yes it is affected.
but i have no experience on how to design an exhaust setup...
it is visible that to reduce sound, most manufacturer will make
1) bigger center bullet
2) another resonator before the muffler
by adding more size to the center bullet and resonator, the volume of exhaust fumes restricted by the 2inch internal can be balanced.... and noise suppression is possible without loosing too much or affecting the performance of the setup.
That is why most malaysian exhaust setup are noisy.... it is not well balanced.... most shop recommends customers with freeflow exhaust which have equal internal diameter from muffler to the piping... and the center bullet/muffler contribute to a noisy setup.
To minimize the noise level rear muffler silencer are oftenly used, you can feel the difference with and without the silencer....
there are too many things too consider, back flow, noise level etc etc, to get muffler set which have acceptable noise level, sys with JASMA tags are OK, cos most of it are road legal.
bro kevfoo,ae101wong, i borrow your pics eh?
http://www.zerotohundred.com/newforums/attachments/engine-and-performance/244530-toyota-ae100-111-exhaust-piping-image_1595_.jpg
http://www.zerotohundred.com/newforums/attachments/engine-and-performance/246102-hks-hi-power-muffler-set-for-4age-resize-of-image1465.jpg
conclusion, the japs done so much dyno test etc etc etc and then sell it... so... why go through the hassle... designing without knowledge are like opening pandora's box... you'll never know what will happen next.