Got my Apple Extended Keyboard II today, to be used as a donor board for its sliders (which have rubber dampers on them, reducing bottoming and topping "clack"). My plan was to use these sliders on one of my other alps boards in order to create a quieter alps board.
First the pics, then results of slider-swapping experiments.
The board arrived with a key missing and a crack in the case, but what did I expect for $13 shipped? There was another surprise: I was expecting clicky white alps. The alps were white -- but not clicky! They felt exactly like black alps (and are nearly 100% compatible with black alps in all components). I cant help but wonder if someone had harvested the click leaf out of these already (I mean, who ever heard of clickless white alps?). [update: our wiki says aekII is supposed to have cream/orange/yellow alps, not white; and the former are supposed to be "light clicky, light tactile". But these are not clicky at all as far as I can see, so I'm still a bit confused about that, but no matter.] 
Label on the back
The sliders though still did have their rubber dampers installed, which is what I was mainly interested in.
Another view.
Compare sliders: Mk96 "white alps" slider is on left, AEKII rubber damper slider is on right.
Click leaf (actually tactile-leaf) from the AEKII. Is nearly identical to the leaf from black alps (dell at101w). The only difference I can see is the small hole.
Compare springs. From left to right: black alps (dell at101w)/ white "alps" (mk96)/ "white" alps (AEKII)/ Gray strongman (smk85). Note that each is slightly different.
The top part of the housing on the AEKii switches was nearly identical to the black alps top part from the dell at101w. Both of them have "alps" stamped into them.
Interchangeability notes: Can you put the dampers into any other alps board? Short answer: only into some!
-The mk96 and the smk85 both have the "
double slot" switch (and a double slot upper casing). The at101w and the aekii both have the single slot switch (and the single slot casing). Basically:
it appears you cannot switch anything between single and double slot switches. Not even these sliders! The upper housing refuses to fit if you try to cram it in.
-This meant that the mk96 and the smk85 were immediately out of the experiment. There was no way the AEKii sliders (or the click leafs) were going to go into them.
-This left the dell at101w. I was able to transfer the AEKii slider to it (into its upper housing part). (Was
not able to transfer click leaf! Even though they look identical. There must be some minute difference, probably on the braces on the click leaf). This also means the upper housings were slightly different.
Results: What did the dell at101w with aekii dampers sound like?
Well, hear for yourself
The recording is three slow regular black alps presses, followed by three with the aekii dampers installed, followed by a few faster keystrokes regular, then faster keystrokes dampened. The difference may be more noticeable in person but you can get a sense of the difference.
Also, with the damper-sliders installed, the black alps were
noticeably smoother when compared to the regular black sliders. The result was a fairly quiet black alps switch, with the bottoming and topping clacks reduced by more than 50%. (I wanted to transfer over the springs too, cuz the aek springs have higher resistance that I like, but the springs make strange "scrunchy" noises when installed, so I put the dell's original black alps springs back in).
Conclusion: I like it. I'm going to keep this new "quieter, smoother" Dell version as my (relatively) 'quiet' board. And its definitely smoother and definitely quieter than regular black alps.
