You've raised some very valid points about the resonance of intakes. I've just started to research this, however what I've found so far is that most of the tuning done before the intake manifold is "tuned" to acoustically reduce engine and intake noise from being heard outside the car.

However a lot of effort is placed on NA engines to acoustically charge the air while inside the intake runners to aid in the filling of cylinders as soon as the valve opens. Another good site about this is here: http://www.team-integra.net/sections...?ArticleID=466

I may be completely out of line, but since the throttle body and MAF should be the most restrictive points prior to the intake manifold, I would think that any work that improves airflow to the throttle body wouldn't greatly disrupt the resonating frequency in the intake runners.

Basically to bring this back to the speaker metaphor: Improving airflow to the throttle body would by metaphorically equivalent to moving the ported speaker from your example into a larger room. Sure in a larger room, it may not seem quite as loud, but that definitely doesn't mean the speaker's efficiency is reduced...

As this is all new to me (as is the crossfire's engine), I'm going to have to bring this topic to some local engine tuners around here. I have an OBDII reader that can tell me the absolute intake manifold pressure, so I'll be able to accurately gauge whether or not this intake design "flows better", but if you're right about the intake resonance... ..."flowing better" might not mean "improved performance"...

...more to come...