Like Cherry Blue for typing but need a quieter key for the office.

[Harold12]

Hi. As above I am looking for a key that gives a Cherry Blue like feeling without as loud a clack. I will be working in a open plan office and don't want to disturb my workmates.

The keyboard I use at home (and love) is a Blackwidow TE 2013 with the Cherry Blue but it is bloody loud.

Any key/keyboard suggestions?

[2ZQ]

I have been messing with my extra blue switches recently. I figured out a mod to adjust the noise and basically retain the click. Requires a lot of time (for a whole boards worth of switches), but only an hobby knife to achieve.

[Findecanor]

The only mainstream mechanical switch that comes close to being "like a Cherry MX Blue but silent" is the Cherry MX Brown. However, the tactility is much reduced in it. That would do away with the click noise, but not the "clack" on bottoming out and the noise when the key comes back up.

To reduce clack noise, a popular method is to install rubber O-rings inside the keycaps. There are even a couple of keyboards that come with O-rings already installed but it is easy to do yourself if you have a keycap puller and something (like a flat-head screwdriver) to push them on with.
See Damping in the Wiki for more info and alternatives. (although the article needs some more work...)

The overall build of the keyboard also have a significance, as do the feet. I have two keyboards of different make with exactly the same specs on paper: same type of switches, form factor, keycap materials etc. that are like night and day when it comes to noise.
Some of the feet on my louder keyboard are hard plastic and not rubberised - which transmits noise right onto the hard desk surface. I just got myself an extra wide mousepad - wide enough for the keyboard and the mouse - which reduces that noise quite a bit but not all. It is still constructed in a way that makes it louder.

[Menuhin]

There can be something called a "jailhouse" mod to silent the blues.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyb ... use_blues/
Someone is selling a kit so that one can do the mod without having to cut the o-rings.

However, silenced Topre switches (rubber-dome) are probably the most quiet 'mechanical' switches.

Spoiler:

1) 0:00 Realforce 87U (Silent topre, variable weight 30-55g)
2) 0:06 Realforce 104UG HiPro (Topre 45g)
3) 0:12 DAS Ultimate Model S (Cherry MX Brown)
4) 0:19 Realforce 104U 10th Anniversary version (Silent topre 45g)
5) 0:25 Filco Majestouch Convertible 2(Cherry MX Red)

[zslane]

I wonder if MX blue sliders could be replaced with silent red sliders...

[CountZero]

My understanding is that clears are the most tactile "quiet" switch. I have blues at home and clears at work and it does't kill my spirit to switch between the two. Those are the sum of my switch experience though so take it with a grain of salt.

[need]

I wonder if MX blue sliders could be replaced with silent red sliders...

But that won't make it clicky anymore... as those clicky legs are on the stem.

[czarek]

I wonder if MX blue sliders could be replaced with silent red sliders...

Of course. Housings and springs are exactly the same in MX Blue and Silent MX Red, so if you replaced stems, you'd end up with basically Silent Reds

[amospalla]

I am a big fan of quiet tactility, thus my experiences have been in this order:

Cherry MX clear: more tactile than browns but has a fake feeling. Upstroke can't be silenced.

Matias Quiet Click: big upgrade step, more quiet with a real tactile feeling. Upstroke and downstroke dampened.

Topre: big upgrade. It has a less sharp tactile feeling than Matias while being more consistent. Upstroke and downstroke dampened.

Altough I own other several keyboards, including Cherry, Buckling Spring and Alps my rotation is formed only by Topre and Matias Quiet keyboards, with Topre having much higher priority. No other modern keyboards provide me this kind of tactility/quiet experience.

[Wodan]

Topre isn't upstroke-dampened by design, you either have to find some extra-expensive factory silenced ones or silence them yourself using aftermarket silencing rings.

The way I type seems to be ideal for upstroke-noise and I was shocked by how loud Topres were after removing the TYPE-S rings for fun.

