Yeah, no offense to the author, but this article read like one written by someone who really doesn't know much about keyboards. There is a whole slew of different silent, non-clicky, tactile and linear switches to choose from, as well as sound dampening o-rings.

I think this article is written from the perspective of a satisficer- it sufficiently meets the requirements he cares about. This is the perspective of most consumers for most of the goods we purchase. It's good to get a well-considered perspective from somebody that isn't deep into the "enthusiast" category of keyboard purchasers.

Author here, I would partially agree with that.

I'm not going to mechanical keyboard conferences, lubing my key switches and I had no idea what a sound dampening o-ring was until I read the parent comment.

I haven't gotten super into keyboards because I haven't been negatively effected enough for me to go down that rabbit hole of finding something top tier that covers everything I want to do in a better way with 0 compromises. For example, typing into a terminal with 50ms of input delay is a horrendous experience so that lead me down a path of researching, finding and writing about monitors and terminals with extremely low latency which I think is safe to say is enthusiast level.

The same goes for audio equipment. I have a 3,000+ post comparing a few headphones, going as far as analyzing frequency ranges to help find the most neutral headphones so I can hear back my voice accurately while recording courses.

And for mice, back in the day when I played games more seriously I would put custom teflon pads on the bottom of the mouse to make it glide more smoothly and consistently.

But with keyboards. I am satisfied with a fairly low noise, tactile feeling keyboard that doesn't skip or double press keys so I can chug along at ~80 WPM as a non-home row typist. I'm sure there's better, but the pain just isn't there to go deeper down the hole.

I see the keyboard as my primary tool for my job. I researched that tool and found the optimal one for me. In no universe is a keyboard with that little keytravel optimal for anyone.

I'm not even getting into mechanical/non-mechanical, ergonomic (in all the flavors) and typical staggered layout. That little keytravel leads to either 1) over-bottoming out, which over time is bad for your joints or 2) tons of missed keypresses.

Also even better than those o-rings (which reduce keytravel) there are switches with built in dampeners in the sliders (one expensive example https://zealpc.net/products/zilents but really https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0490/7329/products/Zilent_... you can see the little sliver of white at the top and bottom of the slider thats a little 'rubber' bumper that dampens the bottom-out and snap back ('top-out') sound.)

I didn't really fall down the hole until about 10 years into my career when I had my first brush with RSI, but that landed me into a Kinesis Advantage which took awhile to get up to speed on, but now I don't see myself going back for longer sessions.

The whole deal with mechanical keyboards feels to me a lot like putting too much emphasis on the rig without real justification. Sure extremely skilled people do need the extra performance in some circumstances, but chances are the rig is not used by extremely skilled.

And have seen it in a lot of fields and I've actually been culpable of it:

* competitive sailing: I've done quite a bit of dinghy sailing and regattas in my youth (Optimist, Laser, 420), I was always a bit frustrated because as I was not very good, I never had the best boat allocated. But in truth, as long as your dinghy is somewhat water tight and your set of sails are not blowing-up when a strong wind occurs, you are set, at least for a regional and even national level (one of my trainers actually won a national championship on a garbage dinghy that was laying around abandon in a parking lot).

* music (guitar): I've spent countless hours on forums arguing about guitars, amps, effect pedals and things like that. Today I own a Fender Telecaster (Made in Japan, not a US one), a Les Paul Classic, two tubes amps (one I've built, the other I've repaired). All that is far in excess of my actual skills. And I've seen far worst than me, I've literally guitarists barely able to play (like not being able to play 4 cords in rhythm) with 5000$ guitars and 3000$ amps.

* photography, I've seen people with 5000/6000$ (and more) worth of hardware (like Canon 7D or 5D + 2.8 80-200 IS USM + a few other lenses) not being able to frame correctly a picture. And personally, I'm far from good but I do own a second hand 5D (mark I) and a 17-40 L, and the best set of picture I've ever taken was with an old analog AE-1 with a 1.8 50mm lens that cost me 80 bucks during concert.

