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From all the videos I have seen until now, the new M3 sounds very similar to the N54 engine with BMW Performance Exhaust (minus the upshift and downshift sounds which are completely different due to cylinder shut-off). Yes I did not hear it in person but if you could never replicate sounds via digital means then you wouldn't have MP3 files and could only hear the artists by going to concerts. So I consider the videos sufficient to make my own decision.
After all, I'm not sure how people would reasonably expect it to sound different, since much of the mechanical and induction noise is muffled by the turbine blades (like you can clearly read in the interview with the BMW M exhaust expert) ? It's just the typical BMW I6 twin-turbo sound (which keeps its signature even with different exhaust brands). You can hear this yourself in all the videos. However, the synthetized inside cabin sound sounds like a fake V8 sound, which is really stupid from BMW if you ask me. Hopefully someone figures out where is the fuse that you can remove to disable that stupidity.
However it does not mean it sounds bad at all. An N54/N55 can sound great with the right exhaust.
As for the performance, I am sure the S55 is a monster. It will destroy the S65 in every way but one: throttle response. It will never be as sharp as the S65, because it's a classical twin-turbo engine (with some smart gimmicks). If you read carefully the posts of the owner of the first F80 M3 (which also owns an old V8 M3) you will clearly read this remark. I drove an e92 V8 M3 and multiple N54 cars (Z4M, 1M), and basically I realized that you cannot replicate the V8 M3's throttle response, it's impossible, regardless of the short air paths between the turbos and engine, because the main problem is not the air path length but the turbine inertia itself. The short air paths can help with lag, but not with the same-millisecond throttle response.
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