I tend to consider the sound of a keyboard as being as important as its "feel".
I mod almost all my keyboards in the hope to give them a better sound.
For the keyboards enthusiasts who give a high importance to sound, I have compiled here a list of the recordings I have recently made of 9 keyboards I own.
The first two recordings are for reference: I have chosen two keyboards that are available everywhere and that you have good chances to know already: the small wireless aluminum Apple and the full size HP rubber dome. Maybe you have already typed on one of these, which will allow you to better appreciate the sounds of the other ones.
Some recordings will allow you to hear the same keyboard before and after modding. This will help you appreciate the importance of the operation: some keyboards sound like crap out of the box, then sound just right once modded.
I advise you to put on headphones to listen to these samples, otherwise you will certainly miss the important subtleties.
At the end of each of the recording, I always press the following keys 3 times:
Backspace
Enter
Right Shift
Left Shift
Space bar
These keys are generally stabilized by some additional mechanism, and are generally louder than the other keys. A lot of sound pollution comes from them, generally.
During the recordings, the mic was quite close to the keyboards, in order to emphasize the sounds coming from them relative to the background noise. This tends to emphasize the low frequencies. Apart from that, all the keyboards have been recorded with the same setting, and in particular the distance from the keyboard to the mic has always been the same.
The typing style was "normal": I tried to type at a reasonably fast pace, but gently. I did not try to be as quiet as possible either.
I have used a Blue Snowflake mic to record these sounds. Once the sounds have been recorded, I have applied the following processing:
- Fade in/fade out
- Amplification by 9dB
- NOTHING ELSE
The sounds are available in WAV format. They are mono and have not been compressed in any way. Essentially, you get what the mic has captured.
Here is a picture of my recording setup:
The recording setup.
Below are my recordings, with comments, of the following keyboards:
1. Apple wireless aluminum keyboard model A1314 (scissor rubber dome)
2. Hewlett-Packard model SK-2880 (rubber dome)
3. Leopold FC660C (Topre capacitive rubber dome)
4. Leopold Realforce 87UW (Topre capacitive rubber dome)
5. PFU Limited HHKB Type-S (Topre capacitive rubber dome)
6. Cooler Master Novatouch (Topre capacitive rubber dome)
7. KBC Poker II, MX red, firm landing pads, Tex alu case (red Cherry MX switch)
8. GH60, MX brown, O-rings, Poker plastic case (brown Cherry MX switch)
9. Filco Majestouch 2 TenKeyLess, MX blue, O-rings (blue Cherry MX switch)
1. Apple wireless aluminum keyboard model A1314 (scissor rubber dome)This keyboard is included for reference because there are good chances you have already heard or used one. It is one of the most silent keyboards in this sampler. I think my silenced Realforce 87U is even quieter, but it may be subjective. The stabilized keys are well done, and don't rattle at all. It is possible that only the space bar is stabilized, actually.
The keys are flat. They have a very short travel. The tactile return is clear. This keyboard works well but has no soul. You don't feel much when you are using it. The experience comes close to typing on glass, thanks largely to the keys being flat and the cold metal surrounding the chicklet-style keys. I have owned one for several months, and at some point I realized I actually enjoyed typing on a rubber dome much more...
The Apple wireless aluminum keyboard model A1314
Listen to the sample:
http://www.chesstiger.com/images/keyboards/0-Sounds/Apple_wireless_Model_A1314.wav2. Hewlett-Packard model SK-2880 (rubber dome)This keyboard is also included for reference. I have seen it in almost every office out there and I guess there must be several dozens millions in the wild now.
I like the feel of this keyboard. The collapse of the some is rather crisp, and the key travel is not too short. But I hate the way it is built. It feels like you could actually easily fold it (I have not actually tried). It sounds like crap.
I'm pretty sure if you could put a metal plate inside it would feel close to Topre. But it would not be as durable as a real Topre, naturally. Oh and naturally the keycaps are also crap and always feel greasy.
The model SK-2880 keyboard by Hewlett-Packard
Listen to the sample:
http://www.chesstiger.com/images/keyboards/0-Sounds/HP_rubberdome_model_SK-2880.wav3. Leopold FC660C (Topre capacitive rubber dome)This keyboard is one of the first I have modded, and I do not have a full before/after audio recording. At least not in this setup. But I have included a link to a video that will give you a good idea of the before/after.
The FC660C is generally considered an excellent keyboard. The critics generally say they don't like the layout because of the "wasted" space on the right, and so they don't even try the keyboard. When you actually use it, you notice that the space is not wasted and give you tactile clues about the position of the navigation keys.
The build is very good and very few people have ever complained about the quality of the keyboard, which has an excellent record as far as I can tell. The Topre switches are sandwiched between a thick PCB and a metal plate, which gives a very solid feel to the keyboard.
