Shihatsu wrote: what do you guys think are the most silent switches currently?
cherry mx silent, available in black or red flavor, imo.
you could get them easily and directly
from reichelt or arrow, price is OK if you buy at least 100. The "developer kit" is
available at reichelt as well but only silent red. My silent blacks were pretty scratchy, so lubing them is a must imo.
Don't fall for the cheaper gateron silent clones. They only have two of the little dampeners on the stem, whereas cherry has more/bigger spots with dampeners on the stem. Because of this you have to hit the gateron silent switches exactly in the center, otherwise at the bottom out the stem will hit the housing at an un-dampened spot. this leads to a highly inconsistent typing feel and sound, sometimes you bottom out dampened and sometimes undampened. This dosen't happen with the cherry silent switches - you always bottom out dampened, unless you hit hard, then you compress the dampeners so much, you'll hear like a normal bottom out sound.
That's the explanation why I had to desolder the
Gateron Aliaz silent switches.
Attached a quick compare shot of Cherry Silent Black vs Gateron Silent Black: