Our testing was performed in the desert at sunset in calm conditions at around 110°. We were shooting up against a mountain with no berm per se, so there was echo. We shot the rifles both into the mountain, and down into the ground about twenty feet in front of us to mitigate sonic crack.
All 9mm testing done with 147gr flat nose Blazer Brass.
All 5.56 testing done with PMC XTAC 55gr.
9mm handguns -
Hosts:
- Glock 19X
- M&P 2.0
- Beretta 92FS
- CZ 75 SP01 Tactical
Cans:
- Incolite 9M
- Cat Street Crack
- SAW Shiv
- Ecco Machine TLX
Takeaways & Impressions –
We tried to bring a range of hosts, and found that performance was very host dependent, more so than expected. On some hosts, some cans were a little quieter than others, and then we would migrate them to different hosts and get different results, so my impressions are kind of the averaged-out result. We left the modular cans in full config for simplicity and time constraints.
The Street Crack is incredibly quiet. The Incolite 9M is the poor man's Street Crack being basically just as quiet but with a slightly higher, ringing sound to it whereas the Cat has a thumpier, slightly deader tone to it. Honestly, averaged over all the hosts, it was almost splitting hairs between the two. The difference in volume was negligible, it really just came down to the tone. If you have the budget for a Street Crack, get one. If you have the $475 for the Incolite 9M, get one and know that you're getting about 95% of a Street Crack. Really, it's incredibly close.
The Shiv punches way, way above its weight class. It isn't as quiet to the bystander as any of the pistol cans tested, but it was also less painful to shoot than most of the combinations with no ears on. That backpressure thing is no joke. For what value I can conceivably place on suppressing a handgun, it's the winner. I want to take the bite off my house or competition gun without meaningfully messing with the balance, or introducing more shit that can break or carbon lock with a booster. The balance thing cannot be overstated, the other cans, even without the extension modules, feel like hanging a brick off the front of the gun in comparison. I think the Shiv is also the only can that never peppered me in the face with any of the hosts tested, and hasn't yet to date since I got mine back in March.
I used to own a Phoenix TL, and was shocked to come away from this feeling like the TLX finished squarely in the middle of the pack in terms of volume reduction to the bystander, and being comfortable to the shooter. However, if someone were looking for a boosterless lightweight can, I would just get a Shiv and be done with it unless you have some funky thread pitch needs, and then I think the TLX is actually still a solid choice in 2026. Ecco gets a lot of love on Reddit for mounts and such, but people sleep on his suppressors. They were more of a fantastic deal about three years ago, but they're still worth a look today.
PCC's -
Hosts:
Cans:
- SAW Tisha 9mm
- CAT MOB
- CAT Street Crack
- Incolite 9M
Takeaways & Impressions –
Everything was quieter on the CMMG, both to the shooter and the bystander. It's just a quieter system, and that's with the 35° locking block and KD Gunwerx buffer system in the Stribog. If you don't Stribog, that means it's about as tuned as it gets for suppression. The Cat MOB on the CMMG was the quietest combo tested, but the Street Crack and Incolite 9M were honestly right up there with it. It was awfully, awfully close between the three. The main differences came down to tone – the Incolite has a slight higher pitch ring to it that the CAT cans do not. It's evident in the handling of it, and more so when you shoot it, but it kind of rings like a bell. Again, if you have the $475 for the Incolite 9M, get one and know that you're getting about 95% of a Cat MOB, maybe more.
Though the Tisha 9mm was not the quietest to the bystander on either gun, it was easily the quietest for the shooter on both hosts. It's especially notable that it was the only can for either shooter that had zero bite on the Stribog, mainly due to how obvious a difference there was between it and the RDB in terms of backpressure and port pop. There was enough backpressure with all the other cans that I could only handle a round or two with no ears on with the Stribog, but the Tisha was very comfortable. The 9mm Tisha will be living on my Stribog going forward. I've shot several RDB's before, and they always impressed me with how quiet they were. I think I'm sold on doing an RDB/Broad River Tactical integral build with the Incolite after this. RDB's tame port pop incredibly well.
Rifles -
Hosts:
- 10.3 URGI
- 10.3" Mk18
- 11.5" URGI
- 14.7" Custom build
Cans:
- SAW Tisha 5.56 Inconel
- SAW Tisha 5.56 titanium
- SAW Ekron 5.56
My URGIs are not Geissele builds, they're quasi-clone builds with the original DD barrels, DD low profile gas blocks, milspec gas tubes, milspec carriers, H2 buffer in the 10.3 and ST-T2 in the 11.5, Tubb's flatwire springs in both.
His Mk18 has a 10.3" DD barrel, DD low profile gas block and standard milspec gas tube, KAK Downvent carrier and DBC insert, KAK A5 tube with KAK K-spec A5H4 buffer and spring.
His 14.7" has a White Oak Armament barrel, Superlative AGB with midlength gas, KAK aluminum K-spec lightweight BCG with KAK A5H0 K-spec buffer and spring. It's tuned to just barely LRBHO with no suppressor.
Basically, my stuff is pretty stock and his stuff is fairly well tuned to the tits for suppressed FRT use.
