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Comment by jmiserez | Hacker News Reader

There are now quiet Cherry MX switches, dampened in both directions of travel: https://www.cherrymx.de/en/mx-original/mx-silent-red.html

They're no louder than a regular membrane keyboard, and much quieter than just using O-rings.

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But the sound is part of the better experience.

// sent from MX blue

clackity clackity clackity

This has been the biggest complaint from my wife since the "work from home" started.

car engine noise model: get an app that plays clicky sounds and headphones?

Emacs got selectric mode :)

About to say the same thing! I'm sure there are some people who use a mechnical keyboard to "show off", but for me (and I assume the vast majority) the noise you endure is pollution while I enjoy the tactile & audio dopamine hit.

I use Greens, which are even louder, but nothing compares to the volume of the buckling spring "PING" noise

Reds aren't that new, they've been around for years. No tactile feedback, though, which is why many people (including me) don't prefer them.

No these are the "silent" reds. They don't make a sound when bottoming out and also not when coming back up.

Regular: https://www.cherrymx.de/en/mx-original/mx-red.html

Silent: https://www.cherrymx.de/en/mx-original/mx-silent-red.html

Oh huh, I hadn't noticed that, thank you.

They are still linear switches though. So silent in tactile feel as well

There are some silent, tactile switches, but I think they're a bit more obscure.

I made my ergonomic, split keyboards from a kit[1], and chose Aliaz Silent switches [2]. It's around the same noisiness as everyone else's keyboard (Apple, cheap Dell one etc).

(There are almost certainly other options — the choice was a bit overwhelming when I decided to buy a DIY keyboard — but I'm not in the hobby of collecting many different keyboards. Various Reddit groups can advise.)

[1] https://github.com/omkbd/ErgoDash

[2] https://kbdfans.com/products/pre-orderaliaz-silent-switch-ta...

Beautiful build! Those GMK caps look amazing.

I have these, for an office. Yes they are silent if you slowly push and release a key, but thumping away at 50-60 wpm still makes a huge amount of noise, even with o-rings installed (although a lot quieter than blue switches which I used to have).

I have topre switches, so a bit different experience, but a friend of mine had "shown off" that indeed, you can type silently on them. It's the art of not bottoming out which is something like 90% of the noise.

Linear switches are basically already silent compared to tactile or clicky switches. If Cherry starts making quiet blues or clears I'll start getting excited.

Honestly the biggest source of noise for basically all mechanical keys except buckling spring or cherry-blue style keys is the noise of the keycap or key stem hitting the bottom and subsequently the top of travel. Half of that is fixable with o-rings but that still leaves the noise at the top of travel which doesn't currently have any solutions as far as I know.

That is exactly what the Silent Reds (not regular Reds) fix! Seems their marketing and my comment above isn't clear enough.

They have built-in dampening for the top of travel and for bottoming out. It's far more effective than o-rings and has a much better feel to it.

Red are linear, though, so as a replacement for blue switches you may need brown or a hypothetical more silent version of them.

Check out Zilent switches, too. Quiet and tactile.

Sound test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWU9Sd_z9T0

Purchase: https://zealpc.net/products/zilents

Seconding this, I use Aqua Zilents from Zeal and they're perfect for meetings and work as they make very little noise.

I've got red silents - they're not as clacky but silent isn't quite right either

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