Nice pics Steve. I also love your description of the idle... you nailed that one... it is that much better with the baffles out. I apologize for not having a clip posted yet, but I'll try again tomorrow. I had a very busy day today and do need to figure out how to do this. I know it is simple, but I just haven't done it before so it will take me a tad longer than necessary.
I dont know if this would make any sense, but for the short time I rode the bike with baffles in, it almost seems like drone might be worse with the baffles than without. Not that either is an issue IMO, but for those with more sensitive ears it might be. Even though there is more ambient noise behind you with baffles out, it seems like with the baffles in there is more vibration of the chocked up pipes, causing more/different vibration of the metal, sending sound waves up to your ears as opposed to out the back. I realize that this is a very primitive/none scientific way of describing it, but maybe it makes sense to some of you.
With my previous (2005) Goldwing, I had a Cobra system also. I removed those baffles and rode it to work and back only once (25 miles one way). I had to put them back in because they had my ears ringing; it was as if the sound found its way up the bottom of my bags and was sucked in between the trunk and the windshield straight into my helmet. With the baffles in, there was a drone that was just about tolerable for me, but possibly would not be for many others.
On the F6B none of this applies. These 6 2 6 pipes stick out a bit beyond the bags, expelling the sound out behind the bike. There is no wind turbulence from a back trunk to suck the noise back to the rider or channel it forward in any way. This again is my none technical way of explaining why I think there is no problem for the rider on this bike. At highway speeds there is really no issue as the sound is really blown back and away from you more forcefully. In town you can make it loud or actually relatively quiet by modulating your throttle.
Hope this helps those who are trying to decide.