* mechanical keyboard: I do own a few mechanical keyboards despite the fact I'm barely able to type without looking at my keys (and I've tried to learn several times to type correctly without success using klavaro), and having a very slow word per minutes. I spend more time reading and thinking than typing so in the end, it doesn't matter that much.

Clearly, I'm not the worst at it, but I'm definitely culpable. That being said, having a nice and expensive rig do provide for more pleasure in a lot of cases (ex: between a 150$ and 1500$ you do feel a difference, the touch is not the same, the wood vibration are not same, etc), and it's completely OK to allow yourself these small pleasures.

However, acknowledging these small pleasures as such is important, a cheap guitar is fine, a cheap camera is fine, a cheap keyboard is fine, etc, no need to be pedantic about it. In the end, it rarely matters that much.

PS: cheap mechanical keyboards are actually kind of horrible, I've a 30/40$ one with MX browns copies, the thing is really annoying with key presses resulting in two or three letters being typed, shift+char not always working properly or sometimes a key press resulting in nothing.

It is conceivably possible to spend $1000+ on a keyboard (if you get in a bidding war for a rare antique on ebay or hire someone to design and build something bespoke), but for the most part the price of new keyboards is about $50–$250. This is not really comparable to the other expensive hobbies you described.

1) the cost aspect is only part of the equation, my point is also on the attitude of people

2) the mechanical keyboards is only one item, a gaming rig or a good laptop could cost you 1 or 2 thousands dollars if not more. It's just that mechanical keyboards is where I see far more behavior in the line "these plebs who don't know better". And in term of relative cost, first time I heard 150$ for a keyboard, I was a bit puzzled, in my mind, a keyboard cost between 5 and 15$, so at least 10 times less.

Computer keyboards used to cost a whole lot, and were extremely well made, back in the 1970s and early 1980s when (a) typing was the main purpose of a computer and the competition was typewriters (which were expensive and often excellent), and (b) the rest of the computer cost much more.

Since then there has been a relentless 30+ year focus on cost cutting, and the elaborate engineering and expensive production that went into 1970s keyboards is no longer economically viable.

> see far more behavior in the line "these plebs who don't know better".

Personally I find that typing on a nice keyboard (which might be something picked up for $15 on ebay) makes a significant difference in typing speed, accuracy, and comfort.

Everyone I have ever met who was excited about keyboards (from casual users of split ergonomic keyboards or old keyboards salvaged from their own obsolete 80s computers up through hard-core DIYers with dozens of hand-soldered prototypes and hard-core collectors with hundreds of keyboards filling up their houses) was enthusiastic and friendly, excited to share their ideas and experiences.

People who spend their whole career typing and don’t know that they could find a better experience are missing out, and might enjoy trying some alternatives.

YMMV.

I can't really blame him though, if you assume Amazon is the standard marketplace for everything all you'll find is Cherry blue and red switches, and Razer/Logitech's versions of those. It wasn't until I attended a mechanical keyboard conference that I found out about Zealios, by far my favorite switch but near-impossible to find in pre-built boards. Even Clears, which are really great and my favorite Cherry switch, are somewhat hard to find if you don't know specific keyboard sites.

I have the wasd keyboard with red switches and thin o-rings and it is quiet, quieter than my mouse buttons.

Also using a WASD keyboard (Code) with brown switches and o-rings. It's clicky, but not terribly so. Next one will be clear switches with o-rings which I've tested and are even quieter.

I have the WASD Code with Cherry MX Clears. And while it is a bit quieter, I find it not as satisfying. The keys feel pretty springy, and there's not much feedback. So that satisfying "click" of Greens, Browns and Blues, really is more my cup of tea. I did enjoy it originally though... so your mileage will vary.

