Keyboard sound levels - MX Brown is LOUD

[webwit]

In this switch guide they measured how loud certain mechanical keyboards are.

What caught my attention is that the MX Browns are louder than the Blues and Blacks.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/242037/m ... witch.html

Code: Select all

KEYBOARD MODEL 	                           Switch type  Peak sound level (dB)
Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition 	Brown 		 59.3
Rosewill RK-9000 	                         Blue 	 	 57.7
Adesso MKB-135B 	                          Blue 	 	 57.3
Das Keyboard Model S Professional 	        Blue 	 	 57.0
Diatec Filco Majestouch 2 Camouflage 	     Blue 	 	 57.0
Diatec Filco Majestouch Ninja 	            Black	 	 55.6
Thermaltake Meka/Meka G1 	                 Black	 	 54.6
Logitech membrane keyboard 	               n/a 	 	  54.2
SteelSeries 6Gv2/7G 	                      Black 	 	54.1
Microsoft Digital Media 3000 membrane        n/a 	 	  47.4

[cactux]

[Account and posts deleted on request]

[nathanscribe]

I'm not sure the frequencies the switches produce would have much of an effect on the measured level, unless there's damping or resonance going on, but a person might be more bothered by some frequencies than others.

[edited for being wrong]

[Mrinterface]

Oowww... Nice exposure for mechanical keyboards again...

Measuring the sound levels of key-switches also need to take into account if they are PCB mounted or plate mounted AND whether you bottom out or not.... At least that was my experience when developing the simulators.

Regards.

[Findecanor]

Keep in mind, too, that typing technique can make a major difference in how loud your keyboard sounds. My results were consistently around 1dB lower than Jason's, and often closer to 2dB lower on keyboards with MX Blue switches, possibly because the click and the tactile bump made me use less force in pressing the keys.

It would be much lower if they learned to not bottom out.

[BiNiaRiS]

Id be willing to bet browns were 1st simply cause they were bottoming out.

Seems like a crappy test when they only have 1 brown keyboard and multiples of blue and black.

Sent from my EVO

[webwit]

I don't think bottoming out is entirely unrealistic for the average user, to say the least. Especially with the browns.

[HWI]

Id be willing to bet browns were 1st simply cause they were bottoming out.

Seems like a crappy test when they only have 1 brown keyboard and multiples of blue and black.

Exactly what I was thinking.

[sordna]

I think this video by WASDkeyboards does a great job demonstrating sound levels:

[ripster]

He should have put the "after" one closer to the mike and the "before" one further away. Nice trick!

[Telstar]

Quite interesting...
The click "sounds" louder than a low-frequency sound like the brown mx while is not. And the Razer board is probably louder then other brown boards.