I don’t remember what article I pulled this from, but I saved it in my google docs folder on my phone when I was buying my last stabilizer. All stabilizers are going to deaden noise, but that’s just their secondary purpose. Essentially get the lightest weight bar, with the weight as far away as you’re comfortable with from your bow to have the maximum moment of inertia. A lot of marketing hype from big name companies try to get you to buy a stabilizer that’s $100+. I got mine for about $15 and it has worked fantastic for what I need it to do. Mine is actually a 10” side bar made for target archery.
Using side bars as side bars and back bars are a whole different story, but I don’t personally care for them. I think they are mainly just a personal choice.
‘Essentially the purpose of the stabilizer and adding weight to a bow is to raise its moment of inertia. Moment Of Inertia (MOI) is the measure of an object’s resistance to rotation. A high MOI is very resistant to torque. A low MOI is not resistant at all and is very unforgiving. The lower your moment of inertia, the more perfect you have to be. Your aim has to be perfect, your execution has to be perfect, and your form and muscle consistency has to be exact from shot to shot.
Good, well made, stabilizer setups most effectively raise your MOI. Your stabilizer needs to be as light as air and it needs to separate the most of its mass as far away from the bow as possible. The stabilizer also has to be rigid with almost no flex. Limber rods allow the bow to move through the flexible range of the rod before the mass of your stabilizer weights can have their greatest effect on rotation. There are many rods out there that are pretty stiff. The best way to check your rig is to just grab the rod in each hand and give it a bend. If you feel flex at all, it’s likely that your rod is allowing minor modifications to your aim after the release opens. Those shots that you feel are less than perfect end up just outside the line. The forgiveness that an ultra stiff rod can afford can keep those “just out hits” - “Just in”.’