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				Originally posted by spoogenet  
It's not specific to Hondas. 
 
The explanation I have for it is that regular gears are a helical cut gears while reverse is a straight cut gear, which lends itself to whirring noises.  I believe the main reason for the noise is that it's a helical gear driving a straight-cut gear....and yadda yadda yadda, it whirs.     I'm sure I can get a more detailed description if you'd like. 
 
b 
			
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  this man knows what he is talking about, and you want to hear a loud trans, come drive my truck, you can hear the wonderful 4 straight cut forward gears, then again they are known to take over 1000ft lbs of torque.
jeremy