Silent tactile switches

Generally this is part of the trade-off with dampening, but there are some partial exceptions.

TL;DR:

  • Cleanest stock silent tactile I know is the TTC Silent Bluish White

  • TTC Frozen Silent (linear) is even more clean, but they’re light and may need shim material to grip caps properly

  • In general, you can lube the leaf and stem legs to reduce or sometimes eliminate swish and scratch, but this comes at the price of reduced or nearly-eliminated tactility

Verbosity:

With tactile silents, there’s always going to be at least a tiny bit of that scratch - depending on the build and use environment you might not hear it, but get close enough and you will. I think so far the least swishy / scratchy stock silent tactile I know is the TTC Silent Bluish White. (Oddly enough this does not hold true at all for the TTC Silent Brown V2 which is ostensibly similar; it needs a full tuning to sound as clean as the SBWs do from the bag.)

It’s as you said - there’s little else to compete with the movement sound when top and bottom-out are silenced - and with dampened tactiles, it’s often the case that the friction of the stem against the leaf is the loudest part of the action. You can lube the leaf and stem legs which will reduce this sound, but that will also reduce the tactility of the switch. (As you may have picked-up on by now, it’s more about finding your preferred balance of factors than identifying the “best” product or tuning technique.)

The same trade-off is often true of linear silents as well, but a few manage to stand above the rest of the field in terms of clean sound, representing the closest thing to a best of all worlds example in terms of quiet, crisp, and clean.

It isn’t the most quiet thanks to its firm dampening pads, but I think the TTC Frozen Silent might be the most clean-sounding stock silent I’ve tried. A very close second would be the Kailh Deep Sea, which performs similarly with a touch less smoothness. These are both pretty light linears - so if moderate to firm tactiles are what you’re used to, you’ll likely make a lot of errors with both of these until you get good and used to them.

(The Frozen Silents don’t escape the trade-off game - they have a loose grip on keycaps, and there’s a good chance you’ll need some PTFE shower-head tape to make a good fit.)

Other silent linears might be swishy / scratchy in stock form, but those sounds can be tuned-out with lubing and filming - Bobagums, for example. They’re pretty darn quiet stock, but the sound they do make is swishy. Lubed, though, they make almost no sound at all - the loudest part might be your fingers hitting the keys. That said, I find lubed Bobagums pretty tough to use for efficient touch-typing because I’m accustomed to some kind of feedback.

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They don’t all scratch the same.

U4 Boba are swishy, much of the scratch eliminated with lubed springs.

The less-dampened switches are more thumpy [muffled thud] than scratchy. Like the Kailh Deep Sea, maybe Kailh Midnight.

So it’s a choice of what kind of non-clack sound you want to hear.

And yes, try lubed Bobagums, b/c they are almost dead silent.

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Until now I never lubed the leaf or legs of my tactiles, because it was “common knowledge” to me that this will greatly reduce the tactility. But I never really tried it myself…

Until now.

Out of curiousity I lubed one of my Boba U4 and one Zealios today, rails, legs and leaf.
With 205g0.

At least for these two switches the reduction in tactility is minimal.
I guess it depends on the switch how much lubing really affects the tactility.

My conclusion is, that I at least try lubing the legs of one switch of every new tactile I buy.

Especially for the Bobas the trade-off is really worth it in my eyes.
Slightly reduced tactility, way more smoothness.

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Agreed - that’s one I actually prefer with lubed legs / leaf.

Does anyone know what the Silent Cream Yellow is actually like?

They are said to be comparable to the OUTEMU Silent Lemon/Lime tactiles. But are advertised as 'being like Silent Holy Panda," which would be more tactile.

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I wish I had a dime for every time someone compared their switch to Holy Pandas - and the switch in question is not even vaguely like Holy Pandas. :stuck_out_tongue: These might not be too far off, though, if the factory graph is accurate.