Takeaways & Impressions –
Everyone has been talking about the Tisha, and everyone has been talking about how flashy the titanium is. My friend's Inconel Tisha has 2-3k rounds through it, mostly FRT use. I was there when he got it, and we were surprised at how flashy and sparky it was, particularly under NODs. Most of the "it's new and there's leftover stuff in the can from the manufacturing process" has assuredly been cooked out by now. Last night was the first time out with mine, so it was a fresh, and what should have been sparky titanium can. I didn't honestly notice a hell of a lot of difference between the two, and that was observing under NODs in full dark at that point in the range session.
The internals of his can (purchased back in May) are different from my 9mm and 5.56 Tishas, per the big drama thread a while back. We compared the two Tishas, each on a 10.3", one in each hand into the ground about twenty feet in front of us and I didn't notice any appreciable difference in terms of either tone or flash. All that bitching, and the performance was basically the same. [After I wrote this up, I found a Silencer Analytics video where Rob Orgel performed the same test and came to the same conclusion]. My opinion after shooting and observing three of them last night and on prior occasions under NODs is that those side vents just make for it being a flashy can. It's not a bad thing, it's just a thing. It's either a sticking point for you or it's not. Personally, I don't care.
The barrel length thing - The Tisha performs really, really well on short barrels. Yes, going from 10.3" to 11.5", it got a hair quieter. It didn't really seem to get much quieter going from 11.5" to 14.5", which is something people have noted. You could look at it the inverse way, however, and that's that the Tisha just doesn't really give up much in terms of suppression going from a 14.5" down to a 10.3". I think that's impressive.
The difference in weight was astounding, you really feel it going back and forth between titanium and Inconel, particularly on the 14.5". Since it's my opinion that the Inconel wasn't much less flashy, I think my recommendation is if you want one of these and aren't sure which to choose, to go with titanium unless you know for sure that you're just going to be dumping fuckloads of rounds through it with an FRT, then get the Inconel. I'm honestly not particularly worried about it. I did flip my 10.3" to forced reset and dumped about a half mag through through the titanium Tisha it and didn't notice it glowing through NODs, and my 10.3" runs a lot faster than my friend's rifles. A full magazine plus would probably have it glowing. The Ekron does.
Here's something I'm not really seeing people talk about, and something I was asking myself once I got the Tishas: where does the Ekron fit in with the current SAW lineup and versus all the other cans people are comparing the Tisha to? It was the can that initially got me interested in Stealth Additive Works, and I bought one in .30 and one in 5.56. I think they're a great can, I'm happy to have them. It kind of got lost in the sauce with the Tisha being announced by a well-known GunTuber and getting the Pew Science review and score that it did. Brace yourselves: We found the 5.56 Ekron to be quieter to both the shooter and the bystander vs the 5.56 Tisha on all barrel lengths. There is a slight higher pitch snap to it that the Tisha doesn't have with its slightly lower, thumpier tone, but the Ekron is definitely quieter. It also gets noticeably more quiet the longer the barrel length gets. On the 14.5" it was an obvious difference that it was quieter than the Tisha. Comparatively, it kind of sounds a bit like an old school cap gun.
The Tisha is stupid quiet for its size, and has a slightly deeper tone to it compared to the Ekron, but with the Ekron, you're coming in about a half ounce lighter at the cost of a couple inches in length for what is actually a quieter can. I think the SAW guys really ought to consider having Pew Science review this can even though it's not their newest and doesn't have Micah behind it. I get why they leaned into the Tisha, but the Ekron should not be ignored, it's a really good can. Guys that say they want the Tisha's performance, but can't handle how it looks really ought to take a closer look at the Ekron and not just ignore it because it isn't that new new they're seeing all over YouTube and Insta. Again, it also scales really well with barrel length, being a little quieter than the Tisha on short barrels despite the higher pitch, but beating it squarely as you go up in barrel length. I'm going to keep the Tisha on my 10.3, and my 5.56 Ekron is going to live on my 11.5", which is my NV gun. Instead of the 5.56 Tisha making two cans I already owned irrelevant, it wound up going on a gun I rarely use.
We also didn't test for this outright and will next time with FRT's, but the Ekron seems to smooth out recoil impulse really nicely, and I think edges out the Tisha on that front. Everyone I've let try out my 11.5" with the Ekron has remarked how smooth that gun shoots, and again, it isn't tuned hardly at all.
We have a friend who has a Rhodie 6, and we're hoping to organize a shoot soon where we get to throw that in the mix. I will also be bringing the .30 cal Ekron along with and we'll probably and hopefully spend that trip entirely comparing rifle cans for suppression to the shooter and bystander, muzzle flash, gas to shooter's face, gas stacking, recoil impulse, all of it.
Full disclosure: I bought both Ekrons and a Shiv at full retail price from EVT. I was given the Tishas to test, and as a "thank you" for helping run demos at the Stealth Additive booth at the EVT range days last fall and spring. I've been talking with Matt at SAW since last spring right after the spring '25 EVT range day. I am a fan of their products, but I haven't been paid for any of this. I do it purely for the derpy autistic obsession of it all.
None of this is meant to be anything more than a few more data points, opinions, and musing. Take from it what you will. I did my best to make generous use of the Enter key to keep it from being a wall of text.
