I want to plan a little ahead for the colder seasons, soon having some time again to build new boards.
So, I’m already looking for some switches to use in my builds.
This fall/winter I would like to build a board with clicky switches again.
I’m trying to achive a low-pitched sound signature, as “bassy” as possible.
Of course I’m aware that it lies in the nature of clicky switches that they tend to be rather high pitched, also that everything around the switches (case, dampening, and so on) influences the sound signature.
Nonetheless, I am looking for suggestions for low pitched clicky switches.
More like “clocky” than “clicky”
If I understand correctly, all the truly deep clickies are outside the MX-compatible space and mostly no longer in production; stuff like Alps.
That said, the deepest-sounding MX-compatible clicky I can think of off-hand is this:
They use a mechanism inspired by (though not the same as) Alps clickies, and have a truly aggressive tactile event compared to the vast majority of other MX-compatible switches.
I saw a new Gateron clicky the other day ( can’t remember, maybe Instagram??) but the description seemed to be exactly that of a zeal clicky. So maybe Gateron has finished their agreement with Zeal and is selling them as their own? I don’t know if they’ve come to market quite yet.
I just did a quick tickle of all my various clicky boards. The one that was the deepest, apart from the Alps in my Focus board, was a low end gamer board, an LTC Neon75 with a plastic plate of some sort, XDA caps, and Kailh Box White. To be frank, the main reason was probably that with Box White, the click can’t overpower the other sounds, and chunky PBT on a plastic plate is pretty thocky. Box Navy with tall ABS caps on Masonite, and Speed Navy on steel with similar caps weren’t too high pitched either. The thicker click bar seems to help, although my Box Jade on Masonite with XDA was very high pitched. For the most part you’ll probably just want to optimize the rest of the build and kind of blunt the click mechanism’s sound.
Do you mean the Melodics? I already have a board with them, and like them a lot, just looking for something “deeper”
Maybe I should have mentioned what I already have. My fault
I have clicky boards with:
Box Navys
Melodics
Both are nice, but could be even lower pitched for the new project. I never tried Zeal Clickiez in a board though, I only have one sample switch. Maybe I’ll give those a go.
Gateron Lanes are a reimagined tactile switch that use a custom designed housing to utilize a click leaf mechanism without producing a loud click noise. The tactility feeling is different than most “standard” MX tactile switches as the leaf produces the feeling instead of the legs of the stem. They are often compared to something like an Alps orange switch.
When I first read that I was imagining the same mechanism as the zeal clicky switches, because it was compared to Alps, but these are quiet.
I just realized these switches are the result of a community memeber “Lanes” on GH who used a paper mod on melodic switches. That’s cool. I might need to order some.