I haven’t tried the Cream Yellow, but it does appear to have the same kind of dampened stem that the Silent Lemon/Lime has. So far, every Outemu-made silent I’ve tried uses the same dampeners like you’d find in Gazzew’s, so if you’ve tried any of those you’ll at least have a good idea about that part. (The dampeners are the same but stem dimensions aren’t IIRC)

Gazzew U4 stem in the middle with Outemu’s silicone-strip dampeners, from the silent switch comparison thread

The top housing looks closer to Gazzew’s switches with the four corner clips as opposed to the wing-latches found on the Peaches and Lemons - probably my only gripe about those switches is how much play the top housing has (they really need thick films), which I wouldn’t say about any of the 4-clip Outemus I’ve tried - those all seem to have a decent fit.

Comparing the factory force-curve graphs, the Silent Cream Yellow does appear to have a bigger, wider, higher, and heavier bump than the Silent Lemon:


Side-hmmm:

The Silent Cream Yellow has a peach colored stem.

The Silent Peach has a yellow colored stem:

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Amazing facts! I’ve been seriously tempted to buy the Cream Yellows b/c they are on sale right now, and are said to be decently-lubed from factory [only spring lubing necessary].

I know with the Silent Lemon/Lime, they need both spring and switch lube to reach their potential. So the Cream Yellows seem like they might need less work.

OTOH, as you pointed out, the tactility is different. That’s very helpful, thanks!

I am so tempted to pick some up, maybe I should just start with a sample pack. Even though it’s 35 CAD for a full-sized worth r/n.


EDIT: One review places them as being more tactile than Browns, but less-tactile than Durock Shrimp. But only slightly-less.

So that places them, where, at Durock Medium Tactile?

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I don’t think I’ve actually tried any of the Durock Medium Tactile variants, but if that factory graph is accurate, the Silent Cream Yellow looks to be similar in intensity to the U4 / U4T, but with the peak happening about half a mm later. Just imagining here, I’m thinking that would make it less like simulating a rubber dome (as has been said about U4s) with a steep climb right up-front to collapse-through, and more like a more traditional medium-large bump.

More than a brown less than a T1 (Shrimp) is honestly a pretty wide range - but maybe it would be something similar to one of the more mild T1 variants like the Lilac Tactile or Koala in terms of the bump. Honestly I’m pretty curious about these at this point so I’ve added them to my list of switches to snag at some point. If they’re somewhere in-between U4s and Lemons, I think that would be a great sweet spot for me personally.

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Yes, the Lilac came to mind [as well as maybe Magic Girl].

[Lilacs are so great and I should have built some].

I mentioned Durock Medium Tactile because some people have compared it to a scaled-down T1 [it certainly doesn’t feel like a Cherry Clear]. So it seemed fitting as a “lesser Shrimp.”

But that’s just a wild guess. Being an OUTEMU switch, it’s probably like a bigger Silent Forest or something.

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WRT snagging switches at some point, the INEDA Digital Store on AliExpress is known to slip samples in with regular orders:

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/910558120

They have even created custom sample packs upon request. So if you are going that route, you might want to ask them just to ship exactly what you want [Silent Cream Yellow, those “Tactile Milk Tea,” and so on.]

Then again, it may only work for OUTEMU switches.

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Turns out the written review comments were pretty accurate!

I received a sample of OUTEMU Silent Cream Yellow today.

They are in-between a Durock Light Tactile and a T1 in tactility. Making them kind of a silent Durock Medium Tactile. If we use the Silent Lime as a comparison, the Lime is more like a DLT.

So they are a lesser-T1. Maybe with more of a D-shaped bump. Like 60% of a U4.

Coincidentally, I received samples of WS [Wuque Studio] switches today also.

In terms of tactility, I would rate them:

OUTEMU Silent Lemon / Lime < OUTEMU Silent Cream Yellow < WS Gray

The WS [Silent] Gray is about 20-25% more tactile than the Silent Cream Yellow. It’s almost a T1.


Interestingly, both the Silent Cream Yellow and the WS Gray have decent factory lube. Especially the Cream Yellow.

The Silent Lemon / Lime has the most chuffing and squishing sounds [it benefits heavily from lubing]. The Cream Yellow sounds pretty much okay, with a minimal leaf-friction sound. The WS Gray is almost as good, but has a louder bottom-out.

You could basically use the WS Gray and especially the Cream Yellow stock in builds, if you’re not too discriminating.

