I took the STS off to reassess the bow noise. I apparently forgot what my bow sounded like without the STS. Then I put it back on. I now think it's not necessarily louder, what noise there is a lot shorter in duration and higher pitched. I have no silencers on the string at the moment. I may try some catwhiskers even though I was trying to avoid that. It's not worth a few fps to have a deer duck the arrow and possibly be wounded.