Best Quiet/Silent Keyboard with MX Cherry Compatible Switches

[Jake the Fake]

My buddy's a PC gamer and I'm looking into getting him a quiet gaming keyboard for Christmas (there's a baby in the house now). I have heard mixed reviews about Topre keyboards (a select few of which have Cherry mounts inside their Topre mounts) and they are costly, but am willing to go that option if need be. Are these the best silent switches? How about MX Cherry Red Silents? I'd appreciate any advice.

[Duckyreddy]

I have Silent Reds as my daily, I have tried almost all MX's and these Pinks feel mushy when compared to their unsilenced counterpart but they sure are much quieter and softer to land on.

[SpAmRaY]

In my opinion the Leopold FC980M with silent reds is hands down the best keyboard ever or at least currently.

[Jake the Fake]

In my opinion the Leopold FC980M with silent reds is hands down the best keyboard ever or at least currently.

Any relation to Leopold "Butters" Stotch?

In all seriousness, it looks stealth AF and this thing definitely makes my short list. I'm thinking black case and aftermarket PBT keycaps (in blue, his favorite color).  Thanks for your input.

[SpAmRaY]

In my opinion the Leopold FC980M with silent reds is hands down the best keyboard ever or at least currently.

In all seriousness, it looks stealth AF and this thing definitely makes my short list. I'm thinking black case and aftermarket PBT keycaps (in blue, his favorite color).  Thanks for your input.

FYI the PBT caps the board comes with are excellent

[Jake the Fake]

In my opinion the Leopold FC980M with silent reds is hands down the best keyboard ever or at least currently.

In all seriousness, it looks stealth AF and this thing definitely makes my short list. I'm thinking black case and aftermarket PBT keycaps (in blue, his favorite color).  Thanks for your input.

FYI the PBT caps the board comes with are excellent

Noted. And in that case, maybe I'll incorporate the bundled caps into a checkered blue-and-black design? Or maybe blue for the alphanumeric keys and black for the modifiers? Decisions, decisions... Hmmm...

[Targa-TV]

I can also vouch for MX Silent switches. Extremely quiet.

[Riverman]

MX Silent switches are definitely quiet.  I had a silent red keyboard for a while, but didn't care for the mushiness of the keys after a week of trying it out at work, though.  I've heard that silent blacks don't feel quite as mushy, but they seem to be hard to come by outside of Cherry's own G80-3494.  If you can live with the size and don't care if your keyboard is a little on the lightweight side, it's a very nice keyboard.  My current keyboard at home is a Varmillo VA108M with brown switches and QMX clips.  It's just as silent as the silent red switches, but I think it feels much nicer to type on.

[iLLucionist]

Sorry, but I disagree with most folks on this one.

Yes, MX silent Reds SEEM QUIET. And the switch itself is. But because it also tightens the conduction of vibration, it actually spreads out to the case, and produces MORE noise.

Topre, on the other hand, has the one large rubber mat that conducts the vibration across the whole board, thereby absorbing it in the rubber, and is, therefore, quieter.

I couldn't believe it at first. I have QCK XL and my 87UB compared side by side with my Filco Majestouch HAKUA with Silent Reds.

Yes, the switch is quieter, but the overall keyboard is not.

[SpAmRaY]

Sorry, but I disagree with most folks on this one.

Yes, MX silent Reds SEEM QUIET. And the switch itself is. But because it also tightens the conduction of vibration, it actually spreads out to the case, and produces MORE noise.

Topre, on the other hand, has the one large rubber mat that conducts the vibration across the whole board, thereby absorbing it in the rubber, and is, therefore, quieter.

I couldn't believe it at first. I have QCK XL and my 87UB compared side by side with my Filco Majestouch HAKUA with Silent Reds.

Yes, the switch is quieter, but the overall keyboard is not.

I've got an FC980C w/45g topre and a FC980M w/silent reds, the silent reds are quieter. So I'd say it depends on the board.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[dante]

In my opinion the Leopold FC980M with silent reds is hands down the best keyboard ever or at least currently.

Do the silent reds feel easier on the hands?

[SpAmRaY]

In my opinion the Leopold FC980M with silent reds is hands down the best keyboard ever or at least currently.

Do the silent reds feel easier on the hands?

Again it's subjective and depends on typing style.

I don't get fatigued but do sometimes have accidental key presses from resting my fingers.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Riverman]

Sorry, but I disagree with most folks on this one.

Yes, MX silent Reds SEEM QUIET. And the switch itself is. But because it also tightens the conduction of vibration, it actually spreads out to the case, and produces MORE noise.

