Silent tactile switches

Learning and discussion Key switches
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Except for Boba U4 (my tolerance for scratchy feel is apparently higher than most) I share your disappointment with these and most silent switches on the market. Silent is such a misnomer anyway, they should be called dampened, or quiet at best. And maybe they really are just not as well made as popular non-dampened switches. I wouldn’t know because I got in to the keyboard nonsense wanting something opposite of MX Greens, the only other mechanical board I have used.

What I’ve learned so far is firstly what Deadeye has already put well. Once you remove the housing collisions, your ear adjusts and all the little ugly sounds start sticking out. The stem slaps against the housing once your finger touches the keycap, the stabilizer has a click you never heard before and you can even hear that lube sounds wet.

The other thing is that the rest of the keyboard has a lot to say about the little ugly sounds, but I’m only scratching the surface of what is to know there. I soldered Midnight Pro on an FR4 plate on my Sonnet when I just got it only to find out that it was a completely different and much worse experience from having them on a PC plate with silicone plate foam. My top-mounted aluminum works well with smooth and thuddy switches but amplifies scratch and ping. The favorite setup is the stack-mount in my sonnet with a POM plate and foam. It’s the closest thing to a library instead of a percussion instrument. With more money and time I would try to find out what makes a good keyboard for quiet switches and I would start by resting the entire PCB on something soft and dense and not using a plate.

The only two switches I completely accept in their stock conditions are Anthracite and Gecko (linear), which are both lubed from the factory.

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Lots of truth in this sequence of posts, from Yeeb to Deadeye and ekkert.

Most stock tactiles are mediocre at best, and silent ones moreso. It’s especially difficult to make a decent tactile, because then you are dealing with a tactile leaf [ping], greater risk of wobble around the tactile event, scratchiness accentuated by the bump, and the interaction of spring and tactile-bump.

I would second what is being said about the interaction between silent switch and the keyboard. Once you remove the housing collision, as said earlier, all the other sounds come into the fore.

One of my better silent boards is a gasket-mount + custom silent tactiles. As mentioned, rubber/silicone silencing pads already create a kind of ‘gasket’ for your switches. So on a gasket mount, it’s double-plush! If you want a soft, light typing experience, you can try that. [You’ll need to prepare the switches AND the keyboard’s mounting + dampening to get better results.]

The deficiencies of the listed switches are accurate. I still think U4 is one of the best in stock-form. Really, you can get away just lubing springs. Or minimal-lubing as per the official guide. It’s my understanding that the U4 switches smooth out after some use.

I agree 100% about the WS Silent Tactile. It’s louder, with an inconsistent sound. But yeah, crisper than the OUTEMUs. I still went with the Cream Yellow, but they have noise issues of their own. Kailh Midnight Pro is definitely worth trying, and if you liked WS then the Kailh Deep Sea Pro V3 [latest] is also good. I hear TTC Silent Brown V2 is decent.

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Overall, I think silent tactiles are kind of going against the nature of mechanical keyboards. The dampening makes them mushier and more inconsistent, which is the opposite of what draws a lot of people to mechanical-type switches in the first place.

They are being made into rubber-domes, part-way.

I don’t mind this, as I don’t have a problem with rubber-domes. With silent tactiles, you kind of get the best of both worlds, but also the drawbacks. Real rubber-domes are a more ‘pure’ experience. And there’s nothing like a lubed, silenced Topre. Yes, lubing is especially important for these types of switches.

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All very good points. I am probably being a bit harsh on some switches, as I am really placing more weight (based on my personal preferences) on quietness. I think that some of these switches could be much better with lube, but it’s a bit disappointing that they perform so poorly in stock condition.

After a bit of break-in, I can say that the Haimu Whisper and Wuque Studio Silent are both performing much better. I can appreciate that these two just simply offer a different point on the quietness-crispness tradeoff curve.

However, the Durocks and the Zilent are quite disappointing in their stock state, being pareto inefficient, that is, strictly dominated by other switches in terms of keyfeel and/or quietness. I’ve already pulled those out, as I just can’t stand using them anymore. Another weird thing about the Zilent is that the switch stem stood noticeably higher than the other switches, resulting in the keycap resting noticeably higher than the rest. Of course, that wouldn’t be noticeable if all of the switches were the same, but maybe it could be a sign of having an out of spec sample.

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Your criticisms of the Zilent are unfortunately true.

One of my first customs was an FC900R PD refitted with the brand new Aqua Zilent V2.

It did not fully satisfy expectations.

First, the stems actually do stand a little higher, as you mention. It gives an inconsistent, phantom pre-travel that I don’t think is supposed to exist in specifications. Second, the tactile bump is so large and questionably-placed that you can actually fully clear the ‘bump’ and ‘hang’ the switch, without having actuated it. Third, the springs are noisy for a ‘silent’ switch. And fourth, it’s not particularly great in feel or sound.