Personally, I still prefer the typing characteristics of the Silent Lime, so I will be using those. But if I wanted to type on some baby U4s for quick and cheap, the Cream Yellow would be irresisitable.


EDIT: Upon further reflection (and testing) I might revise the tactility upwards:

OUTEMU Silent Lime [DLT - light DMT range] > OUTEMU Silent Cream Yellow [DMT - Durock Twilight with 14mm 65 G spring] > WS Gray [slightly toned-down T1 variant with 14mm 65 - 67 G spring].

In reality, the WS Gray has a normal 15mm 63.5 G spring, and it’s comparable to 63.5 G Spirit.

Anyway, Cream Yellow being 60-75% of imagined U4 Boba, WS Gray 80-85%.

I think both of the above are inspired by U4 Boba, whereas Silent Lime takes its inspiration from Silent Forest.

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There is a new silent tactile switch available from Mode Designs called Anthracite. It is manufactured by Outemu. I’ve had the joy of using it for a few weeks already and I can recommend it for those who would like a heavier but lower tactility switch. The product page says 62g bottom-out but I would have guessed that it is heaver. My initial impressions were quite bad as my hands just felt lethargic. After using them for a few days I got used to it and now enjoy them.

The dampening material is quite soft, haters of “mushy” beware. But it is also more silent than the Boba U4 (68g) though the sound they give is quite pleasant and consistent.

If anybody else has tried them I would like to hear your thoughts.

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Now I’ve had Outemu Citrus Fruit (Lemon/Lime) and Silent Cream Yellow for a week. The latter has a great feel, I’d love to use them if it were not for an unpleasant extra sound most of the 110 switches I ordered to some degree. Here’s an m4a audio clip with one good switch and another that was particularly loud with this sound. I think it’s the leaf/stem rubbing that produces this sound but I had no luck getting rid of it with lube. For a while I tried not to let it bother me, but it do.
Did I get a bad batch?

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That clicky-ringy sound? Yes, I would say a percentage of my switches have that sound. Maybe 10-30%

I didn’t notice it at first, just subconsciously until you pointed it out. The NCR-80 in question is my loudest ‘silent’ keyboard. I could barely hear the ringing over the noise of the sharpness from the tape mod.

My truly silent keyboards use hand-lubed switches [OUTEMU Silent Sky stems], in dampened chassis, so my voluminous NCR-80 is loud by comparison.

I suspect the noise in question comes from springs that are not sufficiently lubed. If you were to open your switches and generously bag lube the springs, it might remove or reduce the offending noise. In truth, even the luxury U4 Boba switches recommend at least spring-lubing. You might try that.

Tell me, are the Citrus Fruit making similar noises? It’s not a huge concern for me at the moment, because mine are already lubed.

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered some Outemu Silent Greys. Still waiting for them to arrive. I only just recently heard about the Silent Cream Yellow, which seem interesting as well, and I was looking for a direct comparison between these two as well.

By the way, it looks like the Redragon switches are rebranded versions the Outemu switches, with the Redragon QT Lime being identical to the Outemu Silent Lemon. I also think the Redragon QL Peach is identical to the Outemu Silent Peach (but those are linear switches). I mention this, since I first tried out the Redragon switches at a Micro Center, where they had a display with a key tester with all of their switches. However, the Redragon switches are way overpriced compared to what you can get the Outemu equivalents for.

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Yes, the OUTEMU silents are very competitively-priced.

From reading only, I think that the Silent Greys are similar to the Silent Limes. The Limes may be a rebranded Silent Grey. But I’m not sure.

Silent Lime is basically a silent Brown, or a very light Ergo Clear like a 60 G Zealio V1.

Silent Cream yellow is much closer to a U4 Boba, but dialed down.


In both cases, you’ll want to lube the springs if doing an expensive / intensive custom build. They will let down the overall silence if left unlubed.

The Silent Cream Yellow may not need switch lube on the stem / housing, although it is probably desirable. The Silent Lime will definitely want it, as the lubed versions are definitely quieter and deeper than stock.