The sound out of the box was not bad, but the "click" on the upstroke bothered me, so I tried to find a way to silence it, which evolved into the "clothing iron Topre silencing method" later. I have recently re-done the mod on this FC660C, because my method has evolved, is now much better, and this poor Leo had not benefited from it.
The FC660C keyboard by Leopold
Here is a link to a video showing you the effect of the silencing mod. The top two rows of the keyboard have been silenced, and the rest has not been. You can clearly hear the "clicks" on the keys that have not been modded:
http://www.chesstiger.com/images/keyboards/Silenced_FC660C.mp4Listen to the sample of the fully silenced FC660C:
http://www.chesstiger.com/images/keyboards/0-Sounds/FC660C_fully_silenced.wav4. Leopold Realforce 87UW (Topre capacitive rubber dome)This Realforce is a classic in the community. It is extremely well built and has good PBT keycaps.
I love its retro look with the beige keys and grey modifiers, and frankly I find beige or white keys more readable then black ones (is it just me?). I love the fact that the cable can be routed, below the keyboard, to the left, center or right. This feature is so obvious... So much better than these fragile mini or micro-USB plugs located at fixed and generally inconvenient places at the back of the keyboard.
I don't like the "wasted" (yeah) space at the back of the keyboard, because my Realforce always bumps into my monitor, but well, I can live with this. I know some people love to put their favorite pen there.
Due to its very light-weighted keys, the Realforce is quite silent out of the box. On Topre boards, the bottoming-out does the beloved "Thock" and does not need to be silenced. What needs to be silenced is the upstroke, when the key goes back to its released state and hit the top of the housing with an annoying "click" sound. But the upstroke is not very noisy on the Realforce, because the force with which the switch pushes the key upwards is relatively modest.
I have two identical RF87U, so I have decided to mod one of them. This gives an excellent way to compare the sound of a modded RF87U to the sound of a standard one.
I believe my modded Realforce 87U is the most silent of all the keyboards I have modded, and it may even be quieter than the small Apple keyboard (which is a little bit like having a tank sounding quieter than a bicycle).
The Realforce 87UW keyboard by Leopold
Listen to the samples:
Standard Realforce 87U:
http://www.chesstiger.com/images/keyboards/0-Sounds/Realforce_87U.wavSilenced Realforce 87U:
http://www.chesstiger.com/images/keyboards/0-Sounds/Realforce_87U_fully_silenced.wav5. PFU Limited HHKB Type-S (Topre capacitive rubber dome)It's an expensive keyboard that has a number of vocal adepts.
The build quality is good and the keyboard is small and light. This is good for mobile use and to keep the mouse even closer than with a TKL.
The keys are supposed to be the same weight than on the FC660C (45g), but I find them a little bit heavier, which is not bad, and the tactile collapse of the rubber dome is definitely more pronounced, which is excellent.
What I don't like is the fact that the HHKB has no plate. The top part of the case has the top of the Topre housings molded in, and that's it. This makes the keyboard lighter, naturally, but it also makes it sound hollow, compared to all the other Topre ones. The HHKB is essentially an empty plastic shell with a PCB and rubber domes inside, and unfortunately you can hear it, at least when you are a little bit too much obsessed by sound as I am. To make things worse, on some HHKBs the plastic case creaks when you press on the bottom corners, where you are supposed to rest your palms or fingers. I have solved this by opening the keyboard and inserting adhesive foam in some places inside.
My HHKB is a Type-S, which means that inside the Topre switches there are already sound dampeners to silence the upstroke. It's exactly what I do when I mod a Topre keyboard, so I don't need to apply my mod to my HHKB. What I will probably do in the future is to put some padding material inside the keyboard in an attempt to make it sound less hollow, and find a way to grease the space bar's stabilizer.
You will hear in the recording that my space bar rattles a lot. To be honest this happens on a lot of keyboards and it can be solved with thick grease. However we are talking about a $350 keyboard here. Out of the box, the case creaks and the space bar rattles... And the lack of a metal plate makes it most probably cheaper to manufacture than a $200 Realforce 87U... What I mean is that you pay a premium when you purchase an HHKB. You pay a lot for the name and the special layout. Don't expect some extraordinary build quality.
The HHKB Type-S keyboard by PFU Limited
Listen to the sample:
http://www.chesstiger.com/images/keyboards/0-Sounds/HHKB_Type-S.wav6. Cooler Master Novatouch (Topre capacitive rubber dome)The novelty in the Novatouch is that it has special sliders that allow it to accept keycaps designed for Cherry MX keyboards. Topre keyboards generally accept only special keycaps designed for the Topre sliders, and it's not very easy to find replacement keycaps for them. It has even become more and more difficult in recent times, and at the same time the market for Cherry MX keycaps seems to be stable, maybe even growing. On the other hand, there seems to be more and more appreciation for the Topre switch, its neat tactile feedback, and long life.
