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Suppressors 2023 Silencer Summit Results

dB is raw energy.
dBA is weighted to those frequencies the majority of healthy, human ears are more attuned to hear. We don’t have a flat hearing range.
Like this?
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5) 5.56 SBRs remain a real bastard to effectively suppress; the best-performing .223 can on the MK18 is potentially more damaging than the 5th-worse .30-cal can on the .308 bolt gun according to SE impulse. (Impulse numbers at the muzzle aren't quite so drastically worse, so there's some significant impact of weapon system performance on these results.)
SE numbers on the MK18 are really bad because of port pop.
 
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So, what I’m seeing with the .30 cal cans, it’s consistent with the PEW Science results… Top 3 are Magnus, Nomad-LT, and Hydrogen-L. 👍🏼

You know what’s interesting, that the Nomad 30 with KeyMo beat out the LT at the shooters ear numbers. Wondering if that was supposed to be the Nomad L with KeyMo.

Also on the one who puts a .375 end cap on a 30 cal can?
 
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Excellent write up. Brain is still fried trying to read and understand the data but is there a way to sort by DB reduction per OZ then again by price? aka "bang for the buck"? :)
You can download the CSV file, import to excel, and add whatever columns you want.

We had to draw a line of how many more columns we could add to the online tables to keep it at least somewhat manageable.
 
You can download the CSV file, import to excel, and add whatever columns you want.

We had to draw a line of how many more columns we could add to the online tables to keep it at least somewhat manageable.
no worries, I was being sarcastic anyways. Still best write up so far. None of this marketing b.s., just facts and numbers with variables controlled as much as possible.
 
"d. dB vs dBA – In this document, dB is used to refer to unweighted dB. dBA is used to refer to A-weighted dB."
I was struggling to find what the A-weighted actually is too.

This is at the bottom
View attachment 8236604

but its nerd speak for something I dont understand.




More easily

You take a signal, convert it to frequency, then add the value from the a weight curve to each frequency, finally, convert it back to pressure, or whatever, and run your analysis.

arrivederci
Sound-Pressure-Level-Frequency-Weightings.jpg
 
A brand that doesn't seem to get any love here on the hide is Griffin. That being said their new Recce 5k seems to be good 5.56 can for a good price. Its competitive in suppression, better than the FLOW 5.56, for a non-ti hard use can its relatively lightweight at 14oz, and at $650 its reasonably priced.
 
I thought the AB A-10 stood out in the 5.56 category. I don't see any downsides to that suppressor. Super light and it's cheap. Like .22LR cheap and $200 under the Griffin. Am I missing something? Not much info on their page, no idea if it's full auto rated.
 
A brand that doesn't seem to get any love here on the hide is Griffin. That being said their new Recce 5k seems to be good 5.56 can for a good price. Its competitive in suppression, better than the FLOW 5.56, for a non-ti hard use can its relatively lightweight at 14oz, and at $650 its reasonably priced.
They had a pretty strong presence here for a while. They dont really cater to the precision crowd much imo.

If you like the Recce 5, check out their Explorr. Little more spendy, but sub 10oz and FA rated.
 
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It would have been nice to see Lane silencers on the list as I have 2 of them.
Was surprised and a little disappointed that your new 50 cal can was not on the list.
Not that I can afford it but it would have been nice to see the numbers.
 
This is great. Would have loved to see the sandman-K on there, but the S gives enough data to figure out how it will work.

this is also a great resource for those of us that only have one or two suppressors and want to get a better understanding of how ones we might be looking at compare to the ones we've got!
 
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This seems like a well thought out experiment. Sound engineering and physics is outside my scope of knowledge, but I was still able to follow the logic of how the data was collected, what was measured, and why those measurements are significant. I both learned some things about sound physics, and I felt capable enough to interpret the presented data on my own. And i didn’t need to eat a bowl of word salad to get there! Strong work.

On a semi-related note: infections abhors sunlight. I’m grabbing a beer and getting a comfy seat to watch how some paypigs people respond to what I’d call a legitimate study.
 
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I think they did an unsuppressed baseline…That should get you close. 😂
I mean, my interest in it is mostly for the .300 AAC results. the particular build I want it for is less about “movie quiet” and more about taming the muzzle blast and giving ‘decent’ subsonic performance while remaining short and narrow body to fit the constraints of an MCX SD handguard.
 
I mean, my interest in it is mostly for the .300 AAC results. the particular build I want it for is less about “movie quiet” and more about taming the muzzle blast and giving ‘decent’ subsonic performance while remaining short and narrow body to fit the constraints of an MCX SD handguard.
Given the fact the Sandman-S is only like 1.5" longer, and noticeably quieter (and it's still not THAT quiet compared to many other cans), but the weight and length are so negligible, why not just get the S. At some point it becomes pretty dumb to spend that much money and time and tax stamp on something that barely does anything. Unless you're kicking in doors, that 1.5" really doesn't matter (every woman will disagree, but that's here nor there).

Hell, if your handguard can handle 1.65" cans, you could tuck an Otter Creek Hydrogen-K with a ZR0-DTA direct-thread mount (or a KeyMo if you prefer) on it. Or, even go up to the 7" Hydro-S and have amazing results and EXPONENTIALLY better performance. The Hydro-K is 5" long without a mount (the ZR0 mount only adds 1/16" length) has 5 baffles, and weighs only 6.7 oz. (without a mount, the ZR0 mount is only 1.1 oz). Same size package, half the weight, and almost twice as any baffles. And almost the same price. It would be so light, you wouldn't even feel the can on the end. And it's rated to handle down to a 5" .300 BLK with subsonic ammo.


