Silent Alpacas are good, for sure. They do need lubing and filming.
OUTEMUs are surprisingly quiet. I have been using Silent Sky, and they are much quieter than Gateron “silent” tactiles, and most Kailh “silent” tactiles.
You have to put the Silent Sky stems in different housings. Cherry is good [MX Clear], as are TTC Gold Brown V2. You can also use leftover Halo housings from making Pandas, but in my experience they aren’t as quiet.
The U4 Boba are also very quiet for such a tactile switch. But yes, they are a little mushy or “shuffly.” The shuffling noise tends to abate somewhat after break-in.
In terms of linears, you already know Silent Alpaca [and similar JWK]. From reading, and experience, Bobagum might actually be the quietest silent linear. The 52 G version is very interesting, because that’s a poppy spring for its weight. You will need to lube the Bobagum for maximum silencing, otherwise there is a bit of a whispering sound. At least lube the spring [that goes for all OUTEMU silents].
Kailh makes some interesting silents. They have the Silent Brown tactile, which is almost a Zilent V2 in strength. Cheaper, though. Less consistent. Not as quiet as OUTEMU custom line. There’s also several silent linears - don’t get Silent Pink, it’s obsolete. They have Fried Egg, which is a fun and satisfying linear. But it has this weird ‘wet’ sound unlubed. So it’s not as quiet.
The new Kailh Deep Sea is said to be its most modern design. A dampener that doesn’t lead to as much mushiness. I have some, and they are more crisp than most silent linears and silent switches in general. Definitely worth trying. You can buy samples of Kailh silent linears from AliExpress in packs of 10.
There’s also versions of the silenced T1, but they are kind of expensive and harder to find. They would be about as tactile as U4 Boba, but not as good IMHO.
Another “linear” is Aliaz. It’s basically a Gateron Silent Brown, but they aren’t as noisy. It’s supposed to be a tactile, but it’s almost linear. They have smooth housings, so you can get away with just lubing the stem, or nothing at all. But you have to replace the spring with TX - 65 G 14mm is a good weight for these. The spring is noisy.
As for Gateron, Silent Brown sucks in terms of sound, but it is a pretty bouncy switch. I would use them on a non-silent build. Zilent V2 is super-tactile, and not all that quiet [more like a Silent Brown]. It would be cool if they brought back Zilent V1 along with the Redux. V1 Redux is a pretty soft and laid-back switch, and pretty muffled and deep-sounding with 205g0.
Also, you could try the BOX Silent Jade j/k not really, it’s about as loud as MX Brown, I think.
I don’t know many cases that are silent by default. The IKKI68 Aurora with dampening is pretty muffled, works great with OUTEMU and Kailh silents.
In terms of prebuilts, the Archon AK89 cooperates with my silent switches, I like its sound profile as compared with stock prebuilts like Leopold and Filco.
My other experience is with KBD67 Lite [thocky, not quiet], MK870 [thocky with polycarb plate and no dampening, sounds like a pre-built in stock form], Leopold [not very quiet despite dampening and dampened spacebar], KBD8X MKII [better-suited as a thocky keyboard].
This is going to sound crazy, but you might want to consider the HMKB, which is coming out with extras eventually. I have seen multiple people pursue silent builds with them. Here’s an example:
The HMKB also comes in a variety of 75% builds. I actually think it’s one of the more attractive 75%.
There’s also the NCR-80. Despite its Cherry 3000-like case, which creates a resonant wet cardboard sound, I have also seen multiple silent builds. I guess if you stuff the case with dampening and use silent switches, it’s actually viable in that regard. [Mine is tape-modded and very thocky].
In terms of 75% builds, there is an example of a Silent Alpaca KBD75. I wonder how those Keychron pre-builts hold up in terms of silencing…