Topre, on the other hand, has the one large rubber mat that conducts the vibration across the whole board, thereby absorbing it in the rubber, and is, therefore, quieter.

I couldn't believe it at first. I have QCK XL and my 87UB compared side by side with my Filco Majestouch HAKUA with Silent Reds.

Yes, the switch is quieter, but the overall keyboard is not.

I completely agree that a Topre keyboard is quieter, but I'm not sure how you can say that a keyboard with silent red switches is louder than one without.  I have a Cherry G80-3494 that originally came with silent red switches.  It was a very quiet keyboard, but I couldn't stand the mushy keys, so I swapped out all of the switches with brown switches.  It got much louder after that, just because there was plastic on plastic contact that didn't happen with the rubberized sliders in the silent red switches.  I just put QMX clips in it last night, and it's back to being about as quiet as it originally was, but now has quite a bit more tactility.

[klennkellon]

If you want a nice and quiet board you should just pick up a cheapish 60% with MX or Gaterons and buy some silencing clips.

note it HAS to be either MX or Gateron because switches like Kailh and Outemu are not compatible with silencing clips.

[HotRoderX]

just my 2 cents on this... but I think your friend might be served nicely by any tactile are Liner switch. My thinking behind this is simple how much ambient noise will he need to over come in a given situation. Sure clicky switches are extremely loud. Buckling Springs once again very loud. Tactile and Liner not that loud at all. Special Tactile if you can stop your self from bottoming out then there almost no sound at all. Another thing to keep in mind is that keycaps will play a roll in how a key sounds at bottom out. I find that my SA caps.. are extremely loud compared to my cherry but once again this is all subjective.

Also keep in mind thought there was a group buy on KBDfan's for Silenced Gateron switches which I assume will be in his story shortly and might be worth looking into. https://kbdfans.myshopify.com/collections/swtich/products/pre-orderkbdfans-exclusive-gateron-silent-switch-red-brown-blak?variant=42584076045

[iLLucionist]

Sorry, but I disagree with most folks on this one.

Yes, MX silent Reds SEEM QUIET. And the switch itself is. But because it also tightens the conduction of vibration, it actually spreads out to the case, and produces MORE noise.

Topre, on the other hand, has the one large rubber mat that conducts the vibration across the whole board, thereby absorbing it in the rubber, and is, therefore, quieter.

I couldn't believe it at first. I have QCK XL and my 87UB compared side by side with my Filco Majestouch HAKUA with Silent Reds.

Yes, the switch is quieter, but the overall keyboard is not.

I completely agree that a Topre keyboard is quieter, but I'm not sure how you can say that a keyboard with silent red switches is louder than one without.  I have a Cherry G80-3494 that originally came with silent red switches.  It was a very quiet keyboard, but I couldn't stand the mushy keys, so I swapped out all of the switches with brown switches.  It got much louder after that, just because there was plastic on plastic contact that didn't happen with the rubberized sliders in the silent red switches.  I just put QMX clips in it last night, and it's back to being about as quiet as it originally was, but now has quite a bit more tactility.

I was talking about the comparison between the 87UB and Silent Reds, not between Silent MX and regular MX. Because, in general, I do not find MX quiet, not even blacks with o-rings, because of the transmission of vibration that is not absorbed as with Topre-style boards.

That said, some people do casemod and put foam inside the case, to absorb the noise, which could - if indeed the vibration carries through the housing - be absorbed by foam padding, given that it makes actual contact with the housing of the keyboard.

If I look at my MX silent red, 87UB, HHKB, KUL with clears, Other Filco with Browns, and finally a Steelseries with blacks that I used to have, I find the MX silent red almost as silent as the 87UB. If only there was a reliable way to dampen the remaining vibration of the housing, then it would be perfect, noise wise.

[dante]

I will be very interested to see reviews of the Gateron Silents.  Particularly if they implemented the low-wobble modifications that made it to the Tealios.

[Riverman]

I was talking about the comparison between the 87UB and Silent Reds, not between Silent MX and regular MX. Because, in general, I do not find MX quiet, not even blacks with o-rings, because of the transmission of vibration that is not absorbed as with Topre-style boards.

That makes perfect sense.  My Topre 104UWS is dead silent compared to any MX board I've used, whether it has silent switches, QMX clips, or o-rings.  As quiet as my G80-3494 is with QMX Clips, it's still a noisy beast compared to my Topre.

[Giorgio]

get any keyboard and then buy the uniqey silencing clips (available for plate mount or pcb mount, where plate mount should fit both plate and pcb mount)