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Cherry MX loudness scale

Nexo
By Nexo
in Peripherals
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Posted

Can you guys tell me the loudness scale for all the Cherry MX keys?

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There's really no scale. MX Blues and Greens are the loudest, and the rest are personal preference, your loud may be my quiet and vice versa. IMO, blues and greens aren't loud at all. To others, it's a jet engine

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Posted

What do you mean by loudness scale? You just mean which switches are loudest or you want an actual measurement? 

 

EDIT: It can also depend on how you type and the particular keyboard. I bottom out all of my key presses, and my K95 which uses red switches is still loud because of the metal construction. 

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Blues are not too loud for me but if you are in a place that your typing needs to be on the quiet side and you still want the tactile feel i would go with the CHerry MX brown

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What is the most quiet? Blacks?

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If you bottom all of them out, Cherry MX Blue and Green are going to be the loudest of all the common (Red, Black, Blue, Green and Brown) key switches.

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What types of key switches are there?

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Blue, Green, Brown, Clear, Red, Black; sound good?

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Do you guys think black is the most quiet?

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Do you guys think black is the most quiet?

Cherry MX Red and Black are probably the quietest out of the common MX switches.

I like the color scheme of Noctua fans. Deal with it. Forget about the bad memories of the past.


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Forget about the bad memories of the past, take the good ones along with you through the present, and look forwards to the good things that will come in the future.

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Cherry MX Red and Black are probably the quietest out of the common MX switches.

Alright thanks! :D

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I have blues. The loudest part is the keycap bottoming out. I just bought some silicone o-rings from a bead/art shop which dramatically reduced the sound and made them feel nicer.

 

They measure  5mm ID, 1.8mm wall thickness. Or you can pay 20 times more and buy "mechanical keyboard o-rings"

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Posted

What types of key switches are there?

Browns reds blacks clears blues greens and then there are also topre and alps

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I have blues. The loudest part is the keycap bottoming out. I just bought some silicone o-rings from a bead/art shop which dramatically reduced the sound and made them feel nicer.

 

They measure  5mm ID, 1.8mm wall thickness. Or you can pay 20 times more and buy "mechanical keyboard o-rings"

Can you give me a link to these orings?

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blues and greens are the clicky's the rest are just different feels, they do not create a noise when there activated bottoming any key though will make more noise

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Can you give me a link to these orings?

 

I bought them from a bead shop... as in a shop that sells beads lol.

You just need ones that match the size I posted above, or pay a premium for someone selling them as "keyboard o-rings", like this... http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/products/keyboard-accessories/cherry-mx-rubber-o-ring-switch-dampeners-125pcs.html#ad-image-0

 

I chose silicone as it's softer than your typical nitrile o-rings and available in "clear", so they are a little more friendly on backlit keyboards like mine. If anything they improve the backlighting effect.

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I find the clicky noise that blues make super obnoxious. 

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How about I test it?!

 

Base volume (measured by my mobile phone, using same distance and placement of the key on a key base for a sample tester kit of switches).

 

Base volume - 37Db

 

Any of the keys bottomed out is 56-60Db pretty reliably. But testing my Corsair K70 (Reds) it comes out around 81Db bottomed out and 70-73 Db without bottoming out so more noise will occur on a keyboard compared to my key tester.

 

On the key tester pad (much quieter):

Reds 40 DB activated

Blues 48-53Db activated

Browns 40Db activated

Clear 43Db activated

Black 41-42Db activated

 

So there you have it Reds/Browns, Blacks, Clear, Blues in that order, blues are more than 2x as loud at activation point compared to the others. Most keys are barely above background noise.

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Posted

 

 

They're all in inches. You will have to convert and match the sizes as close as possible. 4-5mm ID and 1.8-2.0mm thickness.

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i think we should consider the type of material they baseplate of the keyboard is constructed from.

 

bottoming out my DASKeyboard isnt as loud as my Filco.. that thing is clanky as

 

blues and green switches make their own clickly sound IN ADDITION to any bottomining-out sound.

 

:)

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you can suppress the sound of bottoming-out by using Dampeners.. there are various kinds but the ones ive tried are from WASD.

they sacifice Travel and may introduce squigginess when bottoming out to varying effect, based on the type of Dampener

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The material of the keyboard makes a big difference on my testing. My K70 has a metal base and it produces a significantly louder noise than the same key on a plastic key tester, as I showed with my previous post. Mechanical keys aren't quiet but its very noticeable how much louder they can be made based on how they are mounted.

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I have blues. The loudest part is the keycap bottoming out. I just bought some silicone o-rings from a bead/art shop which dramatically reduced the sound and made them feel nicer.

 

They measure  5mm ID, 1.8mm wall thickness. Or you can pay 20 times more and buy "mechanical keyboard o-rings"

I removed the O-rings that came preinstalled in my Logitech G710+ with brown switches. I think it feels way better without them. May be different for blues.

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  • 1 year later...
Posted

This is 1 year later, i understand. But if anyone is reading this, are rubber domes more quiet than mx reds?

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