Alternative to Filco Cherry MX Blues - O-rings

[frowni]

Hi there,

I bought a Filco Majestouch MX Blues a year ago. Since its too noisy and all(my wife is going a bit crazy), i switched to my old Silicon Graphics keyboard..i looveed it but its dead now   i was thinking about buying a keyboard with less noise like brown or red. Or, as an alternative, since i'm in love with the distinct click of blues, i may order o-rings for my Filco. How well O-rings work? Will they help? Or should i get browns? Thank you...

[CPTBadAss]

Welcome to GH!

I recently wrote a review on dampeners and o-rings with some videos on the sound reduction. Check it out and PM me if you have any questions

[tp4tissue]

Go with the "SOFTEST" you can find... the harder o-rings offer minimal dampening.

[frowni]

So i should go with O-rings instead of getting browns or reds right?

[tp4tissue]

You should DO BOTH because with MX BLUES, they MAY be EVEN LOUDER WITH orings. 

As the orings "brings out// isolates forward" the high pitch CLICK sound, which is perceptibly Louder due to the higher frequency, DESPITE lower sound pressure.  )

Quote from an Older post of mine:

Because in states of quiet disposition, the motor protein on the hair receptor inside your cochlea will relax, thus heightening your audio sensitivity,

You lose all the gains you've made with orings

The hairs in your ear are capable of detecting the movement by the width of a single hydrogen atom.


This is the reason construction workers on loud work-sites wear earplugs "TO HEAR BETTER",

Without earplugs, they can't hear a person talking to them at all, while with the plugs, "THEY CAN"

[metalliqaz]

^^^ that sounds like some serious BS right there 

[tp4tissue]

^^^ that sounds like some serious BS right there 

I'll repeat this again...

I am paraphrasing the statement from a physical psych book..

it's just how your ear works....

2 things are in effect...


Higher frequency sounds are perceptibly louder than equivalent loudness of lower frequency sounds.


A quiet environment will make your ears "more sensitive", as your ear ADAPTS to loudness trying to keep it at an "AUDIBLE" level

these two things would remove most of the "gains" you've made through dampening the MX blues.

[CPTBadAss]

So i should go with O-rings instead of getting browns or reds right?

I believe that browns and reds can be just as loud. I watched a lot of StarCraft streams where players use those switches and its laughably loud. Look at WASDKeyboard's videos and ask your wife what she thinks. And o-rings will change how the blues feel so you might not like them as much with them installed. You can also order a sampler pack from WASDKeyboards to do your own research.

[keymaster]

I have both mx blues and browns. The browns are much quieter, especially with the red o-rings crom WASD. Gamers can make any switch noisy due to the excessive force they tend to put on the keys.

[WhiteFireDragon]

OP, if you like the feel of clicks and blues, mx reds and browns is not even close to being a good alternative. Mx browns has a tactile bump that is hardly even felt, so you'll be disappointed if you're looking for a quiet version of a distinct click. The closest so that you'll find is a mod called "ergo clears". It's quiet at the tactile bump and is much more tactile than browns. If you add O-rings to it, you'll almost achieve what you're looking for, although the tactile still will not be as crisp as mx blues.

Here's the effect of O-rings on a mx blue Filco, you can decide if it's what you're looking for.

[Leslieann]

Bottoming out is only some of the noise you hear, a large percentage of the noise you hear is the key returning to it's top position, o-rings will not help there.

Couple things you can do that range from cheap to downright expensive, easy to quite difficult.
Aluminum case (more solid feel and doesn't vibrate carrying sound)
Thick PBT keycaps (same as above)
Add something in the bottom to dampen the noise (I use foam)
Silicone traces on the plate to dampen the plate (next in my plan)
O-rings (dampens bottoming out)
Clear or Jailhouse Blues (short stroke) switches instead of blues (high tactility, low noise)

[fuzzybaffy]

OP, if you like the feel of clicks and blues, mx reds and browns is not even close to being a good alternative. Mx browns has a tactile bump that is hardly even felt, so you'll be disappointed if you're looking for a quiet version of a distinct click. The closest so that you'll find is a mod called "ergo clears". It's quiet at the tactile bump and is much more tactile than browns. If you add O-rings to it, you'll almost achieve what you're looking for, although the tactile still will not be as crisp as mx blues.

Here's the effect of O-rings on a mx blue Filco, you can decide if it's what you're looking for.

What kind of O-rings did you use? I understand there are different types at the wasdkeyboards website (if that's where you bought them from).

[Betty]

In the past two weeks I experimented a lot with different o-rings (all sorts from WASD, two different kinds of diy ghetto-rings) and either the great feeling of the switches were gone completely or they reduced the sound not a bit.
I'm still waiting for landing pads from ek, but that's my last approache, and after that my girlfriend will have to suffer.  Since I have longer than average fingers that could cause the problem. 
The happy hacking keyboard is a small step in the right direction (review pending), because the pitch of the sound is much lower than on blues, but that's only a solution if your wife doesn't stay in the same room.
Don't waste money on blacks or reds, if you like to type on blues they are not what you are looking for. I have never tried browns, so I can't commend on that.

[TotalChaos]

^^^ that sounds like some serious BS right there 

It isn't bs.

There are all kinds of bizarre weird things about the way the human ear works.

Take MP3s for example.  They sound like crap.  They are full of hideous distortions that sound awful.  But you can't hear the ugliness when u listen to the song straight thru.  It sounds beautiful to most ppl.  Its a magic trick.

But when u cut a sound sample out of the mp3 to use in a new mix, ohno!  u can suddenly hear all the ikky ugly distortions.  You have uncovered the magic trick and can easily hear the ugliness.

And its all because of the "weird" way the human ear works.

[volatilecoffee]

I would just recommend you get MX browns

[TotalChaos]

My advice is to pick one of these options:

A: Have a new wife installed. 

B:
1) Get a new Cherry MX Red keyboard.  The Red switches are just naturally quieter than Blue.

2) And send your keyboard to WhiteFireDragon Industrial Keyboard Customization Company International Headquarters in California to have a lube job done.  The lube will miraculously lower the upstroke noise.

3) And goto WASDkeyboards.com and order the SOFT 40A O-rings and instsall them (or have WhiteFireDragon do it for you, he is cheap so use him).  The O-rings will miraculously lower the downstroke noise.  You will then have the quietest cherry keyboard you can reasonably obtain.

[volatilecoffee]

-redacted