I have 2 Sandman-S cans, and they're good cans, they're just not that quiet compared to many others in the same length and weight category. They work well for what they were designed for...Hard use machine gun cans.
 
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I mean, my interest in it is mostly for the .300 AAC results. the particular build I want it for is less about “movie quiet” and more about taming the muzzle blast and giving ‘decent’ subsonic performance while remaining short and narrow body to fit the constraints of an MCX SD handguard.

There is much to be said for running a good 9mm pistol can (meaning either the Fly 9 or Obsidian9) on subsonic 300 BLK. That's basically going to get you the most baffles for the length and weight.

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There is much to be said for running a good 9mm pistol can (meaning either the Fly 9 or Obsidian9) on subsonic 300 BLK. That's basically going to get you the most baffles for the length and weight.
I have a modular 9mm can (Sig MODX-9) and there's zero info from Sig on shooting 300 subs through it. Being modular I can add baffles as I see fit but just a little scared to try it, LOL. It's quiet enough with 9mm subs out of a hand gun.

I just received my Enticer S Ti and have to say it was killer on my Spear LT in 300 Blk. albeit with more back pressure than I'd like on a gas gun. Supers were louder than .308 out of a 20" barrel but subs, all I could hear was the action with subs. At less than 7" long and a bit over 8oz. it's an "enticing" proposition. :rolleyes:
 
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Given the fact the Sandman-S is only like 1.5" longer, and noticeably quieter (and it's still not THAT quiet compared to many other cans), but the weight and length are so negligible, why not just get the S. At some point it becomes pretty dumb to spend that much money and time and tax stamp on something that barely does anything. Unless you're kicking in doors, that 1.5" really doesn't matter (every woman will disagree, but that's here nor there).

Hell, if your handguard can handle 1.65" cans, you could tuck an Otter Creek Hydrogen-K with a ZR0-DTA direct-thread mount (or a KeyMo if you prefer) on it. Or, even go up to the 7" Hydro-S and have amazing results and EXPONENTIALLY better performance. The Hydro-K is 5" long without a mount (the ZR0 mount only adds 1/16" length) has 5 baffles, and weighs only 6.7 oz. (without a mount, the ZR0 mount is only 1.1 oz). Same size package, half the weight, and almost twice as any baffles. And almost the same price. It would be so light, you wouldn't even feel the can on the end. And it's rated to handle down to a 5" .300 BLK with subsonic ammo.


I have 2 Sandman-S cans, and they're good cans, they're just not that quiet compared to many others in the same length and weight category. They work well for what they were designed for...Hard use machine gun cans.
Thanks for the serious reply, I appreciate the insight.

my draw to the Sandman line was precisely because in the next year or so I will be doing the legwork to become an 07/02 manufacturer/gunsmith, and I anticipate needing at least one hard-use can for the inevitable MG version of a design I’m working on, with it living on the MCX when not being used in that capacity. I’ll probably go with the S and just live with the extra length.
 
I have a modular 9mm can (Sig MODX-9) and there's zero info from Sig on shooting 300 subs through it. Being modular I can add baffles as I see fit but just a little scared to try it, LOL. It's quiet enough with 9mm subs out of a hand gun.

Normally I'd have no problem sending 300 subs down a pistol silencer, but in this case I'd be inclined to closely follow the manufacturer's recommendations.
 
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And I also realized they don't even make a piston with 5/8x24 threading so it's a moot point and probably intentional on their part.
 
I thought the AB A-10 stood out in the 5.56 category. I don't see any downsides to that suppressor. Super light and it's cheap. Like .22LR cheap and $200 under the Griffin. Am I missing something? Not much info on their page, no idea if it's full auto rated.

I have an A-10 5.56 and a 7.62. Thus far, I’m really impressed. They are full-auto rated, but I no longer have access to that level of fun.
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Geeze, I forgot about the AB suppressors... And folks think the OCL cans look like sex toys... I bet if you accidentally left that on your bedside table at night, it would smell like a fish fry at the range the next day when you start shooting... 🤣😂🤣

They are lightweight and are effective at sound, but yes…..No way to not see a sex toy.
 
In the latest testing we did for the add'l Magnus rollout, they were about the same for peak dB due to the SS crack dominating both, but if you look at Impulse the 338 is a couple dB*ms quieter. If you look at Leq, the Magnus meters quieter by about 1 Leq dBA, but that's mainly because Leq uses A-weighting and the frequency response of the pulses differs.


Easiest way is to go to "UNIFIED RESULTS" and then put "308" in the search box, then sort on whatever column you want.
 
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Wish yall had shot an OCM5 on the Mk12 next to the AEM5.

Also interested to know what was going on with some of the mounting solutions used… the Ranger 5 Mini specs at the bottom are like a full 10oz heavier and 1.5” longer than the quoted weight/length of the suppressor.
 
Like it says, they were measured "as tested" with whatever mounts or adapters were required to screw them on the host threads, IE, how they were handed to the test staff. Every can (and we all do, LOL) quote lengths and weights of just the suppressor sans mount & device, but this is the fairest way to do a test like this. For the '24 Summit we will take a photo of each suppressor "as tested."
 
This an amazing piece of work, presented to the community Gratis! That it is proposed to repeat annually, just floors me. I was grateful to see some Pew Science results free of fees. This just astonishes. Thank You So Much!

As an offering, a tidbit: The barrel lengths for the pistol work should be indicated. The LR crowd does not care, but I do.
 
I probably missed this somewhere, but Zak can you explain why there are multiple entries for the same suppressor in a given set of data like what I have highlighted?
 

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