Quietness is important

[Mousearm]

Hi folks,

i am in a dilema: on the one hand i love Cherry mx browns, but on the other hand they are not really quiet (enough) if you want/have to type in a library often and want to use your mechanical keyboard still.
Are there any tricks to make you keyboard more quiet? What are the most silent keycaps? Has anyone tried those noise dampeners? I ordered some but i don't have high hopes on this since, thats basically turning a precious mechanical keyboard into a cheap rubber dome keyboard.

PS a bit of topic: in another thread i read something about "clacks" what the hell is that even???

[Blaise170]

You can quiet down the boards a bit by adding o-rings or QMX clips. PBT keycaps are typically a bit quieter than ABS especially if they are thicker. If there is any reverberation in the case, you can stuff it with a deadening material like rubber shelf liner. Otherwise there isn't that much you can do other than buying a keyboard with quieter switches (e.g. Matias Quiet Click, Cherry MX Silent, etc.).

Clacks are a type of artisan keycap (i.e. a keycap that is designed to stand out; that is artistic; has a special design) made by Clack Factory. Examples below:

[Sup]

you could also switch to aliaz tactile silent switches and spring swap them to the mx brown springs.

[Duckyreddy]

Having a cloth, or a soft, dampening material underneath the board also reduces quite a lot of the reverb and vibrations that goes to the typing surface!

[Findecanor]

There is a wiki article with a collection of several sound-damping methods (not all for Cherry MX though but more in general).
Check also this recent thread for filling up a keyboard's cavities with sound-dampening material.

QMX clips are somewhat limited in which keyboards and keycaps they can be used with.
If you would be building a keyboard yourself from kit parts ... or have one of the few keyboards that support hot-swapping switches, then I would suggest Gateron Silent Brown switches (available from KBDFans). Those have the feel of MX Brown (actually somewhat more tactile), I found them to be slightly more silent than QMX clips when I tested them and they don't have any issues with reduced key travel or compatibility.

Clack is a slang term for the sound from a mechanical switch when you press the key to a hard bottom.
That is what "Clack Factory" took its name from. Slang words tend to fade in and out of use so some people may associate the word more with "artisan keycaps" than with noise these days.

[tp4tissue]

Start with Rubber dome, and Stick with that..

It's by far the most quiet.

[killyou]

If you like browns but want quite then get 62g Zilents.

[mkozlows]

Seconding the Zilents; I just replaced MX Clears with 78g Zilents, and it's not a subtle difference -- they're much quieter. In a lot of ways, they're actually quieter than a laptop keyboard. (The sound is different, anyway, duller and deeper instead of tappy.) Anyone who'd complain about a keyboard full of Zilents is going to complain about anything.

[yuppie]

Zilents5ever

[Kevadu]

I have a full acrylic (including plate) sandwich board with 67g Zilents in it and I have to say it may well be the quietest keyboard I've ever used.  Quieter than rubber domes even despite what tp4tissue might say.

[ScottPaladin]

I haven't seen it mentioned already, but might be surprised at how much a difference you can experience just by learning to type a bit lighter. Almost no switch/keycaps/chassis combo is going to be silent if you're really hammering the keys down. If you can train yourself to push down just to the activation point, you won't bottom out, and the return force when you lift off will be less, reducing the click on the upstroke. It can be a real struggle to undo the muscle memory you've built up over the years, but it also doesn't cost anything.

If that doesn't work for you, you might look into Jailhouse Blues/Greens, especially if you for for JSpacers or o-rings for the mod. The Jailhouse Outemu Blues in my work keyboard are the quietest mechanical switch I've experienced first hand, quieter than MX Browns with o-rings, quieter than damped cream alps, and the tactility is good too.

[Findecanor]

Gateron is manufacturing the "Zilents" switches for Zeal PC, so it is their silencing parts inside them. The Zilents may be the most expensive key switches in production and they feel more like Cherry MX Clear than MX Brown, with a bigger bump.
KBDFans have also their "premium" version of Gateron SIlent Brown, the "purple Aliaz" but the difference in sound and feel is negligible and not worth the price difference IMHO.

Other than switches and keycaps, like I hinted at before, the way the keyboard's case is constructed make a great deal of difference. How to design a silent case is not something that manufacturers have focused much on, but maybe they should.

[need]

Start with Rubber dome, and Stick with that..

It's by far the most quiet.

most rubber domes are pretty loud... in my opinion nothing beats the combination of linear mx and qmx

[tp4tissue]

Start with Rubber dome, and Stick with that..

It's by far the most quiet.

most rubber domes are pretty loud... in my opinion nothing beats the combination of linear mx and qmx

It depends on the stiffness of the domes.


Overall, the most quiet domes are the cheapest of the cheap boards,   The reason is their dome sheet is exceedingly thin.

Provides ~35g resistance, and the keycaps are also very light weight, which builds very little momentum on upstroke.

[Findecanor]

most rubber domes are pretty loud... in my opinion nothing beats the combination of linear mx and qmx

It depends on the stiffness of the domes.
[/quote]
There could be a sound of the slider/plunger rebounding and hitting its top position, and yes that force depends on the stiffness. But that applies only to rubber domes that are under tension when the key is not pressed (like how springs are always under tension in mechanical keyboards). Some rubber domes have the plungers merely resting on the tops of the domes.

[saxophone]

Thick PBT caps make the least noticeable blunt sounds. You can dampen noise from bottoming out on downstrokes using o-rings. The upstroke canät be helped much without changing to a board with specialized switches. Also depending on the chassis you can decrease noise by putting it on top of a soft pad as well as filling empty gaps inside the chassis.

[Mousearm]

Wow positively overwhelmened from help here!! Thanks to you Blaise170 and all the other good posts.
It will take some time work through this and my mind already starts wandering in all sorts of directions... Especially i need a test environment and and...

But for now i would have the question where can i buy those Aliaz, Zilent. I live in germany/europe. But i couldn't really find them even us stores??

And B) what are your favourite quiet keycaps (pbt i assume)?
Greetings to ya all..

[Riverman]

I've had a few MX brown keyboards with QMX clips, and I think they're a great way to make a keyboard a lot quieter.  I won't say it silences them, but it certainly makes them quieter than most cheap rubber dome keyboards.  Some trimming of the front of the clips is required if your keyboard has Costar stabilizers, and travel is very slightly reduced, but I don't notice it with OEM profile keycaps.  It's more noticeable with Cherry profile, but even then, the reduction is much less than with o-rings.