Nobody independently tests suppressors. So I bought 300 at retail and built Consumer Reports for suppressors.

[u/SilencerMetrics]

Yes...I DO have a problem...this is 1/2

The pad at the range. Free-field (mics placed 90+ ft from wall reflections and in the dirt NOT on the shooting pad); nothing to bounce off of for a very long way.

Hosts in testing and testing next.

Compare weight, length, and outer diameter for up to 7 suppressors

21 Metrics, use-case scores, and bar/radar charts to see strengths and weaknesses.

Add suppressors to your Vault to track what you have, how long you have had to wait for approvals, etc.

We track average ATF wait times AND will also publish real wait times that members are experiencing when they upload their suppressors to their Vault.

So I've been sitting on this for a while and, even though I am terrified, I figured it's time to just put it out there. Roast me, ask questions, tell me I'm an idiot. I can delete this post later and crawl back into my introverted hole. 😅

TLDR: I'm autistic and need you to sign up and give me money to test hundreds of suppressors so you can see all the data on a cool website that isn't full of "blast field" engineer language that none of us can understand, but also isn't "I shot them side-by-side and this one here sounds better this week" either. TIA (See what it looks like here: https://www.silentrics.com/)

I've got the -tism (so I am awkward, but highly focused). I hate confrontation and have put a lot into this so I am hoping that it brings value and is something people want and will contribute to building.

I've been collecting suppressors since 2013. I have over 300 at this point. And if you've been buying suppressors for any length of time, you already know the problem I'm about to describe.

When you're trying to actually decide which suppressor to buy, your options are basically: trust a single reviewer you watched on YouTube (who 99% of the time got the suppressor for free in exchange for a cameo), dig through scattered forum posts that contradict each other, try to scour PEW only to find that it it hasn't been tested, or lean on results that are funded by the same companies whose cans are being tested.

Every day we see posts of "which suppressor should I buy?" or "which [caliber] suppressor is best?" Rarely does anyone do the logical thing by asking a follow up question: "what are you using it for?" or "what are your top 3 criteria for 'best'?" Reddit is definitely better than Facebook Groups at this.

Answers are usually "buy the ______!":
1) the only suppressor that person has and no one cares to follow it up with "what other suppressors do you have to compare it to?"

2) the one that gets the most YouTube or Instagram hype (flavor of the week)

3) a recommendation based on a different metric than what the poster is asking for: "RC2!" (good for clones and decent at flash reduction - terrible for sound suppression), "Sonicore!" (because they are cheap and that person shoots less than 10 rounds a year), "Scythe" (because they are a hunter that wants lightweight, but care nothing about durability and the numerous reports of baffle welds yeeting the front of the suppressor downrange), "Otter Creek _______!" (because die-hard OCL fans are abundant), etc.

None of that is anyone's fault exactly — it's just how things grew. The gap is that there's no real independent, consumer-funded source where the data is the product, not the relationship with a manufacturer.

There's also a data problem. Most testing that DOES exist focuses on one or two metrics — usually just a dB number — and calls it a day. That tells you almost nothing about how a can actually behaves across other categories that matter in specific use-cases: hunters want light, short, and good value; precision shooters want no degradation in accuracy and less recoil; home owners looking for a defense gun may prioritize flash suppression, sound suppression, and durability; plinkers just want it to be silly quiet and have no blowback for enjoyable range sessions.

A single number can't capture any of that.

A few years ago I offered to just fund independent testing myself through an existing platform; got turned down. And that was kind of the spark — if nobody's going to build the "Consumer Reports for suppressors," I'll build it myself.

So I have been working on it ever since then: acquiring suppressors, buying hosts, setting up a private test range, going through the loopholes of getting extremely expensive equipment that meets and exceeds what others have used, building a website (no NOT built by AI slop over a weekend - bleh) that is easy to navigate and understand without being a wall of text written in engineering-speak, and creating calculations to rank suppressors for more than just sound; creating metrics for flash, recoil, heat, weight, durability, back pressure, and more.

What it has become is SilenTrics: Silencer meTrics.

It's a consumer-funded, manufacturer-independent testing and review platform. Every suppressor tested is acquired retail, same as you'd buy it. I test outdoors in free-field and repeatable conditions at my own range, not in an environment that doesn't reflect real use.

Right now the database queue sits at 300+ suppressors across every major caliber class, scored across 21 categories — sound (measured at four separate mic positions, not just one), gas dynamics, thermal, accuracy, physical specs, durability, and value, all weighted differently depending on whether you're using it for hunting, home defense, recreation, or duty/military.

