Be aware that a couple of months ago an edict was sent to all MOT testers stating that vehicle exhausts must not be considered louder than the factory fitted unit in good / serviceable condition. Come early next summer our police forces will be aware that all (older and almost new vehicles excepted) vehicles will (should) have been in front of an MOT man hence a potential crack down on noisy exhausts. If this comes to pass then good original exhausts will increase in value.
For the record I run an akrapovic on my gen 1, baffle out. It's not overly loud, it's extremely, almost comically light and looks to be very well made indeed. De-stickered it's not visually too different from the standard unit, subtle. The only downside is that they are not cheap. For what it's worth I think that the standard can looks quite good, far better than some of the current offerings which are slightly larger than ICBMs.