So if I had to buy something off amazon, what would I be searching for? (Gamer & programmer, preference quiet keys)

If you want to buy one right this second, get the Vortex Race 3 with Clears. They sound and feel fantastic, and the aluminum case with the DSA PBT keycaps makes for a great build quality overall.

If you want to spend some time deciding, we should go over what kind of keyswitch and what kind of layout you want. This [1] is a pretty good overview of the different kinds of layouts (60%, tenkeyless, fullsize) and linear vs tactile switches. You can listen to sound tests for any switch on youtube to get a better idea for how quiet it'll be. I personally use a Poker 2 with brown switches for 90% programming/10% CS:GO, and I love it.

[1] https://kotaku.com/how-to-pick-the-right-mechanical-keyboard...

Well that's 2x vortex recommends. Bit more than I'd usually spend on a keyboard though...

Size aside do the tenkeyless have any other advantage?

For me, tenkeyless allows me to keep my mouse much closer to my keyboard which is significantly more comfortable. It's somewhat common to have long-term shoulder injury from using a fullsize keyboard and mouse intensively, like for gaming: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/a5ques/has_anyone_...

I recently bought a Vortex Pok3r off amazon, with the MX Silver switches. Relatively quiet 60% keyboard that I'd definitely recommend. I've used a Pok3r with MX Blue switches for years but wanted to get something quieter for work.

Okay so two things cause the sound of the mechanical keyboard. The switch itself, and the bottom of the key hitting the are beneath the keys (called bottoming out, I believe). You can buy rubber rings that quiet out the bottoming out issue, but as for the switch sounds, red or black cherrymx switches are quietest.

If you want to cheaply try out mechanical keyboarding, I'd recommend the brand Redragon on Amazon. They've got a few options and they're in the $25-$50 range. I've had my K552 for almost two years now and I don't have any complaints. I program and game on it daily.

Kinesis Edge

Exactly.

And now 6+ hours and hundreds of comments later I went through the comments and I still haven't seen anyone post a single mechanical keyboard that matches my requirements at any price point. It's just dozens of posts about needing to be a keyboard surgeon and assembling a selection of carefully picked pieces without any end to end guides.

For the most part I just want to plug it in, have it feel good and write code.

Your $150 recommendation from below almost fits the bill but it looks like a super condensed keyboard with a non-standard layout that's missing a bunch of extra keys, and I can't find any concrete proof of what it sounds like on video. It also has a lower average star review than the Amazon Basics keyboard (but I wouldn't put much weight into that).

It’s not my personal cup of tea, but one keyboard that should meet your requirements (and is a whole lot nicer to type on than the Amazon keyboard, assuming you are willing to pay a lot more) is the Topre Realforce,

http://www.realforce.co.jp/en/products/R2SA-US4-IV/index.htm...

https://amzn.com/B07K9CH5WS

At a glance all I see is that it's missing a bunch of media keys and is $350 instead of $15.

But ignoring price, what improvements will I see vs my existing keyboard? At a non-competitive level, the human level is likely dictating how many WPM I can type. At 80 WPM, upgrading to this keyboard won't turn me into a 120 WPM typist. Maybe I'll gain a few WPM but that's not the bottleneck for delivering code on time.

Also how is your recommended keyboard different than a run of a mill $50 mechanical keyboard that I've tried in the past?

I used to live with a roommate who listened to music at 2x speed. He said it was more efficient since he could hear more music in the same amount of time. A lot of these comments remind me of that mentality - mechanical keyboards are basically just a toy for typists or a piece of nice industrial design. It's something to enjoy, there's not much more to read into it.

You seem very determined to be disappointed by this whole discussion. If you completely close yourself to new possibilities, nobody can force you to consider them.

You said:

> 6+ hours and hundreds of comments later I went through the comments and I still haven't seen anyone post a single mechanical keyboard that matches my requirements at any price point.

I was just offering one keyboard which does as far as I can tell satisfy all of your requirements. (The previous $250 version of this keyboard is about the same as this $350 one; the differences aren’t IMO worth the difference in price. You could probably find a used one for $150, if not less.)

Here are some of the features that make the Topre board nicer than your Amazon board:

- The actuation point is about halfway through the stroke instead of at the very bottom, meaning you don’t need to mash the key all the way down to get it to reliably actuate. Once you get used to this you can type with much lighter and springier finger movements, and (a) dramatically reduce the amount of shock on your finger joints, reducing both fatigue and long-term damage, while (b) improving your typing speed.

- Having taller keycaps on the further-away rows of keys compared to the home row makes them easier to reach by extending the distal joints of the fingers instead of moving the hand. It is in my opinion inexcusable for keyboards not intended for laptops to be flat across the top. Additionally, the keycaps have a curved top shape which helps the fingers find them.

- The switches have what many people find to be a more pleasant tactile response (this is subjective, and I prefer other keyboards, but those do not satisfy your other criteria). I would expect the 45g Topre keys to need less force than the Amazon board, but I haven’t ever seen measurements of that one. (Some people prefer heavier switches; Topre also makes a 55g version. Some people prefer very light switches; Topre also makes a 30g version.)

- In particular they have a nice bit of bounce on the upstroke which will help your finger to release the key just by relaxing the flexors instead of needing to fire your finger extensors. This will (a) reduce fatigue, and (b) improve speed and accuracy.

- The Topre keyboard is likely more uniform from key to key. Most <$20 rubber dome boards have poor quality control. (I have not tried the Amazon one.) It should also retain its key feel better over time.

- I would expect the Topre “silent” board to be quieter than the Amazon board, but I haven’t spent much time with either one, so you’d have to test that yourself. Personally I like much louder keyboards.

- The Topre keyboard is much more robust; the switches use capacitive sensing to tell when the spring has been depressed, instead of relying on an electrical contact, so they should not wear out even after tens of millions of keypresses.

- The Topre keyboard has larger rubber pads on the bottom, probably made from a nicer material. It should slip less than the Amazon board (being heavier also helps with this). It also has nice sturdy feet if you want to adjust the tilt.

- The switches are very stable and smooth, with tighter tolerances. The keyboard is much more rigid and solid feeling. Overall it feels like a well engineered product instead of a flimsy toy. Many people find joy in using well made long lasting tools, but YMMV.

- The keycaps are made of a sturdier type of plastic, and use dye sublimation printing. The letters will never wear off, and even the surface texture should remain through decades of serious typing.

- The electrical components inside the keyboard are more expensive and less likely to fail. You’d have to test latency, etc. for yourself, I haven’t extensively evaluated either of these keyboards.

- The keyboard supports full n-key rollover (this is unlikely to matter for routine typing).

> how is your recommended keyboard different than a run of a mill $50 mechanical keyboard

The switches feel substantially different. The keycaps are made from a different type of plastic. The case is sturdier. The switching mechanism is more reliable.

But keyboard preferences are subjective. Personally I like many $50 keyboards better than this $350 one. I was just looking to satisfy your criteria.

Thanks for the detailed response.

When it comes to the life span of the keyboard, how easy are they to clean?

With this Amazon one, I seriously spend about 30 seconds every 2 weeks wiping it down with a small towel and it's as good as new in terms of cleanliness.

I'm not a neat freak but I do know that build up of whatever can definitely play a role in how the keyboard feels over time and full size keys tend to collect a lot more debris over time.

Also if you don't mind, what would be 2-3 recommendations in the $50 range where quietness and overall "this feels great to type on" are the biggest goals?

Keyboards can be cleaned out by wiping them, spraying them out with compressed air, or if they are really filthy, pulling off all the keycaps and soaking them in soapy water (some people put their keycaps through a dishwasher; the obsessive use an ultrasonic cleaner), and thoroughly wiping the space underneath. In extreme cases the case can be opened up and the plastic parts can be washed separately.

