Ended up cancelling the Aliaz order when I found out that the kbdfans free shipping wouldn’t ship, and now Bob has a post up where he is selling factory-assembled silent sky’s. Excited!
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I wanted to investigate and confirm some findings on this thread about silent tactiles.
I have with me presently a soldered Aliaz [60 G] keyboard, and a soldered Aqua Zilent V2 [62 G] keyboard. [Later, I will probably have some BOX Silent Browns and OUTEMU Silent Skies to play with.]
I’d like to investigate 2 aspects of the switches: First, whether the stem base* on the silenced switches is higher than on regular MX switches. And second, how these switches perform for the user.
*By stem base, I mean the larger, blockier base of the stem that, unlike the stem, does not enter the keycap.
- Stems
Aqua Zilents
a) The Aqua Zilent stem base protrudes above the switch housing. In contast, the stem base in a regular non-silent OUTEMU Sky is flush with the housing, as in most traditional MX-style switches. The Aqua Zilent stem base resembles the resting position of the Zeal PC Blue Zilent seen in the first post of this thread. Seems that the stem base is about 0.5-1mm above the housing.
I can confirm that the tactile event of the Aqua Zilent does not begin until the stem has been depressed to the point where the stem base is flush with the housing (i.e. no longer protruding]. The stem feels relatively wobbly and uncertain while being depressed, until it is flush with the housing, and the tactile event begins. So there is a kind of ‘pre-travel’ before the switch’s intended tactility.
With keycaps on, this ‘pre-travel’ is very short, and almost imperceptible. But it is there. It’s a kind of ‘ghost’ pre-travel.
Aliaz
b) The Aliaz stem base protrudes above the switch housing in a very similar manner as the Zilents. This differentiates Aliaz from similarly-tactile switches like MX Brown, since the stem base does not protrude above the housing on my MX Browns.
I feel that the protruding stem base on the Aliaz may elongate somewhat the natural pre-travel of a Brown-style switch. The protrusion might even cause a sort of “pre-pre-travel” effect, contributing to the uncertain (for me) feel of the switch.
2. Switch-feel and silencing
a) Aqua Zilents
Switch-Feel
The Aqua Zilents are very tactile by MX standards. They may be the most tactile of the available silent switches, unless the new OUTEMU U4 stems best them. The tactility is steep and sharp. After the informal pre-travel, the tactility begins right at the top of the keypress, and the bump is very large. Once the ‘bump’ is cleared, it’s a rapid fall-off towards the bottom.
It requires a fair bit of force to clear the tactile event on the Zilent V2. If you’ve delivered enough momentum to clear it, you are almost certain to bottom-out, or reach near-bottom. It’s been commented by others that the switch design almost forces you to bottom-out.
It is more challenging to hold the switch ‘in-the-middle,’ and rapidly and repeatedly actuate it. Because of the strong tactile event and difficulty in ‘spamming’ keypresses, the Zilents are not favoured for gaming. Because the switch actuation is slightly lower than the tactile event, it is also possible to fail to actuate lightly-tapped keys, such as those further from the centre of hand-positioning.
Despite these issues, I have had little problem using the 62 G Zilents for FPS gaming. The light weight of the switches is easy to hold down. The tactility is felt less during rapid keypresses.
Some people have reported that 67 G Zilents are gentler than the 62 G. Although they require slightly more force, the heavier spring dulls the tactility somewhat.
Silencing
The Zilents are about as loud as a reasonable office rubber-dome. I have with me a Dell KB216 and Kensington Keyboard for Life for comparison purposes. The KB216 is quieter. The Kensington is about as loud as the Zilent keyboard, more-or-less. The noises associated with a typical non-silenced mechanical keyboard, such as springs, upstroke and case resonance contribute to a louder sound profile than the quieter rubber domes.
The mechanical noise of the Zilent has been dulled, and most of the noise is a kind of slider-on-slider sound. The springs are not very distinct, and are largely muffled.
b) Aliaz
Switch-feel
The Aliaz employ a more traditional MX-style tactility close to that of MX Brown. There is an appreciable pre-travel consisting of little tactility, followed by a small tactile ‘bump’ and then the resumption of low tactility. The bump is as nebulous and granular as on Gateron or Cherry Browns.
The Aliaz feel more uncertain to me than Cherry Browns, but I never really did like Gateron Browns in the first place. Someone once described Aliaz as “who put glue in my Gaterons?” and I think that is accurate. My WPM is slowest with Aliaz.
I should note that I tested Aliaz 60G with some platform games on an aluminum hot-swap keyboard, and it was surprisingly good. It’s my feeling that Aliaz 60G is more suited towards gaming, and 70G may be better for typing.
