I would greatly appreciate if someone could help me know what are the latest trends and what are the best silent linear switches out there nowadays. I’ve been out of tune with mx switches and feel overwhelmed of how many of them popped up.
I’m interested in:
smooth
low tolerances/wobble
easy modding to reach great performance ex: out of the box use or only lubing required.
low to 62g weight max, to be easy on the fingers
silentish to silent, doesn’t matter to be very quiet, just not that unsilenced clack clack
IMO, I’d throw Bobagums, Silent Inks, and Silent Alpacas out there. Bobas can be used stock while Alpacas really take lubing and filming to bring out the best in them. One thing I liked about the Bobas is the firmness of the silencing pads - they strike a nice balance of volume level and not having the bottom out being too mushy.
Silent Inks with a spring swap (to something lighter) gets my vote. The dampening pads are on the firm side which makes it feel closer to a regular switch without compromising silence.
Now take this with a grain of salt cause I do not like silent switches & while I have tried a good bit none have lived long in any of my builds. That said to this day, OG MX Zilents still felt & sounded the best to me as far silenced linears go. The silencing pads on MX silent black/red stems are the least mushy IME, which does lead to increased noise but they still stay much quieter than a regular linear MX black/red stem. Add in the extra smooth Tealio housings (go for Tealio housings as they use a less aggressive leaf than tactile Zealios) & you have a switch that feel 90% like a unsilenced one, yet is a good 70% to 80% quieter. Bobagums have potential too, but the long stem kills me & I’d rather get something with a regular height stem vs butchering the bobagum stems to remove the bottom nib from all of them.
The roselio/sakurio line from zeal has been in consistent use from me over the past 3 years. I haven’t kept up with new ones since I liked these so much. Lubed with 205g0 and they get even smoother over time I think. They make a little noise to be sure but its a nice satisfying muted thud in my opinion.
To my knowledge Bobagums don’t have a long stem - but Boba U4Ts do, and that makes for shorter travel (and a louder bottom-out). With the Bobagums, they also have somewhat shorter travel thanks to the height of the silicone bumpers, which could conceivably be trimmed to extend the travel. Doing a consistent job with that would be challenging, though.
@Deadeye Would know better than I would about Gazzew switches & hey replied bobbagums do not have a long pole stem. The effect of having a longer stem is the slider will bottom out on the stem post in the stem well, instead of the sides of the slider on either side of the bottom housing which where the slider normally hits the housing on a bottom out. Which will give you a higher pitched clackier bottom out sound in a bottom housing that is made for a normal length stem/slider. It’s why Holy Pandas have that rain drop sound. It’s also become popular enough in linears that a good bit of switch manufacturers have started making stock switches that way. I personally not a fan of long pole switches, but I still say they are worth a try if they sound like they’d interest you.
Ye, as far as I know, the silicone bumpers on the Bobagums shorten their travel about as much as the longer center pole does on the U4Ts, with some wiggle-room. (Mush-room?)
I happen to be trying a long-pole linear right now; Prevail Epsilons. They’re very smooth and I’m liking the spring so far. These guys are no exception to the long-pole conventions; shortened travel and extra clacky.
Short-travel switches like these always take a little bit for me to get used to coming from full-travel ones, and I usually have to adjust my typing style, but after a while they feel natural to me. (Then full-travel switches feel weird for a while. )
Say that to say, @AdrianMan, I agree with @Rob27shred that they’re at least worth finding out if you like if they sound interesting / if you find you like the shorter-than-4mm travel some silents (like Bobagums and Box Silents) have. They got started as an accidental property of mixed parts from disparate manufacturers, but are now a healthy category all their own. Definitely not silent, though!
After realizing my extensive switch collection doesn’t contain a single set from the original manufacturer of MX switches (aside from the Browns in my Filco), I figured it was finally time to snag some venerable Cherry Blacks.
I know there’s more that one kind out there at this point, and given I know next to nothing about them, asking an expert seemed like the thing to do. That in mind; do you have any recommendations for a Cherry Black n00b, @donpark?
I think it’s just because of tradition. MX blacks are pretty famed for there sound in “a heavy aluminum TKL” to quote from Andy Nguyen, and the springs aren’t the best if what I was told is correct. You’ll probably spring swap them anyway, and at the same price, why not get the blacks?
There might be something else compared to the reds (molding, smoothness, etc.) but I think it’s mostly because of the hype on blacks and reds being a bit downgraded by gaming keyboards with them.
Just get yourself some Hyperglide blacks to try them out. You won’t have to hunt for them or cherry pick the batch & last I got some HGs are still pretty smooth. If you really like them, then it might be worth searching out a batch of really nice vintage or retooled blacks.
@Backspace Hit the nail on the head. The only thing I would add is also because of people seeking out vintage blacks. There really isn’t vintage reds since they came along much later. All that involved most end up picking blacks when going for linear Cherry switches. Although with retooled & now Hyperglides being a thing I personally think there is a good reason to go for reds over blacks with those variants. Blacks being much more popular means the reds that are in stock right now were probably made closer to the beginning of the molds lifespan. Meaning slightly smoother & tighter switches IME.
Hyperglide is easiest to get but is slightly higher pitched than retooled. Smoothness will vary with all of them so you may have to polish them if too scratchy. As @Rob27shred suggests, Cherry reds may be smoother due to lack of popularity.
Spring is not an issue in the sense you’ll have to swap them to fit you taste and need. In fact, I don’t have a single Cherry black with original spring.
To answer @Cloud983’s question: Cherry black is my favorite switch because it’s sound is best to my ears. It’s clean, solid, wholesome, and pleasant.
I can attest to this! Despite favouring tactile and clicky switches, the lubed MX Blacks I have in a 3kg AR87 is really a treat to type with. Bonus points that they’re actually silent enough for work calls
I just wanted to share a happy accident I had when messing around with some Gateron Silver Pros. When I first opened them I was a bit unsure about the use of a long spring in a speed switch. It seems like all you’d experience is spring tension with a switch having reduced travel. Not bad, but because the keypress has so much upstroke force, the top clack is a bit annoying and the keycap never really leaves your fingertip when typing – weirdly uncomfortable IMO.
I thought a stubby, slightly heavier spring with a noticeably flat actuation feel would provide some premium stiffness while still feeling extremely speedy.
These 78g I harvested from some spare H1’s did not disappoint.
With the stem basically resting within the bottom housing now, zero spring tension is felt during the downstroke and the actuation force feels flat and constant. The upstoke is way better too, and it doesn’t feel like typing on tuning forks anymore.
Finally got some Poly-fil. Actually a big ass bag of full of it. I like being able to control density. What I didn’t like is the difficulty of cleanly packing chaotic mess of the stuff into a tight space.
I think the difficulty can be worked around by pre-forming them using sheets of paper to pack them into desired shape & size then flatten with something heavy. Some heat may be necessary to mold the shape.
Melting temperature: 205 - 260 °C Molding temperature: 40.0 - 80.0 °C
)
Also Roselios , for science !
