does cherry mx silent red more smoother than cherry mx red?

[polyurethane]

planning to buy leopold kb my option either mx red or silent red
which one more smoother? I've read that MX Red is known more scratchy when compared to other mx switch like blue or brown but how about silent red? and i also read that the silent read are pretty mushy and feel like membrane keyboard is it true?

TIA

[tp4tissue]

it smooths out over time.  But it will never be as smooth as MX-Blue.

[polyurethane]

interesting..i thought mx red much more smoother than mx blue and brown

[tp4tissue]

interesting..i thought mx red much more smoother than mx blue and brown

MX blue is the smoothest, because the inner shaft doesn't bunch against the leaf spring. The white slider moves itself out of the way,  and the inner blue shaft is much smaller and only rubs against the white shaft slightly.

Take a BIG comforter, put the mxblue/ mxred keyboard under it, wear earplugs.  You'll notice that the blue is significantly smoother than the red.  The sound can be deceiving.

The way we perceive smoothness is through the vibration sensors in our fingers.  So a strong impulse in tactile feedback + click noise makes us perceive the travel as having a hitch, but in reality mx BLUE is smoother for a longer duration of the travel than the mx RED where the leaf spring is always rubbing against the central stem.

[Maledicted]

planning to buy leopold kb my option either mx red or silent red
which one more smoother? I've read that MX Red is known more scratchy when compared to other mx switch like blue or brown but how about silent red? and i also read that the silent read are pretty mushy and feel like membrane keyboard is it true?

TIA

I have read, and experienced at least in the examples I have in both a tester and a board, that the silent variant is smoother. This may really only come down to the fact that silent red is a relatively new offering from Cherry, so the tooling used was fresh. The older one in my tester was significantly smoother to my senses but I also have a board that's probably a little newer and the difference between it and standard reds I have in other boards is much smaller ... but I have also mostly compared it against a K70 I have been using heavily for the last 7 or so years, so wear over that time must have smoothed them out. Even then, without modification, nothing MX is particularly smooth.

They do feel mushy. They don't feel like rubber domes though, since rubber domes are really more of a tactile switch due to the buckling action of the dome. Imagine the overall feel of a rubber dome but totally linear with only the feel of bottoming out. Even a cheap rubber dome is often smoother than MX too though. lol

interesting..i thought mx red much more smoother than mx blue and brown

MX blue is the smoothest, because the inner shaft doesn't bunch against the leaf spring. The white slider moves itself out of the way,  and the inner blue shaft is much smaller and only rubs against the white shaft slightly.

Take a BIG comforter, put the mxblue/ mxred keyboard under it, wear earplugs.  You'll notice that the blue is significantly smoother than the red.  The sound can be deceiving.
The way we perceive smoothness is through the vibration sensors in our fingers.  So a strong impulse in tactile feedback + click noise makes us perceive the travel as having a hitch, but in reality mx BLUE is smoother for a longer duration of the travel than the mx RED where the leaf spring is always rubbing against the central stem.

I think perceiving scratchiness to begin with is also harder with clicky switches as well, because of the tactile event. You can push linears straight down gradually and feel for any grit throughout the entirety of travel. With clickies, you've got a lot more going on to occupy your senses during the tactile event. I wonder how much of that accounts for the seemingly stark difference to me between MX brown/sand and MX clear, since the latter has a perceptible tactile bump ... and feels much smoother.

I still like MX red more than MX blue these days, even though I'm a clicky guy. Linears lend themselves well to being acceptable in spite of overall mediocrity.

[Polymer]

planning to buy leopold kb my option either mx red or silent red
which one more smoother? I've read that MX Red is known more scratchy when compared to other mx switch like blue or brown but how about silent red? and i also read that the silent read are pretty mushy and feel like membrane keyboard is it true?

TIA

Depends on how you define mushy.  Mushy to me is when the bottom isn't uniform and can move around...So Topre, for example, is a rubber dome but stability and the way the dome is form means it is a very solid bottom.  Which differs from a typical membrane keyboard.

If by mushy you mean it isn't hard like a rock, then yes, it would be mushy.  It has a slightly cushioned bottom to prevent the clacking....

[squizzler]

I have read, and experienced at least in the examples I have in both a tester and a board, that the silent variant is smoother. This may really only come down to the fact that silent red is a relatively new offering from Cherry, so the tooling used was fresh.