If a keyboard sits on a very dusty garage shelf for 20 years with no cover, sometimes dust works its way inside the switches; cleaning that out is a lot more complicated, requiring desoldering and disassembling all of the switches. Don’t do this to your keyboard, and watch out for the condition of decades-old used keyboards.

* * *

Personally I like very loud clicky keyboards, like the IBM model F or anything with clicky Alps SKCM or SKCP switches (from the 1980s–early 90s).

If you can find one in good condition and don’t mind an adapter, I quite like the Apple Extended Keyboard II from ~1990 which is reasonably quiet (likely louder than the Amazon board; if you want to further reduce the sound you could open up the case and fill the empty spaces inside with some kind of padding – I know people who have successfully damped sound with sheets of drawer liner or felt).

Tactile Cherry MX switches (or any of the many MX clones) with added o-rings or other padding are reasonably quiet. I’m not really the person to ask though. Again, filling empty spaces inside the case can do a lot to damp the sound.

There's also several new 'silenced' switches[1][2] which have dampening built-in by moulding in a softer plastic into the switch stem. I can't stand the feel of o-rings; I use a Zilent switch keyboard for work and it's quieter than a lot of my coworker's non-mechanical/rubber dome boards.

1. https://zealpc.net/products/zilents

2. https://kbdfans.com/products/pre-orderaliaz-silent-switch-ta...

(unaffiliated with either of these stores)

The o-rings also don’t dampen the upward click of the key in release, whereas the dampened switch models do.

Funny thing is that MX Clears are unbearable to me as well. If anyone is interested in some specific silent switches, look into MX silent reds, silenced Topre, Gateron silent inks, Aliaz silents, Zilents, and Healios. There are sound tests on YT

That's what I was thinking. Any decent mechanical keyboard has all of these features and more, and the sound the keys make depends on the switches, of which there are many different types. Some switches are designed to be loud (like the MX Blues) but you don't have to use them.

I usually find that people who disparage mechanical keyboards do not actually know a lot about mechanical keyboards...

Which decent mechanical keyboard has the feature of being $14.50?

Most engineers with jobs aren't making compromises on the price when their goal is comfort and usability.

You're right. I bought a $250 Leopold FC660C to combat repetitive strain injury, because my doctor said to minimize the distance between the home row and my mouse pad. But most less-expensive 60% ("ten key-less") boards either lack arrow keys or have obnoxious, loud switches. These weren't feasible because I use arrow keys all the time for Visual Studio and I work in open-office hell. The Leopold has quiet Topre switches.

I'd buy a $15 keyboard in a heartbeat if it wouldn't hurt my wrists. But for me, the Leopold is a medical device. I would have paid twice as much for it, which has nothing to do with the key switches at all.

In fact, I did pay 2x for it because I bought one for my home system as well.

Both my Microsoft and Logitech ergonomic keyboards are wearing out, so I spent some time last week looking for a replacement. Logitech seem no longer to make one, and Microsoft's has laptop keys, which I find very uncomfortable.

This site [1] has a quick gallery, and this[2] Github page a lot more (including many niche or kit ones). The Kinesis Freestyle <whatever> looked like a good option, but I decided to try one of the nerdy ones, so I've ordered a VE.A clone from AliExpress.

I found both of these pages through the /r/MechanicalKeyboards wiki [3]. That community has a lot of posts and comments of people showing off gamer/geek/nerd stuff, but also seems to give reasonable advice to "normal" people wanting advice.

[1] http://xahlee.info/kbd/ergonomic_keyboards_index.html

[2] https://github.com/diimdeep/awesome-split-keyboards/blob/mas...

[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/wiki/buying_gui...

I have a Microsoft Sculpt keyboard and it's probably the best keyboard I've used in a long time. The hand position is really comfortable and the keys have a nice response that isn't too laptopy (I prefer low travel keys). My only complaints are:

- No caps lock indicator - Fn keys are a bit small, and I prefer a Fn button as opposed to a switch - Uses a proprietary dongle instead of Bluetooth

Maybe one day I'll get an ErgoDox, but I need to figure out what switches I like first...