Silencing
The Aliaz may be a tiny bit quieter than Zilents, but they are “within earshot” of each other. I would say that even if the Aliaz are quieter, the silencing seems less sophisticated. Like the Zilents, the Aliaz lack some of the traditional noise associated with mechanical switches. But there is a kind of shuffling rubber-on-rubber noise on both the up and downstroke.
These noises would probably not be distinct in a busy office environment, but they are noticeable to the individual user in a quiet room.
The Achilles-heel of the stock Aliaz switch are the springs. The spring noise is very discernable on either the upstroke, downstroke, or both, depending on the switch. Yes, it is inconsistent and varies across switches. It makes a metallic ‘slinky’ sound, like a spring bending or twisting, and is high-pitched. Some switches literally ‘ring’ with every keypress.
The effect is worsened with some keycaps. For example, the stock keycaps that come with the TADA68 do very little to suppress the spring noise. However, some thick Cherry-profile PBT keycaps have dampened the spring noise, and lowered the overall pitch of the keyboard. If it weren’t for the spring noise, the keyboard would sound almost pleasant, like a cheap Topre.
The spring noises on the Aliaz highlight the importance of lubrication. Although the Aliaz apparently don’t take well to lubrication, as it improves the switch very little relative to other switch-types, anything done to reduce spring noise would be immensely helpful. It is also possible to lubricate Zilents, although this is done with a greater eye towards improving switch-feel, rather than just noise.
If it weren’t for the spring noise, an Aliaz keyboard sounds relatively pleasant.
Conclusion
I have to agree with Deadeye that the silent tactiles ‘arent quite there’ yet. Yes, they are quieter, or at least dulled, compared to unsilenced switches. But the tactility options available are not ideal. The Zilents are very steep and almost absurdly tactile, which can be distracting. There is a greater possibility that you can fail to actuate a key, because of the oversized bump. The Aliaz tactility is weak and uncertain, at least for me. The horrendous spring noises make them unacceptable for a silenced keyboard in their stock form.
I look forward to potentially testing some OUTEMU Silent Skies in a few weeks, as well as some Kailh Silent Browns that should be arriving soon.
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Really Cherry could get back in the enthusiast game by retooling the molds for Clears & releasing a silent version. While this isn’t quite the thread for it, I have noticed many people becoming tired of super high tactility switches & I think that has the door has opened up again for mid tactility switches. Now thinking of it I wonder why Zeal killed off V1 Zealios/Zilents? I can see the benefit of having a V2 to rival the high tactility switches, but do not see the benefit in dropping the original. I bet if they were still being made we’d probably see at least 50/50 sales of V1 & V2 at this point in time. 
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It’s funny you mention that, Rob.
I was just browsing old threads elsewhere where Cherry was posting about upcoming retoolings [last year], and people kept saying 'if you want to make inroads among enthusiasts, retool the Clears. They were told that over-and-over again.
Cherry responded that they are looking at that possibility, and may have something to release soon (they said this in 2019). Someone then suggested silent Clears as an option to return Cherry to relevance, and they said something to the effect that “it is a good idea but will have to come later.”
I don’t know why Zeal killed off V1, one can only speculate. There is a huge gap, as you say, in medium-tactility switches. And there is a backlash against the fad for super-tactile switches. There’s lots of potential in MX Clears, in the sense that they can be heavily-customized, and cloned/copied. I don’t understanding what’s been holding back Kailh, which has a BOX design for seemingly everything except straight-up Clears.
Cherry has recently retooled a number of switches for 2020 according to their own releases and some external reviews. They said they are focusing on their main switches, black red brown and silent/speed. But maybe they will get around to the Clears eventually. They know that it has potential among enthusiasts. They allegedly made adjustments to the MX Brown stem, so maybe they could do something even more ambitious for the Clears.
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I only skimmed through the tread here, but I am under the impression that the Helios is considered the most silent MX switch. But it has not been mentioned here so have I got it all wrong or?
Generally that’s been the consensus, yes - but lately that’s been put to the test in a few ways, including these Outemu linear silents. Side by side, the Outemus are more quiet (especially when lubed), if a bit less refined feeling. I did briefly mention this as an aside near the end of the original post;
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Just popping-in here to leave a quick note; I put some (bag-lubed) stronger 60g springs in the “Tactile Gazzewlos” (Halo Housings with Outemu Silent Sky tactile stems) vs the 52g I had in before - and wow do they feel better.
