With a cold air kit, you may notice more whistle, but it will not make your exhaust louder. for that, you need to modify the exhaust.

AEM is a decent filter. They use polyester instead of cotton gauze and they are dry. I don't like metal tubes, even shiny ones. The polished probably resist heat as well as or even better than plastic, but it's one more thing to keep clean. For easy to install, it would depend on your vehicle and the other mods you might have.

My personal preference would be to go with Truflow before AEM, I view them as a sport compact, tuner, ricer, punk kid company.