[Figure: ResultsTldr]

## Overview

The internet is full of broadhead-noise anecdotes. The usual claim is that
once you screw on a loud fixed-blade head, vane choice stops mattering.

To test that, we took the quietest and loudest vanes from the
standard-speed vane sound test and paired them with a field point, the
quiet broadhead, and the two loudest broadheads we tested.

The vanes and broadheads we picked were:

- Quietest vane: Flex Fletch FFP-360
- Loudest vane: Flex Fletch SK2
- Quietest broadhead: Toulou
- Loudest broadheads: Slick Trick Standard 4 Blade and Iron Will Vented

This sound testing was conducted by The Archery Sound Lab, who shot these
arrows through their Arrow Sound Testing Chamber using their own bow,
shooting machine, and instrumentation.

The first two plots show overall peak loudness with 95% confidence
intervals. Lower is quieter.

## Test Methods

For full details on the acoustic setup, fly-by recording process, and
weighted SPL analysis, check out the
[Sound Testing Methods](/research/arrow-study-2026/methods/components-acoustics/)
page.

## Quick Tips

Hover over the dots in any plot to see the build configuration and sound
results.

Lower dB is quieter. A 10dB increase is roughly a doubling of perceived
loudness.

In the frequency response overlay, switch between Z, A, and Deer weighting
to see how the same arrow changes for different listeners.

## Whitetail-Weighted Sound

Deer-weighting is the strongest version of the broadhead-noise argument
in this dataset.

The FFP-360 with a field point is quiet at about 51.7dB deer-weighted. Put
the Slick Trick Standard 4 Blade on that same vane and it jumps to about
66.3dB. That is louder than the SK2 with the quieter Toulou, which sits
around 62.4dB.

So yes, a loud broadhead can more than erase the advantage of a quiet
vane.

But the vane still matters. With field points, the SK2 is about 10.5dB
louder than the FFP-360. With the Toulou, the spread is still about
7.3dB. Even with the Slick Trick, the SK2 build stays a bit louder than
the FFP-360 build.

[Figure: PlotSections]

## Human-Weighted Sound

Human-weighting shifts the story. Our ears put less weight on some of the
high-frequency energy that makes fixed-blade broadheads stand out to
deer.

On this scale, the FFP-360 stays quieter than the SK2 across the rows we
tested. The FFP-360 with Slick Trick comes in around 58.0dB A-weighted,
while the SK2 with a field point is already around 61.7dB.

The broadhead still adds noise. The Iron Will Vented on the SK2 is the
loudest human-weighted row in this plot at about 70.0dB. But if you are
only listening with human ears, the vane baseline is a big part of what
you hear.

[Figure: PlotSections]

## Frequency Response

Overall peak loudness is useful, but it compresses the whole sound
profile into one number.

The overlay below lets you pick any subset of the vane and broadhead
combinations and compare their full 1/3-octave spectra. Switch between Z,
A, and Deer weighting to see why the same arrow can look different to a
hunter and to a whitetail.

[Figure: PlotSections]

## Same Broadheads on the Max Stealth

The plot above only crosses the four sound-screen broadheads with the
FFP-360 and SK2. The plot below adds the matching Max Stealth standard
build rows for those same broadheads, so each head has up to three vane
baselines next to it: FFP-360, SK2, and Max Stealth.

Sorted quietest to loudest, deer-weighted. Each row is one vane + point
combination. The pattern from above holds: the vane sets a baseline and
the broadhead stacks on top.

[Figure: PlotSections]

## Takeaway

Broadhead noise does not wipe out vane choice. It stacks on top of it.

In the deer-weighted plot, the broadhead can dominate a single
comparison: FFP-360 plus Slick Trick is louder than SK2 plus Toulou. In
the human-weighted plot, the vane baseline is strong enough that the
FFP-360 combinations stay quieter than the SK2 combinations we tested.

A few caveats:

- This is not a complete vane-by-broadhead matrix. The FFP-360 was not
  paired with the Iron Will Vented in this subtest.
- These are sound-protocol results from The Archery Sound Lab setup.
  Different speeds, shafts, vane orientations, bows, and heads can shift
  the exact numbers.
- This article is only about in-flight sound. It does not answer
  terminal ballistics questions, broadhead durability, or which setup
  groups best.