A colleague uses a Sculpt, so I did try it, but the key travel is such a long way from my (wearing out) Logitech Cordless Desktop Pro: that's from about 2004, and has tall keys [1].

Perhaps you could use a tiny widget that shows the caps lock status next to the clock?

I ordered Cherry MX Browns, which seemed like a fairly standard choice — red for gamers, brown for typists. I just hope they're not too loud.

[1] http://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.net/images/8/d/logitech-cor...

I don't mean to intrude or otherwise question you but have you looked into weightlifting as a solution? I used to get RSI pretty bad, and had back problems until about four years ago when I did heavy (two-hours a day, six days a week) weightlifting for a few months. Haven't had it since.

Thank you for mentioning this. That's a great data point and I will look into this further.

Bikram yoga (likely any yoga also) helps as well quite quickly.

I think yoga complements any strength training program really well. Flexibility is very important for weight lifting if you want to avoid long term injuries.

For what it's worth there are many cheaper options that would work for you.

For anyone else looking to reduce the distance between mousepad and keyboard, this size is usually called 84-key, 75%, or 80%. They have all of the keys that a tenkeyless has but laid out in such a way that the keyboard is significantly less wide.

this one is relatively cheap (they used to sell an even cheaper one that I currently own, which has off brand switched instead of cherry mx)

https://www.amazon.com/DREVO-Excalibur-Mechanical-Keyboard-S...

Thank you for this. I haven't scanned the market lately so I entirely missed this new crop of smaller boards.

Nomenclature was the big hurdle I had to clear when searching for a keyboard. I didn't know what these boards were called until a fellow engineer introduced me.

I'm sure "84-key" will be a helpful keyword to someone else reading this thread.

I had rsi as well, so bad I couldn't shake anyone's hand. I thought my wrist was broken. What fixed it for me was to drop the keyboard down onto my lap using a lapdesk. It took me forever to find this out, and there is research behind the ergonomics:

http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/ergoguide.html

http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/AHTutorials/typingposture.html

In my opionion, it's worth a good read-through. I also switched to an Evoluent vertical mouse and a Goldtouch split/angled keyboard w/o the numeric pad to minimize back-and-forth. Now I use lapdesk+apple magic keyboard+Evoluent vertical mouse, and don't really have any problems.

Have you looked into the VSVim extension? It's a bit of extra effort to learn vim, but you'll never have to reach for the arrow keys again.

You'll also need to map your escape key to Caps Lock. You can use AutoHotkey for this with this script:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/c6t9sj3fygtre6h/AutoHotKey.ahk

Vim basically allows you to trade mental effort for hand movement. Over time, the mental effort goes away, but the saved movement lasts forever.

vim is my default text editor. And there is a dip switch on my Leopold FC660C that swaps ESC and CAPSLOCK (it even ships with alternative key caps to match this change).

But VS has so many shortcut "chords" that depend on HJKL that I can't juggle both paradigms at once. When my brain is in "vim-mode", I'm constant hitting ESC -> ':' to trigger commands.

I had the same issue with Atom, Sublime, and VSCode extensions that mimic vim too.

As a user of the New Poker II 60% and other 60% keyboards, arrow keys are usually one dip switch/macro away. I also use brown dampened switches and they’re not noisy.

I really like the wasd "ten-keyless" keyboards:

http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/products/mechanical-k...

Red switches are quiet.

I think a 75% keyboard like the Vortex Race 3 would suit your needs:

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_lis...

Speaking of engineers and jobs, it's part of an engineer's job description to make compromises on cost.

I've never seen a mechanical keyboard that wasn't loud; let alone silent. (The thread topic is noise, not comfort or usability.)

