and use, but Violators sound just about the same forever from the day you bolt 'em on - I think mostly because there's not much insulation packing inside the muffler case, at all (very loosely-filled). Bang on one sometime with your knuckles and compare that to, say, a
Magnaflow muffler and you'll see - the Violator makes a "bong" sound, whereas the Magnaflow makes a dull "thunk."
Chambered muffs are usually "loud" to me because they're friggin' obnoxious at cruise because of the drone, but they're not much louder at idle and they're usually quieter at WOT than straight-throughs. The worst-droning mufflers, IMO:
1.
Flowmaster two-chambers (40 series) and generic rip-offs of same design
2. MAC Flowpaths
3. Dynomax Super Turbos (funny because they're generally almost stock-quiet, but they still drove me nuts with the throbbing drone at cruise)
4. Cheaper "turbo" style mufflers (Cherry Bomb, Thrush, Afterburner, Terminator, etc.)
Supposedly the Hooker Aero-Chamber muffs sound good and don't drone, but they don't look like they'd flow too well, and I've never actually heard a set of 'em on a 5.0, so I have no idea how they sound. FWIW, they're not too expensive, either.
Only other oddball maybe worth mentioning is the Moroso Spiral Flow muffler. It looks like a short glasspack (like 16" or 18" total length), but it's got this weird corkscrew outer chamber with a smaller tube running right through the middle of it. Doesn't seem more restrictive than any chambered muffler with S-shaped or delta-shaped internal baffles, and doesn't have any packing material to blow out. They're kinda quiet, actually - probably falls somewhere between chambered muffs and straight-throughs - but I guess they'd be handy for someone looking for something to plug in a performance muffler where space is restricted, and they're pretty cheap (about $40 last I checked). FWIW, I had one on an '87 Formula Firebird and it sounded pretty good ... up until an old guy pulled an illegal U-turn in front of me and destroyed the car.
Probably best left used by F-Bodies, MN12's (replace the rear muffs with straight pipe and plug a Spiral Flow in-line behind the 3rd cat), or someone just wanting to run dumps on a Fox (it'd be kinda hard to rig up tails to fit these).