The stronger spring goes a long way to helping the switch feel more snappy, stable, and satisfying - I’m sure if it were to be measured it would be the same, but the feeling of wobble is much less. I was pretty underwhelmed with these stems at first since they seemed so mushy with those light springs, only recommending them because they are so quiet - but I think I’m actually going to use these guys with some regularity now.
I just opened my BOX Silent Browns.
The first thing that strikes me is that these are very light. They can’t weigh much more than regular BOX Browns, and may even weigh less. Anyway, they’re definitely Brown-weighted. I tested them beside some 63.5 gr Ergo Clears, and the BOX feel as light, or lighter.
The second thing is that they aren’t very tactile. They may be slightly less tactile than regular BOX Browns, but I’ll have to test them side-by-side. They have a similar profile as BOX Brown. There is a tactile resistance right at the top that has to be overcome, and then it just drops. I recall BOX Brown as having a steeper and starker ‘drop’ that felt more like a buckling mechanism.
It’s a profile that resembles Zilents, but less steep, less tactile. Someone recently said that they feel midway in between Zilents and Aliaz, maybe closer to Aliaz, and I agree with that in terms of overall tactility. But the bump profile is closer to Zilents than Aliaz.
They’re basically a less tactile, less sharp Zilent. That may be good or bad for you.
Third, they’re definitely silent. They are much quieter than the Ergo Clears they are running beside. They might be quieter than Aliaz, since there is no weird spring noise.
Overall, these appear to be perfectly functional silent switches. They are a not-too tactile version of BOX Browns or even Zilents. They feel consistent and fairly smooth, but also kind of boring. Like these haven’t been designed to wow you or anything, just function as a silent Brown using the BOX design.
I took a risk and have a couple of GMK keycaps on them right now, and it sounds and feels fine. Nothing has cracked yet. I think I may enjoy the KBDFans PBT Dolch more with these switches. Very quiet and stable. You might want to go thick PBT with these.
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I’m curious, where did you find BOX silent browns ?
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How is the wobble compared to Zilents V2 or aliaz/gatheron ? Do the silent box browns have a low wobble too ?
Thank you for the link !
If you’re in the US.
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How is the wobble on them compared to Zilent V2 (low wobble) or vs stock cherry/gatheron (medium->high sobble)?
The wobble of BOX Silent Brown definitely is comparable to that of Zilents.
I would say that my [hotswap] BOX Silent Browns have slightly greater E-W wobble than my soldered Zilents.
In normal operation, my BOX Silent Browns have about the same N-S wobble as the Zilents, maybe a little more. If you try to push the keycaps from the N or S side, you can get the Silent Browns to wobble N-S more than the Zilents ever could, but you have to try in order to obtain that result.
I would characterize the BOX Silent Brown as a low-wobble switch, by Cherry standards. They wobble considerably less than the Ergo Clears that are beside them. The BOX Silent Browns really do feel like someone crossed Zilent V2 with BOX Brown.
I didn’t know these were out yet - I’ve kind of been waiting on them to come out because I’ve been curious about the BOX silents. Thanks for sharing your impressions!
As for keycap safety - only the first run of the original BOX switches had the fat stems. There are still some out there in circulation, but any good seller will call that out. These silent ones won’t have the issue at all.
Yeah, a ‘cross between BOX Brown and Zilent V2’ is probably the most accurate description.
It feels to me like they took a BOX Brown and added dampening. The tactile event being right at the top is the same, but maybe a little more tactile. Weight is still light. So you have to overcome that tactile event, and then it wants to race towards the bottom, which is dampened. So it’s Zilent-like in feel.
You can buy these now at Novelkeys, I think, maybe for cheaper than AliExpress.
With regard to BOX stems, I find it good to be cautious. Some retooled BOX Browns I bought in 2019 managed to crack the stem of a thin ABS Tai Hao keycap. It was a very thin and cheap keycap, so I don’t really know if it was Tai Hao or the BOX switch’s fault, but I like to exercise caution when using ABS on stems that aren’t classic MX.
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Good to know! Maybe I should get one of those cruciformer tools, being a fan of the BOXes.
Yeah, I got one but haven’t used it yet. The new circular stems on the BOX silent switches may have overcome the stem cracking issue, time will tell.
Some other impressions of the new BOX Silent Brown switches have been posted here:
yeah, I would be interested to see some long term testing. I haven’t had issues with retooled boxes, but when I look at a closeup on Novelkeys, the silent ones look like they have pretty thick nubs around the cruciform. Maybe they deciced the craking had somethign to do with the outer box shape?
It’s weird seeing mx switches that look like SMK 2nd gen 
Speaking of, I still have to lube a bunch of my linear 2nd gen SMKs. Those are a bitch to open and shut, so I’ve been putting it off.