New Headers, need ideas for a street strip exhaust!

These are my new "built on the car" custom step headers built by Tom Stiel in Waterford MI.
They are 2" stepping to 2 1/8" w/ 3" slip on collectors, which was what Randy Malik thought would be best for my street car! They are real nice and are tucked up tightly to the floor pan w/ my 1.5" dropped and 1.5" setback engine. With my previous 2" Kooks headers, I had 3 bolt flanges welded on the collectors and then used reducers to connect it to my 3" x-pipe w/ dumps and Magnaflow 3" x 18" mufflers. I was quite satisfied with the sound with that setup, although the dumps under my seat were mind numbingly loud! I only opened them up once. The guy that built the headers thought I should just use slip on reducers on the collectors instead of welding on flanges. I intend to have my headers ceramic coated to reduce underhood heat and give me long term good looks. I'm afraid that the slip on reducers would chew up the ceramic coating and cause problems. I was thinking of using Flowmaster Ball and Cone adaptors that go from 3.5" to 3" to make it easier to drop the exhaust out and reinstall without hassles. The problem is that to me it looks like a real rapid transition from the collector down to the 3" exhaust and the constriction would kill a bunch of power! I've been looking online, but haven't been able to find a 3.5" to 3.5" ball and cone connection. If I could find one, I'd attach it to the collector and then use a Flowmaster 3.5" to 3" tapered cone adapter which stretches the constriction out over 8". Anyone know someone that makes a 3.5"-3.5" ball and cone adapter? If not I'll probably find someone to weld on collector rings and then use the Flowmaster tapered cone as the reducer with a 3"-3" ball and cone connector where it hooks to the x-pipe. Any other ideas? I'm probably going to use a Magnaflow 3" x 14" long muffler to allow everything to tuck in up closer to the floor pan. I want a reasonably quiet exhaust (hence the x-pipe) that doesn't hang so far down that I risk ripping my exhaust off when I encounter a steep driveway ramp.
Gary