Before answering that question, which is a valid question no doubt, I believe it’s important to first acknowledge and engage with the very premise that precludes that question.

For years, I’ve watched, read, and gleaned the macro “ebbs and flows” of the seemingly divine question underlying question of “what’s the current best 5.56 suppressor”?

As a sincere and well-meaning traveler of this “journey”, having spent an ungodly amount of hours on forums, YouTube videos, and manufacturer websites. I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of money as well, trying to obtain that elusive “perfect 5.56 suppressor”.

Ironically, at the end of this all, I’ve concluded that I participated in what I personally call, “the great fools errand”.

I enjoyed my first few suppressors when I bought them because they represented a new experience of “shooting an AR suppressed vs. un-suppressed”.

Then, I noticed that when “flow through” came around, all the collective “hive-mind of wisdom” started turning their backs on traditional suppressors, and began embracing and endorsing flow through over traditional baffle stacks.

Because I mean, “who wants the horrific and health compromising” experience of having carcinogenic toxic gas molecules blown back into your face while mag dumping at the range, right”? 🤔

So, naturally…I felt compelled to shun my traditional cans for flow through cans.

Those were supposed to be the more evolved and “better” iteration of suppressors. So I obliged. I essentially went along with what the industry was telling me, without really contemplating it for myself and my personal preferences or uses.

After buying the new “cool flow through cans”, I absolutely enjoyed the “no gas to the face” aspect, but concurrently realized that the suppressors I bought seemed to no longer really “suppress” anything.

They started so seem more like really expensive, cool-looking, federally regulated, blast diverters. Sure, they were a little quieter than shooting non-suppressed, but in reality, they felt more honestly like they were some part of the “muzzle device” category, and less like a part of the “suppressor/silencer” community.

Regardless, I stuffed those personal sentiments deep down within, and remained a faithful foot-soldier of the industry “hive-mind”.

Sure enough, 6-12 months later, conveniently after I had spent thousands on flow through suppressors, the brilliant “thought leaders” of the community started to encircle the new issues of “sparking”, especially for use under night-vision. With how “severe and unacceptable” this issue seemed to be based on the huffing and puffing of the community, an everyday simple enthusiast like me assumed, “Wow, I guess I must be the only idiot in the whole community that doesn’t have nod’s and training for an upcoming civilian deployment. I better address this “sparking issue” so it’s handled for the days where I am obviously going to need to refinance my home and purchase nods, duh”.

I had literally never thought of sparking once as being a personal issue to me, but of course, I relented and bought a flow through inconel can, obviously to solve the “massive issue” that sparking was to me while shooting in doors, under fluorescent lights, 25 yards from Zombie shaped paper targets” 🤪

Then, I realized that suppressor “weight and length” were apparently the next urgent matter to address, since apparently again, I was the only idiot not sprinting in open fields, “John Wick-ing Gophers”.

So I bought a short, flow through, Inconel can. 🤑🤮

After my fifth can, and my apparent emotional roller coaster of initial glee and relief at having purchased the “perfect suppressor”, only to be disappointed and dejected 6-months later by that same can, my local old salty FFL/SOT here in Texas told me the single most valuable thing I’ve personally ever heard pertaining to the NFA purchasing game.

He said, “Look Brother, you’ve spent thousands of dollars on countless suppressors in the last 3-4 years, and I can tell you’re chasing the same fictional ghost of “the perfect 5.56 suppressor”. The truth is, it doesn’t exist. Have you stopped to notice that everyone telling you there is one, is either getting suppressors for free, or is benefiting financially from separating you from your money? Put a damn adjustable gas block on your rifle for $90 max, use it to tune the platform to all of your cans, and come back and tell me if you want to spend $600-$1,400 on another wiz-bang new space magic can. I’ll gladly sell you another, but I think you may feel differently.”

I had him install the adjustable gas block that day, and sure enough, each and every can thereafter seemed to be the “perfect 5.56 can”, no matter which one I tried.

Moral of the story was, be honest with yourself about what you’re actually trying to do here with this purchase.

If you’re a collector of cans, have disposable income, and just enjoy trying out new stuff…then that’s great…do it…there’s nothing wrong with that.

But if you’re not, stop chasing your tail. Buy a AGB, buy a ton of ammo, and go out and enjoy the journey that is “training/marksmanship/whatever you wanna call it”.

So, in summary (haha), everyone’s going to have a ton of different answers to your question, and they’ll all be “right” under the appropriate conditions.

A Polo K + an ADG block will be the cheaper route compared to almost any other flow thru can purchase.

Personally, anyone who asks me for my opinion, I’d recommend going that direction first and seeing how they like it.

You can always tune down gas from a high back pressure can to handle the “over-gassing issue”. Sup Arms has become be go to because of the “bleed off” feature they provide. That feature has kept my tuned AR’s significantly cleaner than using the “restricted gas” approach.

The old salty FFL/SOT told me, “You can always address over-gassing of a quiet suppressor. It’s much harder to make a low-gas suppressor more quiet”.

So far, in my personal experience, he’s been correct. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Additionally, I’ve become a huge fan of only purchasing suppressors that have at least two (if not more) configurable option built into them.

I now only buy cans that are either modular for size, and/or modular in terms of end-caps.