How To Cure a "Rappy" Exaust?

I had the same problem on my old Dakota with the 318 when I had true duals installed. A crossover helped tremendously and made it a little quiter. I know your not wanting to do that but I just thought I'd throw in another vote for the crossover.

Recently my Flowmaster 40 with dual outlets on my 02 4.7l Dakota rusted out and I replaced the system with a mandrel bent cat back system with dual tailpipes. At the same time I took off the 3rd. catylitic converter (lucky here we don't have inspection). I used a FM 50 this time since I was taking out the 3rd converter and didn't want it to be any louder. It is about the same volume but is kinda raspy sounding. Not nearly as good as the 40 sounded. But it is quieter. Larger tips helped a little but not greatly.