GMK will also soon offer the plate-compatible version of their QMX clips. They are supposed to dampen MX switches better than Silent MX Red.

[Menuhin]

...
GMK will also soon offer the plate-compatible version of their QMX clips. They are supposed to dampen MX switches better than Silent MX Red.

Are the QMX clips and the Zealencio Silencing Clips basically having the same design? Or even the same make except for their color difference?

[codemonkeymike]

Zealios with Zealencio Silencing Clips/QMX clips then make sure you put you keyboard on a thick desk mat. I have Cherry browns with O-rings on a thick desk mat and they are not too loud, people typing on their Amazon Basics keyboards are much louder. Also Matias Quiet Click switches are nice and tactile, if you do the same tactic of putting your keyboard on a thick desk mat it should be around the same noise as Zealios/Cherry clears.

Another thing to mention is avoid Signature Plastics SP keycaps they resonate and make the upstroke louder.

[Findecanor]

I have got both QMX clips and Zealencio silencing clips recently. They work quite well but the crux is that they are compatible with only a few keyboards.

* Current version of QMX clips work only on PCB-mounted switches, limiting you basically to Uniqey, Cherry G80-series (not all), Poker and home-made ErgoDOX.
* Clicky Cherry MX switches have a small protrusion on the stem that gets in the way of the upstroke. Clicky switches from Kailh and Greetech (and the ones they made for Razer) have those. Gateron's clicky switches don't, so they should work.
* Both silence the downstroke only on Cherry-profile keycaps, not OEM, DCS or DSA profile without additional O-rings. (SA would require many O-rings per key...) Upstroke is still silenced though.

But the biggest issue is:
* ... if you got Cherry-profile keycaps, then the keycaps are probably thick-walled. And if you have thick-walled keycaps then the switch has to be oriented with the LED window facing south. Otherwise the wall of the clip will impair key travel, especially on the home row - and that reduction in key travel is over a millimetre, radically changing the feel.

Almost every keyboard made for backlighting has the LED windows facing north.
Some keyboards such as Filco Majestouch have a couple of switches facing the other way. Other keyboard lines that have both backlit and non-backlit keyboards have the non-backlit keys facing north anyway to save on tooling or for using the same PCB for both.

QMX clips snap to the front and back of the switch, but the Zealencios snap to the sides. This makes it possible to cut away the back of the Zealencio clips to make them fit, but it is tricky and you would also cut away some of the cushioning material so I don't know if it would be very durable in the long run.
(I think that it would be better if some switch manufacturer integrated the silencing mat into a switch top that would replace the old one instead of making clips that go over existing switch tops ...)

[zslane]

(I think that it would be better if some switch manufacturer integrated the silencing mat into a switch top that would replace the old one instead of making clips that go over existing switch tops ...)

Or if some switch manufacturer integrated a silencing material onto the sliders...oh wait, Cherry did that. Just not for their clicky switches (yet).

[Findecanor]

Yes, but the tactile signature of Cherry MX switches is in the slider so each type of slider would have to be designed with silencing material. Aftermarket sliders are probably not as easy to engineer ...
Cherry has only Silent Red and Silent Black switches - which use the same type of slider, only moulded in different colours.

In Alps/Matias switches you can exchange the slider without changing tactility/click. (But I never got my hybrid vintage Alps switches to feel as good as the original Alps White so I suspect that there might be something more to it)

BTW. Zealencios a b**ch to remove...

[zslane]

Yes, but the tactile signature of Cherry MX switches is in the slider so each type of slider would have to be designed with silencing material...

I don't see a problem with that. Hopefully Cherry won't either, eventually.

[Phenix]

atm trying to make my travel-board more silent.
switched the way too light 35g springs to 150g yesterday.. lets see if its too heavy.

However: It is a pcb-mount board in a custom wood case.
If i want to decrease the loudness: what makes more sense:
-source silent red mx's
-get qmx clips