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the aftermarket cold air intakes tend to be open-topped, designed to seal against the engine cover. this seal is very imperfect. as a result some hot engine compartment air gets injested and lowers power.
other factors are heat sink - cheaper aftermarket cold air intakes are metal and will heat soak. benefits of the cone are more filter area, as well as less perimeter in contact with with other intake elements so as to reduce heat soak. unfortunately, all aftermarket cone filters i am aware of are resuseable and as such require oiling which can cause issues with mass airflow sensors downstream. this is why most folks that are into tinkering go with the 987 airbox - oem disposable paper cone filter in a a cold air intake with better airflow than the 986 unit.
while you specifically stated that you didn't care about power, other folks seem to care about that for you so ... hot air will kill power at all levels - low load torque, wide open throttle horsepower. other things you do to 'improve' airflow in the intake (remove the helmholz chamber, reduce restrictions, increase diameters to improve airflow) will detract from the tuning of the intake system envisioned by porsche. this tuning was intended to accelerate airflow at lower rpms, facilitate cylinder fill, and improve torque at low rpm. this same tuning introduces restrctions at higher rpm that impacts hp numbers. so, you have to ask what you want - torque or hp. and ultimately we are talking a few, under 5 for sure, '# or hp. again, the hot air is a big killer at all rpm levels.
but ultimately, the only real data point you have is alm - he put in a cold air intake with a cone filter and sound improved. ask, however, did he do this in conjunction with desnorkling - how much of his sound improvement was a result of the snorkle being removed?
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