Suppressor sound tests / 5.56
5.56 suppressor sound tests
4 tests used this cartridge. Each test is one rifle, one day, one set of ammunition. Results from different tests can’t be compared with each other.
Smaller tests
11 more suppressors were measured with this cartridge. They come from 8 tests with too few suppressors on the gun to be worth comparing: with two or three, finishing first says very little. They are listed here instead. Open a name to see its figures.
- Allen Engineering AEM2
- Allen Engineering AEM3
- Allen Engineering AEM4
- Allen Engineering AEM5
- Allen Engineering AEM5 .30
- Allen Engineering AEM5-30
- Allen Engineering AEM5-30K
- Allen Engineering AEM5k
- B&T MK12 Gen 1
- Noveske Amigo
- Noveske Factory Cone Non-NFA
The names without links don’t have a page on Baffled yet.
5.56, 16" AR-152026
87 suppressors were fired on this same gun, with the same ammunition. Thunder Beast describes the setup as: LC M193 55gr 5.56, shot from a DD 16" AR-15. It was not fired without a suppressor in 2026. At the 2024 Summit, the same gun with the same ammunition and no suppressor measured 156.3 dB, and each reduction below is counted from that 2024 figure.
The bar above the list places each of the 87 suppressors fired on this gun by how loud the shot still measured at the shooter's ear. Between the quietest and the loudest there is 7 dB. It stays on screen as you read, so hovering a row shows where that suppressor falls.
The shaded band is the tightest 1.64 dB stretch of this strip, holding 55 of the 87 suppressors tested, which this test cannot tell apart from one another. It is a sample rather than a special group, so sweep the strip and the band follows. That is most of the field, so on this gun sound is not what separates these suppressors. What decides it is whatever else matters to you, like weight, length or price.
Filter this test
Sorted quietest first · click a heading to sort, again to reverse
← swipe columns · the name stays put
"Quieter" is counted from the same gun fired with no suppressor at the 2024 Summit, since it wasn't fired bare this year.
Point at a suppressor, or pick one on the chart, and ≈ marks every other one within 1.64 dB of it. This test can't tell those apart, so the order between them means nothing.
* Weighed or measured by Thunder Beast as the suppressor arrived, with whatever mount was fitted. We show these when we don’t have the maker’s figure, or when the suppressor’s length can be changed and only Thunder Beast’s numbers match the setup it fired. The same model can arrive with different hardware in different years, so treat these as rough.
Products come and go from these events voluntarily. A suppressor missing from this list was not tested, nothing more. Names are shown as Thunder Beast listed them. A name without a link doesn’t have a page on Baffled yet. Differences smaller than 1.64 dB are closer than this test can reliably measure. The results also don’t record which mount or muzzle device each suppressor was fitted with, and that hardware can affect the reading and the weights and lengths Thunder Beast measured. Decibels are not a count of anything: as a rule of thumb every 10 dB is roughly a halving of how loud something seems, so the gaps here are larger than they look.
The arrow beside each name opens every microphone reading, and it is worth opening. A suppressor can be the quietest here beside the muzzle and middling at the shooter’s ear, so a claim about one says nothing about the other.
Thunder Beast published the decibel figures. Weights, lengths and diameters are the maker’s published figures where Baffled lists the suppressor, and Thunder Beast’s own measurements, marked with an asterisk, where it does not. Mount type and MSRP come from Baffled’s catalog, and shop prices from the retailers. The resolution limit of 1.64 dB, the shaded band, and the 156.3 dB unsuppressed figure are worked out here from those measurements.
The 156.3 dB unsuppressed figure is from the 2024 SILENCER SUMMIT, published by Thunder Beast Arms Corp. See their 2024 results
Data from the 2026 SILENCER SUMMIT, published by Thunder Beast Arms Corp. See their results
Does a result link to the wrong suppressor, or have no link when Baffled has a page for it?