I remember there was a large ‘blind-test’ on Youtube, and the Zealio V2 / Zilent V2 was one of the least popular. The most popular being…MX Brown. But yeah, the Zilent V2 was an early silent heavy-tactile that didn’t benefit from the improvement that later ones got. If it had been good, I would have stopped in 2018 and not customized any further boards. That would have been the end of custom keyboards for me.

The T1 is Pareto-inefficient as you say. It’s for T1-lovers, really, which is a sizeable group. People here generally talk about silent switches on a silence - crispness spectrum. And it’s not great to be in the middle, unless you like a particular keyfeel [e.g. silent T1]. And yes, T1s need lube in particular, as do most silent switches. Only the Boba-derived switches can get away with minimal or no [only spring] lube.

Honestly, if U4 Boba had come out in in 2018, I could have decked out a Leopold with them [say, 55 G] and been done with it. But now there are better mounting options for silent switches. Thanks for the update on the Haimu / WS switches, they are promising if you can get them at low costs.

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The best MX silent switch experience I’ve had were U4 stems in Outemu ice housings. Quiet with a nice low thud on the bottom-out, whilst being smooth with a rounded tactile bump.

Since I had existing ice housings, Gazzew recommended me to purchase the stems on their own, rather than awaiting the Boba housings. Till this day I’ve had some regrets selling off the board and switches, but at least there’s some comfort when the buyer told me he loves the typing experience with it.

Ice U4s that I miss

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Currently I’ve settled on a HHKB Pro 2 Type S, which is slightly louder than the U4s (and definitely louder than Aliaz) but has great tactility and ‘bounce’. Although it’s not a “switch” in the MX sense, the Topre Type-S series does provide a really nice typing experience, which may be worthwhile for anyone interested in a silent tactile experience.

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Funny.

I almost did the reverse of this.

I put OUTEMU Silent Sky stems in U4 housings. You can make a very stable light silent tactile with 55 - 62 G springs in that housing, but you have to lube at lower weights.

U4 stems are apparently a fantastic way to get a silent light tactile in less-tactile housings. I hear you can use 35 G springs in Bobagum (linear) housings with U4 stems. I even have some OUTEMU Ice housings, maybe I should try them.

BTW Your Varmilo keycaps are very close to what I use. I have some gray + cyan green keycaps that I put on a TKL built for a relative. They were smooth with lubed Gateron CAP Brown V2.

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Are you sure that’s the case? Various reviews and retailers also describe the switch as unsilenced on the downstroke and silenced on the upstroke, which also matches my experience. For example:

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It’s a little weirder than either of those;

The up and downstroke both have silicone dampening pads - however, the stem also has a long pole that can strike the bottom housing. (In any case, the upstroke is fully silenced on these.)

Technically, the dampening pad bottoms-out first, but does not fully compress before the pole strikes the housing.

That means if you type very lightly on U4Tx switches they’re basically fully-silent. Typing normally on them produces a clack, but with less resonance than a typical long-pole since those pads are engaged and absorbing higher frequency vibrations. Hammering the switches will give a loud clack, but still less resonant than an equivalent one if the pads weren’t there.

Here’s what they sound like in one of my keebs:

(These are a plum-colored edition from Smith + Rune but otherwise identical to the currently available U4Tx switches)

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Yes, you are absolutely right; I mixed up silenced and unsilenced. Sorry, I should not be posting things here late at night, right before going to bed. :see_no_evil: I deleted my comment.

To leave matters clear: GAZZEW U4Tx makes the most noise on the downstroke.

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Damn, @mf68 was definitely right on Cream Yellow being better than TOM: apart from the one he posted some time ago, even in this the difference in silencing is clearly on Cream Yellow side: Outemu SIlent Cream Yellows & Silent TOMs FULL Sound Demo! Keychron K8 Pro | Typing Sound Test - YouTube

Damn, now I want to sell my TOMs and pick a pack of Cream Yellow to try, but in the meanwhile new versions seems to have been released:

Pro: https://a.aliexpress.com/_EJARD1R

Jade: https://a.aliexpress.com/_Evcfr0d

Can’t relax a little and bam! new switches all days XD

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By the way, out of all of the silent tactile switches that I tried (as mentioned above, including comparison to the TOM), I wound up liking the Outemu Cream Yellows (note: I was specifically testing the v2 colorway) the most, and have recently (a few days ago) ordered a full set.

It’s really tricky to understand some of the different variations and versioning between the various Outemu switches, and it’s made more confusing by the fact that there are multiple sellers of Outemu switches on AliExpress and they are not quite consistent.

It seems that there are at least three different versions of the Outemu Cream switches. Here is an image that used to be part of the “INEDA Digital Store” posting on AliExpress:

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Note: they very recently edited their posting to remove mention and images of the version 1, but it used to have this image (and it is still cached in a Google image search that points to this page) with text that said something along the lines that there were simply two color versions of this switch and that they would randomly send whichever they had in stock. I know this, since I was looking at this exact store posting (and had it bookmarked) within the past couple of weeks. Now, this item post has been edited to only show this version 2 colorway.