I'm sure others would correct me but I understand that Cherry have redesigned their red switches - so-called hyperglide - which have the 100 million actuation and smoother action, and thus it is currently these with the newer design than the silent.

[Maledicted]

I have read, and experienced at least in the examples I have in both a tester and a board, that the silent variant is smoother. This may really only come down to the fact that silent red is a relatively new offering from Cherry, so the tooling used was fresh.

I'm sure others would correct me but I understand that Cherry have redesigned their red switches - so-called hyperglide - which have the 100 million actuation and smoother action, and thus it is currently these with the newer design than the silent.

I had heard about that. That may be, for the time being. I haven't had any of these hyperglide switches and have more MX reds than I'll ever care to have already.

[tacomn]

Yeah mx updated I believe only mx black,brown, red, and silver with the new hyperglides. Mx silent red is rated still of 50 mill clicks while the new glides including mx red have 100 million due to the self lubing/cleaning contacts.

[polyurethane]

planning to buy leopold kb my option either mx red or silent red
which one more smoother? I've read that MX Red is known more scratchy when compared to other mx switch like blue or brown but how about silent red? and i also read that the silent read are pretty mushy and feel like membrane keyboard is it true?

TIA

I have read, and experienced at least in the examples I have in both a tester and a board, that the silent variant is smoother. This may really only come down to the fact that silent red is a relatively new offering from Cherry, so the tooling used was fresh. The older one in my tester was significantly smoother to my senses but I also have a board that's probably a little newer and the difference between it and standard reds I have in other boards is much smaller ... but I have also mostly compared it against a K70 I have been using heavily for the last 7 or so years, so wear over that time must have smoothed them out. Even then, without modification, nothing MX is particularly smooth.

They do feel mushy. They don't feel like rubber domes though, since rubber domes are really more of a tactile switch due to the buckling action of the dome. Imagine the overall feel of a rubber dome but totally linear with only the feel of bottoming out. Even a cheap rubber dome is often smoother than MX too though. lol

interesting..i thought mx red much more smoother than mx blue and brown

MX blue is the smoothest, because the inner shaft doesn't bunch against the leaf spring. The white slider moves itself out of the way,  and the inner blue shaft is much smaller and only rubs against the white shaft slightly.

Take a BIG comforter, put the mxblue/ mxred keyboard under it, wear earplugs.  You'll notice that the blue is significantly smoother than the red.  The sound can be deceiving.
The way we perceive smoothness is through the vibration sensors in our fingers.  So a strong impulse in tactile feedback + click noise makes us perceive the travel as having a hitch, but in reality mx BLUE is smoother for a longer duration of the travel than the mx RED where the leaf spring is always rubbing against the central stem.

I think perceiving scratchiness to begin with is also harder with clicky switches as well, because of the tactile event. You can push linears straight down gradually and feel for any grit throughout the entirety of travel. With clickies, you've got a lot more going on to occupy your senses during the tactile event. I wonder how much of that accounts for the seemingly stark difference to me between MX brown/sand and MX clear, since the latter has a perceptible tactile bump ... and feels much smoother.

I still like MX red more than MX blue these days, even though I'm a clicky guy. Linears lend themselves well to being acceptable in spite of overall mediocrity.

thanks for sharing your experience..I've read a lot of threads and posts on geekhack and r/MK
i never had have experience with cherry so i really dont have idea how they feel like , many ppl on r/MK says bad thing about cherry such as silent red feels mushy , scratchy , and pinging which makes me hasitate to buy leopold witrh cherry switch
i like the sound of silent red ,i watched leopold typing test with silent red on youtube and the sound reminded me of silent topre which is i like it ,but do they sound like that in real life?

[polyurethane]

Yeah mx updated I believe only mx black,brown, red, and silver with the new hyperglides. Mx silent red is rated still of 50 mill clicks while the new glides including mx red have 100 million due to the self lubing/cleaning contacts.

the new hyperglides seem promising , why they didnt updated their silent switch? i also read they retooled they switch back then but ony several switch except mx clear and mx silent..because they're not popular? or maybe not profitable?

[polyurethane]

planning to buy leopold kb my option either mx red or silent red
which one more smoother? I've read that MX Red is known more scratchy when compared to other mx switch like blue or brown but how about silent red? and i also read that the silent read are pretty mushy and feel like membrane keyboard is it true?

