Who do you trust and why?
Consumers trust different brands and resources on sound testing for a
myriad of different reasons. The mysticism
of silencer testing has always been a topic of contention. Many people don’t
know who to trust and throw arrows up, down, and sideways in online rants with
little to no knowledge or information due to the lack of understanding of how
it all works. I’ll admit, it took me a
few years to understand anything about it and I was doing it quite a bit. Going to the range often times several times
a week to reset the meter, jam mags, jot notes down and make sure the proper
settings were set in order to learn something. Trust is established over time. It’s hard
earned and easily lost if you do the wrong thing or make mistakes. This is why Griffin has been doing so much
testing over the years and will continue to do so. We can’t speak confidently and objectively
about our products without knowing them inside and out, and our competition.
A lot of silencer companies don’t even know anything about
sound testing. Think I’m bluffing? Look into it. There are currently sold
suppressors on the market by known brands who are using decades old utility patents
that were purchased from now defunct companies or individuals. Its laughable in a way until you realize how
hard research and development is, testing, and even worse the manufacturing of
it all. I feel sorry for them in a way,
but they could have worked their way out of it if they cared. I digress. In the early days the industry
people involved weren’t really in the industry, they hadn’t been accepted
yet. They were on the fringe and so were
we. But a lot of them were nice to each
other, realizing that if they didn’t share ideas and information that no one
would learn and the products wouldn’t get better very fast. Think about the Jet program post WW2. We took German jet engineers and pilots (top
Aces) of the ME262 program and integrated them into the US industrial complex
to jettison our technology ahead of the rest of the world. Luckily, we were able to play nice with those
who we were just at war with, or the US wouldn’t be in as good of a place
today. It wasn’t uncommon back then to
drive all the way across the country to meet up with someone you had only talked
to over email or a forum and do some testing and talk and learn some
things. Those were the days. I don’t think we were very good at making
quiet suppressors for at least 5-7 years of sound testing, and we did a lot of
it. We needed to learn how to do it and
use that knowledge in manufacturing for company survival. We weren’t the only ones with equipment, so
you had to be true to yourself and reality and try to make things better all
the time. Data was very comparable too from
all sources in the old days because the only thing that people had unanimous
respect for was the B&K 2209.
Fast forward to today and it’s a different beast. Digital equipment is the rage, and some of it
is cobbled together by groups playing science with little knowledge in what
they are doing. We don’t play that
game. We have always relied on industry
subject matter experts whenever needed.
Whether it’s a machine, a cutting tool, a programming software, a laser
machine, etc. We have always relied on the SME.
In this instance Hottinger Bruel and Kjaer. They are at the top of the food chain. They have the best stuff, no question. The Lan-Xi is the unit to have and so we upgraded
out of necessity at a point a few years ago.
It was setup by factory techs, one of which was a scientist. Our instructions were simple, we want peak data
from three microphones, and we don’t want to click a lot of buttons to get it.
Our time is valuable so we want it to record pretty quickly and let us shoot
again and again to display the data in five and ten round shot strings. Six weeks later the most gentlemanly technicians
who ever visited Griffin Armament were escorted per security policy out the
door. We shook hands, said thank you and
we had what we wanted. They were on to the next customer.
What a life changer for R&D. We could test things really fast and get all
kinds of data right away. Of course we
decided videos would be nice for consumers to see what we were putting into the
product in terms of time effort and results.
So we started publishing videos. Fast
forward some more and people wanted to start seeing more data, graphics, wave
forms etc. Why not? The B&K has factory integrated software
for that. We are a maintenance customer and
are well supported so when we talked to B&K (now HBK), they recommended we
look at the AHAAH (Auditory Hazard Assessment Algorithm for Humans). This is an impressive peer review model that was
developed from the 1960’s onward. It makes a lot of sense if you read into
it. The US Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory is
responsible for the effort. I won’t bore
you with too many details as the video we did talks a lot about it. However, I will say I’m proud of the effort we
make to do our best. I’m proud of HBK
and the Army for collaborating and offering a tool to defense manufacturers
that allows them to showcase bona fide and trusted data.
Look for Griffin to support this testing method, the Silencer
Testing Standard™ for many years to come.
In fact, as I write this industrial building engineers are designing a
new indoor range specifically for sound and ballistics testing for Griffin
Armament. Its going to be a lot more
expensive sadly than the sound testing hardware but will ensure tons of sound
testing content will be developed over the coming years. We are dedicated to sound testing, because
our customers depend on our suppressor products, our company depends on those
sales, and our families depend on the finances that brings us. Sound testing in this way is a form of
business security. We started nearly 18
years ago doing it. It’s a foundational bedrock to our suppressor program, one
that we take with the utmost level of concern.
This is why we employ the best hardware and practices that we can.