The Novatouch takes into account these market realities by offering a solid Topre keyboard compatible with Cherry MX keycaps.
To be honest, I love the Novatouch. It has even become my main keyboard, and I'm typing this post on it. However, out of the box I was not overwhelmed.
If you don't care too much about how your keyboard sounds, no problem. The keyboard just feels great. The Topre tactility is really there. But the keys make too much "click" on the upstroke and the stabilized keys rattle a little bit too much.
Some people may not find it is a problem. But I knew how to fix this, so I fixed it.
You can hear below how the keyboard sounded before the mod, and how it sounds after. The modded Novatouch is not the quietest Topre board I own, but I just love how it sounds now. It also has more tactility than both the FC660C and the Realforce 87UW (but less than the HHKB). Being a TKL, it's now my keyboard of choice for productivity when I am on my desk.
Here is a link to an unfinished post where I describe how to mod the Novatouch and all the Topre keyboards:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=65853.msg1540901#msg1540901
The Novatouch by Cooler Master
Listen to the samples:
Standard Novatouch:
http://www.chesstiger.com/images/keyboards/0-Sounds/Novatouch.wavSilenced Novatouch:
http://www.chesstiger.com/images/keyboards/0-Sounds/Novatouch_fully_silenced.wav7. KBC Poker II, MX red, firm landing pads, Tex alu case (red Cherry MX switch)The Poker II has become a best-seller for those who want a compact "60%" keyboard.
The keyboard is solid, plate-mounted, and has a good build quality. It provides simplified programmability, which can be quite useful. The stabilizers are Cherry type.
A number of replacement cases are available for it, and I have chosen a Tex aluminum case. The case doesn't help with the sound of the keyboard, because it's a very rigid material. When you tap on it, it sounds a little bit like glass or ceramic. It certainly does not dampen the sound of the keystrokes in any way, because it does not absorb the acoustic energy.
To help with this, I have covered the inside of the case with some thick rubber foam, and it works well.
To dampen the bottoming-out, I use the firm landing pads sold by EliteKeyboard (the grey ones). They are also made of foam rubber and work well. I think they reduce the bottoming-out sound slightly more than O-rings, but the keystrokes do feel a little bit mushy. With Cherry MX red, bottoming-out is the only way to get a tactile feedback.
In the sound sample, the little click you hear on every keystroke is produced by the upstroke: the key going in the "up" direction, the slider hits the top of the switch housing. I reduce this noise by applying some medium-thick grease on the switch walls, inside the switch, where the slider is in contact with the housing. When you release the key, the grease prevents the slider to go too fast, and this reduces the upstroke click.
The keycaps are custom WASD ones (GuiFN layout), not the stock Poker II ones. The original ones sound the same anyway.
With all these mods, what you can hear in the sample is an example of a significantly silenced red Cherry MX.
The Poker II by KBC, in a Tex aluminum case
Listen to the sample:
http://www.chesstiger.com/images/keyboards/0-Sounds/Poker_2_Tex_alu_case_MX_red_pads.wav8. GH60, MX brown, O-rings, Poker plastic case (brown Cherry MX switch)This keyboard is not widely available, but I think it is representative of Cherry MX brown on plate mounted boards (with O-rings). The stabilizers are Cherry type.
I have used the WASD blue O-rings, because I use custom WASD keycaps on this keyboards, and the O-rings came pre-assembled, but to be honest there is not much difference between all the O-rings I have tried. They make the bottoming-out less mushy than landing pads, so the keyboard keeps much of its "mechanical" feel. On the other hand, browns allow you to type without bottoming-out too hard (because of the tactile feedback), so the more efficient grey landing pads are not really needed here.
I have also applied grease inside the switches to reduce the upstroke click (see Poker II). I have not done much more to silence this keyboard, and you will hear some rattle in the stabilized keys, which could certainly be reduced significantly with thick grease.
The GH60 (GeekHack's 60%)
Listen to the sample:
http://www.chesstiger.com/images/keyboards/0-Sounds/GH60_Poker_case_MX_brown_Orings.wav9. Filco Majestouch 2 TenKeyLess, MX blue, O-rings (blue Cherry MX switch)This keyboard is noisy on purpose. The Cherry MX blue switch has a special mechanism which allows it to produce this distinctive "click" sound when the key press is registered.
While the click is desirable, the bottoming-out sound is not in my opinion, so I have equipped this keyboard with red O-rings from the Keyboard Company. Blue O-rings from WASD, or any O-rings from other companies would make very little difference here.
The O-rings are the only mod on this keyboard: the rest is what you get when you receive the keyboard, including the keycaps.
The Majestouch 2 TenKeyLess by Filco
Listen to the sample:
http://www.chesstiger.com/images/keyboards/0-Sounds/Filco_MJ2_TKL_MX_blue_Orings.wav
