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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: bad_alloc on Sat, 05 November 2011, 08:51:14

Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: bad_alloc on Sat, 05 November 2011, 08:51:14: Hello Forum,
I am slightly (read: very) anxious about the health of my ears, as I sometimes notice slight signs of tinnitus. Now I read in the Wiki, that mechanical keyboards can be loud enough to annoy neighbors (or is that hyperbole?) and Das even offers earplugs along with the Model S. Does using a loud mechanical keyboard cause hearing damage? Should I consider a silent model to reduce the risk of more tinnitus? Should I avoid the blue keys (which seem to be lounder)? Are the Wiki and Das trolling me?

I've also listened to some soundsamples but IMHO one cannot judge their absolute properly.

Regards,

bad_alloc
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: reaper on Sat, 05 November 2011, 09:10:35: I've been using mech keyboards for almost 2 years now and yet my hearing stays the same. I doubt if it will cause any hearing damage to your ears.

Edit: oh and welcome to Geekhack! =P
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: peda on Sat, 05 November 2011, 10:01:10: I always wear my hunting hearing protection when typing on blues.

But I on reds or brown, i allow myself to only use simple earplugs.

On a more serious note: even with the hardest bottoming out imaginable, i doubt that you can get anywhere close to the Dezibel needed to do damage.
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: hashbaz on Sat, 05 November 2011, 11:35:58: Ha! No, nowhere near loud enough to harm ears. Annoying neighbors refers to coworkers sitting near you.

P.S. Love your username :D
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: rich0d on Sat, 05 November 2011, 12:15:46: Meh, I suffer from a load of different ear related issues and I am partially deaf in one ear. I also work in IT infrastructure, and constantly have 2+ servers whining at me on my office's build bench, I don't think that me bringing a mech keyboard to work has had any adverse effects on me.

Stop being a hypochondriac, and get a mech keyboard if you want one, I highly doubt it will make you deaf or give you any other hearing related issues... The only thing which will have an adverse effect on is your bank balance, as you'll want to replace every single keyboard that you touch with a different mechanical one.
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: Gerk on Sat, 05 November 2011, 12:52:45: Shouldn't be a problem, it's the steady noises (like fan noise) that are more likely to cause problems. I've had tinnitus for years.
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: laffindude on Sat, 05 November 2011, 13:45:13: If type fast enough to make steady noise for extended period of time, you got more things to worry about than your hearing, such as your coworker breaking the keyboard over your face.
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: bad_alloc on Sat, 05 November 2011, 14:30:11: Ok, sounds safe enough. Still I'm going to get a Das Keyboard Model S silent (****, I know), since it costs the same as the normal version at the german getDigital store (can't link, sorry). It seems to have the brown switches. When coming from a rubber dome keyboard (Lenovo Enhanced Performance), do I have to expect to use more or less force? (more would be desirable)

Btw thanks for the welcome. This forum does seem to have a very paticular (read: awesome) style/tone etc. Hard to describe. I like!

Still on wobbly keys,

bad_alloc
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: rich0d on Sat, 05 November 2011, 16:32:29: There's nothing wrong with the Das silent, it's just MX Browns which are really nice to type on - light and tactile, lighter than any other "standard". If you put the O-ring mod on them, they become about as loud as a membrane, but way more enjoyable to type on. Check out the WASD keyboard comparison video with the O-rings,

http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/blog/sound-comparision/

Enjoy your keyboard. :)
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: Clickey on Mon, 07 November 2011, 07:59:05: Absolutely not! Sustained sound levels of 85dB or above are required to cause hearing damage, which unless you are putting your ears right next to the keyboard and you bottom out like a gorilla, you wont even get close to this.

Hearing damage is compounded by how much sound you have in the day without rest. An entire office of people using buckling springs may produce enough sound to damage ears in a workplace (since you would be exposed to it for an entire day) perhaps someone here knows of studies done on workplace sound levels from the late 80's.
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: Tony on Mon, 07 November 2011, 08:07:50: What are you discussing? Sorry I cannot hear your every sentence and paragraph.

(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSvz-c8DAfjTZ5CCfDoaHcIZQnx6qqY84A0VROa5TyysuYdFbvgVPqyoxqY)
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: AgentZen on Mon, 07 November 2011, 08:47:38: Ok, they're loud, but not that loud. If anything causes me damage it's going to be my Marshall Major 200W amplifier. Mechanical keyboards aint got nothing on that.
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: pitashen on Mon, 07 November 2011, 09:35:52: OP, how old are you?
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: bootstrap on Mon, 07 November 2011, 10:08:36: @bad_alloc - Tinnitus is like pain, it's a symptom rather than a disease. It can be due to different things. If your tinnitus is due to progressive hearing loss, then more hearing loss can worsen the tinnitus.

Like others have mentioned, the clicking sounds from the keyboard is not likely to cause hearing loss. So a clicky keyboard probably won't worsen your tinnitus. On the other hand, ambient noise can help some patients. Therefore, a clicky keyboard may help your condition in that it may reduce what you perceive as tinnitus.
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: bad_alloc on Mon, 07 November 2011, 14:22:30: Ok, community, I am at awe because of the helpful feedback. You have made yet another clicky-keyboard-customer (Do you get provisions?).

Sadly, the klicky Das Keyboard Model S german version is out of stock. Can anyone recommend a keyboard with brown or blue keys, that has a german layout and is avaliable in Germany (or the EU (not switzerland))? Most of the links here lead to american layouts, which suck for äüö and ß.

Not in America,

bäd_allöc
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: Oqsy on Mon, 07 November 2011, 14:31:45: Cherry offers lots of boards in Germany doesn't it? I would think it would be the best place to find a particular switch type with a German layout, since Cherry is based in Deutschland.

Sixty, Ascaii, either of you around to help with this one?
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: wmtx on Mon, 07 November 2011, 15:01:41: Quote from: Oqsy;447470
Cherry offers lots of boards in Germany doesn't it? I would think it would be the best place to find a particular switch type with a German layout, since Cherry is based in Deutschland.

Sixty, Ascaii, either of you around to help with this one?

Cherry offers the G80-3000 in German layout in different "Operation Characteristics", like "Linear" (I am guessing blacks), "Soft pressure point" (browns?) and "Click pressure point" (blues?).

These are educated guesses from the model overview (see the models tab) on this page: http://www.cherry.de/cid/b2b_corded_keyboards_G80-3000.htm

Trying to help, please correct me if I am wrong.
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: Retox on Mon, 07 November 2011, 21:02:36: My vote is that this is a troll
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: Fuzzy Dunlop on Tue, 08 November 2011, 01:38:08: Got hypochondria?
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: bad_alloc on Tue, 08 November 2011, 12:00:10: Quote
My vote is that this is a troll

No.

Quote
Got hypochondria?

Probably. But remember: Wo dies first, is dead longer!
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: Foodmanchew on Tue, 08 November 2011, 13:07:36: I'm pretty sure Das Keyboard sells earplugs as a joke. Like, give them to all your coworkers so they stop whining.
Title: The Loudness of mechanical keyboards - what about hearing damage.
Post by: rich0d on Tue, 08 November 2011, 17:49:53: Only EU supplier I know is http://keyboardco.com/ - they have German layout Filcos, but yeah - I'm sure that you'll be able to find something in Germany that's cheaper. :)