I am thinking of taking the plunge and buying my first suppressor.  I am thinking that I would purchase a 9mm suppressor as opposed to a 5.56 because I have more firearms that I can use a 9mm suppressor with.  However, I have never really payed that much attention to suppressors as I have had difficulty justifying the $200 tax stamp to myself, and, as a result, I am not very knowledgeable at all about the pros and cons of various suppressors or companies.  

I plan on using the suppressor with a Walther PPQ, Beretta 92, and a 9mm 1911.  Eventually I would like to add a pistol caliber carbine to that list.  I have a target price of approximately $800 (including the stamp) for the purchase.  I do have some wiggle room with that price, but I would like to keep it in that range.  If I can somehow manage to come well under that range, it means that I can probably get a 5.56 suppressor much sooner.  Right now, the AAC ti-rant and the Silencerco Osprey have caught my eye and they seem to be pretty well regarded.  However, I don't know if there are any other companies or models that I should consider.

So I guess my questions are as follows:
1)  Any particular suppressor that you would recommend
2)  If you don't have a particular suppressor, are there any companies that I should focus my search on, or,
3)  Are there any companies that I should avoid  
4)  I am going by a local store tonight and will probably go through them, but if I decide to go the online and transfer route, where are some good places to look online.

Thanks and sorry for all the questions.

I would steer you towards either a Ti-Rant or Octane (versus Osprey).

However, if you are going to shoot limited 5.56 out of a >=16" barrel, maybe a Mystic X is for you.

The choice came down to the AAC Tirant and SWR Octane for me.  I think these are probably the two most compared 9mm cans, and you really can't go wrong with either one.  I went with the Tirant because my local store had one in stock, and being my first can I just wanted the process to be simple.  The Octane was my first choice however, but it really was a toss up.  I plan to get a 45 can soon, and this time I will go with the Octane just to try another company.

The Osprey wasn't really on my radar, not as a first can anyway.  I wanted a more traditional looking suppressor, and I think the Osprey looks good on some hosts and not others.  Looks great on the FNX Tactical imo.

Griffin Armament Revolution 9.  All of the great features of the Octane 9 plus the baffles are TiN coated for wear resistance and it is user configurable from "standard" to "K" length.  Griffin Armament also has a three lug adapter that adds minimal length to the suppressor.

I agree with you accept on the  baffles are TiN coated for wear resistance. I doubt  the coating makes a difference. that was going to be my next purchase, but I bought an omega instead. waiting for a deal on the 9mm can

 

When factoring in cost, a $399 Tirant is hard to beat.

The Revolution or Octane would be my first, second and hopefully third choice.  The osprey's FRP is kind of bad, it's a very clever design but it's not the best suppression.

Octane 9 would let you shoot rimfire, 9mm, 300BO Subsonic.    Get an Octane 45 and you can shoot rimfire, 9mm, .40, .45 (and everything in between in pistol) as well as 300BO subsonic.

Griffin Revolution will, barring anything else new this year, be my next pistol can.  I just think the K option is nifty and I already have Octanes so all my pistons and mounts will cross over.

silencershop.com is your online source as far as I'm concerned.  There are likely other places that are as good or with as good pricing but I know from personal experience and countless testimonials they'll bend over backwards to make the process as painless as possible for you.  When I first got into this particular hobby, I had a lot of questions and they would return emails with phone calls.   This was before I'd bought a thing from them.   And they'll give you a good price to boot.

I went to my local store and they did not have much in the way of 9mm suppressors.  They did have a Osprey and a .45 Octane.  They also had an AAC 9mm ti-rant K model, but I don't think that I want to go with a K model suppressor for my first suppressor.  The person helping me did say that there would not be a big drop off between a .45 and 9mm can and I have seen some people here say the same thing in various threads.  Has anyone ever really quantified the drop in performance you would get between a 9mm and a .45?  

Also, are there any reliable sites to go to for better data regarding performance?  I have done some searches, but I don't really know which sites are reliable.  In addition, from the Jessie James suppressor thread, it appears that there may be multiple ways of measuring performance and that makes it difficult to try and compare results across sites.

Thanks and sorry for all of the questions.  I just want to make sure that I'm making a good decision.

Probably 3 dB worse in performance when using a .45 suppressor for 9mm.

There's also a tonal difference that's harder to quantify.

The reason most people recommend a .45 suppressor is versatility with sub-calibers and 9mm suppressors are often not that much smaller (usually the same diameter and maybe an inch to an inch and a half shorter).

You can watch these videos for comparisons:

.45 Suppressors with 9mm ammo

Comparison of the SilencerCo Octane 9 and Octane 45 with 9mm ammo

SILENCERCO Sub-calibers through the Osprey

and there are others if you search YouTube.