TIA

Depends on how you define mushy.  Mushy to me is when the bottom isn't uniform and can move around...So Topre, for example, is a rubber dome but stability and the way the dome is form means it is a very solid bottom.  Which differs from a typical membrane keyboard.

If by mushy you mean it isn't hard like a rock, then yes, it would be mushy.  It has a slightly cushioned bottom to prevent the clacking....

i have old coolermaster rubber dome kb , which is quite stiff already and when i typing its feel muffled? like typing on stiff piano toy (idk how to describe it) but sure i dont like it

[Maledicted]

thanks for sharing your experience..I've read a lot of threads and posts on geekhack and r/MK
i never had have experience with cherry so i really dont have idea how they feel like , many ppl on r/MK says bad thing about cherry such as silent red feels mushy , scratchy , and pinging which makes me hasitate to buy leopold witrh cherry switch
i like the sound of silent red ,i watched leopold typing test with silent red on youtube and the sound reminded me of silent topre which is i like it ,but do they sound like that in real life?

You're welcome. If you have never tried Cherry before, I imagine you haven't tried any mechanical switches. Unless you're not very picky (most of the people you're reading comments from on Reddit seem to be), you probably want to get as comprehensive of a switch tester as you can find at a good price and play with everything on it before you even start to form opinions on what type of switch you want. From there you can start narrowing down what you may like. I usually recommend this because it comes with a lot of different switches for relatively cheap and has some duplicates (other than housing material) that can be swapped for more botique switches you acquire. Cheap hot swap boards (that do not have Outemu sockets) are a good next step for having a complete board for testing authentic feel and sound with switches you think may be a good contender.

As I have mentioned, Cherry retools switches from time to time, and I have not tried any "hyperglide" variants, to my knowledge. Any given batch of Cherry switches may feel a little different from the one that preceded it. Most dampened switches will feel a little mushy on bottom out, but nothing that doesn't have a rubber dome is going to feel just like a rubber dome. Dampening on most switches traditionally/colloquially called "mechanical" is usually achieved by a tiny piece of rubber on either side of the slider that cushions its impact when making contact with the housing. This is a lot different from coming down on what's effectively a big silicone mat, in addition to collapsing an integrated dome that is also part of that same mat. Older and/or more expensive rubber dome designs can also have discrete domes that may collapse on different surfaces, like a membrane or PCB, and may or may not have sliders as well. In that way, even a lot of rubber dome variants can feel and sound very different from each other. Personally, for gaming, I would prefer silent MX red to any tactile switch I have tried. For typing, linears are pretty bland (but some people apparently like that).

Yeah mx updated I believe only mx black,brown, red, and silver with the new hyperglides. Mx silent red is rated still of 50 mill clicks while the new glides including mx red have 100 million due to the self lubing/cleaning contacts.

the new hyperglides seem promising , why they didnt updated their silent switch? i also read they retooled they switch back then but ony several switch except mx clear and mx silent..because they're not popular? or maybe not profitable?

Probably because Cherry thinks their tooling specific to the silent variants still has life left in it, since they're still a relatively new offering.

If you like the sound of Topre, and want something silent/dampened, why isn't Topre in the running? I think a good dome board feels better than any MX derivative I have tried besides maybe Gateron and Outemu blues.

[polyurethane]

Probably because Cherry thinks their tooling specific to the silent variants still has life left in it, since they're still a relatively new offering.

If you like the sound of Topre, and want something silent/dampened, why isn't Topre in the running? I think a good dome board feels better than any MX derivative I have tried besides maybe Gateron and Outemu blues.

i ended up buying leopold with silent red last week, i dont like the feel even though i like how it sound ..
a topre board bit too pricey to me

[Maledicted]

Probably because Cherry thinks their tooling specific to the silent variants still has life left in it, since they're still a relatively new offering.

If you like the sound of Topre, and want something silent/dampened, why isn't Topre in the running? I think a good dome board feels better than any MX derivative I have tried besides maybe Gateron and Outemu blues.

i ended up buying leopold with silent red last week, i dont like the feel even though i like how it sound ..
a topre board bit too pricey to me

Where did you get it? If you got it on Amazon, you should be able to return it pretty easily. There's a Khol's store here where you can drop off Amazon purchases and they'll pack it all back up and send it back for you for free.

You don't want to take stabs in the dark purchasing entire keyboards without any hot swap sockets based on the opinions of random people on the internet. You need to start to feel out what your tastes are for yourself and then suggestions may start to hit the mark.