I have tried Silent Peach. It is a nice silent linear, I might even prefer it over Bobagum. But it definitely needs lube. And only Silent Cream Yellow uses the new housings, which are almost as tight and straight as U4 Boba. Seriously, with Cream Yellow, it’s like you’re not typing on MX switches anymore, due to lack of wobble. [Okay, N-S wobble is still somewhat present. But E-W is very low.]

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No, not this exact sound as far as I can tell. They just sound a bit dry which is not an issue for me tbh :slight_smile:

As for the Silent Cream Yellows, my attempts at lubing the springs in various amounts have had no positive results. It is some stem-leaf interaction making it, and I think I know for sure because once I was putting it together and absentmindedly turned the top housing the wrong way, the leaf got cramped in to the LED light slit. It still worked, though barely tactile after it, and that sound was gone completely.
This sound is also present in Boba U4 as well as the Anthracites which I am using a lot, it’s just more consistent and accompanied by other sounds as well. The Silent Cream Yellow really takes the prize in the competition for quietness, just wish my batch was more consistent.

The next switch I’d like to try is TTC Silent Brown V2 after hearing @Deadeye 's recording of it. I have Silent Bluish White but the tactility is a bit too aggressive for me.

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I agree with what you’re saying, and TTC Silent Brown V2 is probably worth trying.

I was never a fan of TTC Browns, but their Bluish White is pretty impressive, so maybe I’ll order some Silent Brown samples one day.

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Looking for a [boxed] heavy (60-70g) silent tactile

I summon the resident switch doctors for help!
For an upcoming ham radio field project, I (wisely) refrained from small footprint switches and decided to build a 40% ortholinear Planck-style JJ40 in this piece of stainless metal junk:

I chose this particular case because…
  1. it is sturdy,
  2. relatively cheap, and
  3. it can be expanded to hold additional circuitry.

However, I do realise that the sound will be bad; hence the need for silent tactiles. I love the 68g weight and tactile bump of the factory lubed/filmed Gazzew U4Tx, and almost considered buying the silent U4 version. This is when I realised that the latter are not boxed. Being boxed is important for this project as the keyboard will be taken in the open field and see a lot of dirt.

What would be a commercial equivalent of a boxed Gazzew U4 heavy silent tactile?
Or do I need to jump into the rabbit hole of frankenswitches?

Please, help. :pray::pleading_face:

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I’m not sure there’s anything that completely fits the bill exactly, but there are definitely some candidates.

Stock switches:

  • TTC Silent Bluish White - has a bump not too different from a U4, if maybe a little easier to crest. Less leaf sound but overall not as quiet as U4s thanks to the more firm dampening. Won’t be harsh but will make plenty of audible sound in that case.

  • Kailh Midnight Pro Silent Tactile - has a decent medium-strong bump, maybe a little more mild than the U4 and SWB. Similar dampening characteristics to the TTCs - might be worth trying a sample to see if you prefer it.

  • Kailh Silent Box Brown - so, depending on which batch these are from, these are either really mild or pretty punchy tactiles, and I’m not really sure where the inconsistency comes from - but I mention these because they have better dust resistance than other switches that just have boxed stems. Kailh’s Box switches in particular have a semi-sealed compartment for their contacts and have an IP56 dust resistance rating. These have a similar volume to the last two, but with some added noise thanks to the extra parts. This is the pick if dust resistance is the most important thing.

Franken suggestions:

  • Nip the tip: One fairly simple if tedious option would be to get U4Tx switches and use some flush cutters to cut off the bottom section of the pole. Not the most elegant solution, but as long as you can avoid deforming the pole shape and shorten it enough so that the pads fully compress before the pole hits bottom, it should work and be consistent.

  • Box franken: Kailh Silent Box Brown top on a Box Royal bottom; what you get is a Silent Box Brown with a punchier tactile event. The only downside is the tendency of Kailh Box switches to increasingly make light clicking noises as the lube wears off of the contact pusher. It is a sharp sound, but it isn’t loud. If consistency is more important than quietude, you can use a thin / light lubricant on that part to encourage the clicking. I’ve had less consistent results trying to discourage it - if I find a good way to do that I’ll share. If that modest noise level is acceptable, this might be the overall closest option to the use-case.

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