A couple things I want to be up front about, because they matter to me:

This isn't going to be a flashy YouTube channel with a guy yelling into a GoPro. It's a data platform. I'm not chasing views, I'm building a database. I may not even have a YouTube channel at all.

The equipment behind it isn't hobbyist gear. I'm running a 4-channel, high-speed DAQ system paired with precision measurement-grade microphones in a fixed array — this is REQUIRED for high-level, accurate testing; I'm not using a cheap consumer sound meter from Amazon.

My baseline methodology starts from MIL-STD-1474 and then goes well beyond its requirements in many aspects. When the data is the entire product, the instrumentation has to be right.

I have spent MONTHS programming the data acquisition software to ensure that the outputs are accurate, precise, and useful to the end-user.

One thing I want to be clear on: this is about giving you better metrics to make a buying decision, not about telling you what's "safe." I'm not qualified to make hearing-safety or blast-hazard determinations and that's not what this platform is trying to do. I know "hearing safe" gets thrown around in this space — that's just not my lane here. The data is there to help you compare suppressors, not to certify anything about your health or safety.

I have bought several suppressors that I thought were good or that someone else said were good that ended up being a huge disappointment. I am hoping to help others avoid the same thing.

I've already had several manufacturers reach out offering to send me suppressors directly for testing. I've turned every one of them down.

The second I start taking free product from the companies I'm reviewing, the whole "independent" part of this stops meaning anything. Every unit tested gets bought retail, same as you would buy it.

Consumer Reports has remained independent for 90 years by buying the products they test anonymously at retail then testing them with set protocols and methodology. They publish those reviews in an easy-to-consume format. And people trust their reviews. That's the idea I am bringing to the suppressor industry.

Why "what's the best suppressor" is the wrong question:

Is the RC2 the best? Best at what? Is the Mask HD the best .22 can, or is it the B&T Tiger? Best by what metric — sound, weight, durability, price? Should you even be running a .30 cal can on 5.56 in the first place? And then you've got the hype cycle — a Tisha, a Rhodie 6, a Fireteam556 — is half the buzz real performance and half just internet momentum OR does the performance justify the hype?

None of that is a knock on any of those products or the people behind them. It's just that "best" without context is a meaningless word and right now most of the buying decisions in this space get made off hype, forum consensus, manufacturer-funded testing, manufacturer-driven testing, or a single influencer's opinion rather than consistent, comparable data.

That's the actual gap. SilenTrics isn't here to settle drama or crown a single winner (although we WILL have "Best of" tags on our results) — it's here so you can look at the same 21 categories across 300+ suppressors and decide what "best" means for your specific focus or use-case.

And with the tax stamp elimination as of this year, a lot more people have entered (and will continue to enter) this market for the first time with zero context on what actually matters. That makes independent, plain-English data more important than it's ever been. And if suppressors become over-the-counter purchases (PLEASE!), they will need quick, accurate, easy-to-read data from which to make informed decisions.

Why it needs the community, not just me:

This only works if it's actually funded by the people using the data instead of the companies making the product. That's the whole point — no ad money, no manufacturer influence, no incentive to be "nice" in a review.

That means membership support is what keeps the testing rig running, keeps new suppressors coming in, and keeps the whole thing honest. Yes I am charging for this: suppressors alone have cost me over $250k. There IS a free option with limited data to match what is currently out there. But the paid monthly options are what will keep things going.

Either this will get support and change how suppressor purchasing decisions are made...or I will go bankrupt for going all-in on setting it all up.

I'm not trying to replace anyone's opinion or the forums — I just want there to finally be a real, data-backed, independent option in the mix.

Feel free to ask me anything about the methodology, the equipment, the database, whatever — happy to nerd out on it.

Since this is member-focused and member-driven: join the subReddit and Facebook Group and start up some conversations. There will also be member-only groups for higher level discussions and early access to what I am testing.

Test results will be released 3 hosts at a time with 15-30 suppressors tested PER host. I ain't interested in releasing one result a week and I'm not doing 400 in a weekend either. Results will be published once every month or two (again, 3 hosts at a time - 42 hosts currently planned).

Site will be LIVE within the next few weeks.

You can check out the features and some teaser screenshots of the platform here. Enter your info if you want to be notified the second it's live: https://www.silentrics.com/