deskthority

What exactly does it mean when a Topre key has "silencing"? I've tried searching, but nothing useful came up.

It means that there is a thin ring of foam that sits under the main switch assembly on the plunger.
Nothing changes when you press the key down, but on the upstroke, the ring of foam sitting on the circular plunger softens the landing against the ceiling on the main switch assembly.

Picture here: http://imgur.com/a/40Il8#19

Thank you. So its just foam rings that justify the super price spike for topre switches on elitekeyboards? :/

So there is no silencing on the way down, only on the way back up?

@EZjiji - Pretty much, although I think you'll find that the Realforce keyboards are not that much more expensive for the silenced version, whereas the HHKBs are. The theory is that the HHKBs Type-S switches are also better alligned than the previous version.

On PFU's website, the HHKB Type-S is about $60USD more than the standard HHKB Pro 2, but I'm supposing that Elitekeyboards is at the mercy of fluctuating exchange rates (the Type-S was probably more expensive when he made his order for them) and shipping cost, QA, Warranty and all that other stuff.

Silenced Realforces in Japan on the other hand are not really much more expensive than standard models, although they are probably more popular on Yahoo Auctions Japan (meaning people will pay more for them).

@longweight - Correct, as far as I know anyway. There's nothing I can see underneath the switch or on the rubber sheeting that would dampen the landing.

Are aftermarket mods available to add these washers to existing non Type-S boards?

Yeah you can do it yourself with some foam and some patience. Some guy has done a tutorial on it with pictures to give you an idea of how it's done. It's in Japanese but chrome should be able to translate. I'll grab the link for you when im on lunch.

um, just my 2 cents here...
having applied such mod 002 mentioned, I found it to be less satisfying as it lacks the 'softer' feel the original silencing gives.

I have also applied the O-ring mod, absolutely the worse silencing mod for topre (HHKB in this case)

The results may be biased for I have not experimented with different (softer) materials for the landing pad, and thinner o-rings.

So far, the best silencing I have tried is hasu's foam ring


(I shamelessly copied the pic from hasu's thread, along with his bluetooth mod, from GH)

You could check out some recent DT threads on the topic of silencing rings for Topre-switch keyboards:

http://deskthority.net/help-f53/silenci ... 10051.html

http://deskthority.net/videos-f63/topic11287.html

http://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/aud ... 11269.html

http://deskthority.net/ebay-com-f67/sil ... 11233.html

The rings I have made available have recently sold out, but I will be producing a second batch within the next several weeks. I will notify people when they are available again.