It seems that the v1 is indeed the original colorway for this line of switches, as older reviews, posts, videos on the web seem to all show these two-color housings. I’m guessing that INEDA eventually had simultaneous stock of both colorways, and may have just been mixing the versions for logistical ease. I have no idea if there is any significant difference in terms of performance, but at least one seller (INEDA) seems to act as if they were the same and just a change in color scheme.

However, there appears to be at least that one AliExpress posting, from “Rick & Anna Tech Store” (as @m4dbra1n posted above), that offers what appears to be the version 2 colorway, while calling these “pro”.

A third colorway, with slightly translucent housings seems to now be available. This must have been quite recent, as with the two AliExpress sellers offering these, they’ve only sold relatively few and the earliest reviews are only from April 2023.

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I recently ordered these from this Slitn Store posting, but they are also available from “INEDA Digital Store” (link shared by @m4dbra1n above), which calls them as “Jade”.

So, to summarize, there seem to be three versions:

  1. Two-color, opaque housing
  2. White, opaque housing (called “pro” by one seller)
  3. White, translucent housing (called “jade” by one seller)

However, I’m not sure if there is much of (even an intended) difference beyond cosmetics, as all of the product postings mention identical specs and materials (POM Stem, Nylon Upper Housing, Nylon Housing base).

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Seems like I got the right timing XD
I’ll wait for your tests then, just to try to grab the best version between them, if something changed between the different versions but, as visible by the various videos posted about them, even the v1 of Cream Yellow is definitely more silent than TOM for my likes.

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I’ve recently been lurking forums for mechanical keyboards and I’m in the process of trying to find my silent tactile switch. I have a barebone Keychron Q2 and I’m waiting on a list of samples. Out of those are a list of Outemu Silent Cream Yellow and Silent Yellow Jade, which they describe as ‘The switch housing changed to a semi transparent color, which allows for more light transmission and a more beautiful color than the previous generation OUTEMU Cream Switch.’

Silent Cream Yellow

Silent Yellow Jade

Once I receive them, I am more than happy to report back or provide more details on the difference (if there is any apart from transparency) unless other people get these first.

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It will be interesting to see if the latest Silent Cream Yellow has dispensed with the pinging sound that a percentage of them have.

Even though they all have some factory lube, there was something with the internals that was causing ping in a portion of them, as detailed by members here.

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Unfortunately, one thing that I won’t be able to properly compare is consistency of performance across a batch, since I only have a single sample switch of the v2 Silent Cream Yellow (and that individual specimen was quite good). However, I have 110 of the v3 “Jade” Silent Cream Yellow switches coming soon, and I will certainly share my observations about batch variation with those.

With another Outemu product, the Silent Greys, of which I also ordered 110, I have noticed some duds in the batch. When installing and testing them, I had maybe 3 or 4 that were noticeably worse (such as scratchier action or less effective dampening), so I simply swapped those out and even threw away one particularly bad switch (that seemed to be mostly missing upstroke silencing). I will keep more careful notes about exactly how many anomalies I encounter when evaluating the v3 Cream Yellows.

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I am in the process of replacing the springs of 115 Outemu Silent Cream Yellow switches with heavier 68 g stainless steel Gazzew springs. The goal is to end up with a silent tactile switch that closely mimics the behaviour of a Gazzew Boba U4, but then boxed. Remember, Gazzew switches are made in the very same Outemu factory.

The new and heavier spring completely removes any ping from the Outemu Silent Cream Yellows.

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If you enjoy Outemu’s Silent Lemon/Lime/Citrus fruit but wish it had longer travel and firmer bottom-out feel and sound, you might like Keychron’s Silent K Pro Brown. Manufactured by Huano they are very cheap at $26 for 110 pieces. The stem comes oiled, and yet there is some scratch left in both feel and sound. There also some pinging in the dry spring and leaf sounds not too dissimilar from what I complained about in Silent Cream Yellow, but in lesser overall volume (at least relative to other sounds).

The dampening pads are small and round on the sliders. This part I rather like, not as typewriter-y as TTC Silents (flat stem version) and thinner sounding than Midnight Pro’s thud, but similar in volume.

So, not great initial impressions here. Still another dampened light tactile switch is welcome in my small collection. I also suspect this switch could do better on a firmer plate.

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Has anyone tried the Skyloong Glacier Silent line? Appears to have the same dampening mechanism as Haimu/WS Silents. I’m especially interested in the new Skyloong Glacier Silent Clove/Lilac, saw them on AliExpress but haven’t seen many reviews. Seems that they are an upgraded version of the Skyloong Silent Glacier Rose.

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I have the Glacier rose, I like them but they have tendency for leaf ping. The lilac looks interesting but hard to tell if it is improved

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