It does not sound the same as a single pipe. Everthing else about them has already been said except that I think when this thread started I was using two separate pipes and later I fitted a H-Pipe.
With the H-Pipe the exhaust noise level did indeed drop slightly and the car sounded more tame at idle than it had before.
It was still what you would call very loud and meaty sounding though. The only difference is you get a "Blap" out of both pipes at the same time rather than alternative pipes.