That doesn't mean they don't exist. Maybe if I rubbed shoulders more with the high society, I might get access to some invitation-only showroom for exotic keyboards where $14K will get you a whisper-silent unit.

I do have one almost absolutely silent keyboard. It's quite awful to type on. Basically it's one of those flexible rubber keyboards for industrial environments, where there are spill and dust hazards. I use it at night, not to disturb anyone. I optimized for sound at the cost of comfort.

You can buy silent switches, they cost about the same as non-silent ones. There's really nothing that special about them.

I want to walk into a store, try some keyboards, and walk out with a silent one.

Well that's obviously not going to happen unless you live in a super high population area. There isn't enough people to support a niche market like that. But you can buy them online.

Such a store would have so few customers that it would cost $14k for such a keyboard. That same keyboard will go for $100 - $200 online.

Look in to Cherry MX Silent Red switches. I got a custom board made with those switches for ~$300. You can find cheaper ones but this is a specialty one. The keys are quieter than my mouse buttons and are comfortable to type on.

"I got a custom board made ..."

That's a complete non-starter. I'm not making a custom board for anything not related to guitar. :)

The general market of computer keyboard users is not going to build their own hardware for hundreds of dollars in parts if they just want a silent keyboard; that's practically the same as admitting these things are not available.

Just buy a Leopold then. They cost $150-200 shipped from Korea, a bit less if you find a local reseller.

The secret is to buy mid-90's NOS IBM keyboards.

Most silent mechanical keyboards are about the same cost as clicky ones.

Great; I'm in Vancouver, Canada; where can I walk into a brick-and-mortar store to try one?

Try memoryexpress, it looks like they stock some silent cherry mx switched keyboards.

Memory Express has a pretty good selection, I'd try there.

I was at a ME not long ago; I tried my hands on everything on display; they all make a sound. Some are good about not making a sound when the switch goes down, but the key makes a sound when bouncing back up, if your finger is completely off it. Space bar keys are particularly bad. A keyboard isn't silent if the space bar isn't.

You seem determined to be disappointed so I don't think I can help you. People in the mechanical keyboard community obsess over the sound; what you're asking for is like asking car enthusiasts for a silent car.

Is there a specific reason you need to buy in person? If you need to get a feel for the switches beforehand, many online retailers have switch samplers for about $15 USD. That being said, those don't cover spacebars.

You really should not cheap out on something you will literally be spending thousands of hours of your life using.

If price is my primary selection criteria, it's hard to beat free. I suspect I'm not the only one that has keyboards literally laying around: home, the office, friends houses, friends offices...

You can find something a whole lot nicer than the Amazon keyboard for $10 or $15 on ebay.

There were some mx red ones for $18 shipped in the US last week linked on geekhack

Indeed. I use a cherry MX brown board with o-rings at work, and it's reasonably quiet and feels so, so much nicer to type on than the rubber dome board it replaced.

I was surprised by this point - I have the same keyboard as the author but when I'm on video calls I tend to use the keyboard on my MacBook because I've gotten numerous comments about how loud my keyboard is.

I use the MacBook built in speaker (not a detached microphone like he does in the video). My keyboard is on a wooden desk directly in front of the the laptop (with an open screen for even worse acoustics). Maybe I'd have better luck with a raised microphone like in the video in the article, but I would not say this is a particularly quiet keyboard.

This would be a problem with any keyboard that's resting on the same surface as your microphone stand.

So in your case, it's not because the keyboard is loud. It's because you have huge rumble vibrations getting through to your mic, and this is masked with your laptop's keyboard since it's absorbing some of that.

If you look at the link in the post it has a sample of what the keyboard sounds in a typical screencast scenario when you have a proper microphone stand.

No standalone keyboard is going to prevent rumbles if you have it sitting on the same surface as your mic. Especially if your desk or microphone stand is wobbly (but it would still happen on a heavy stable desk too).

Agreed. I also have the same keyboard. And when on video calls, I regularly switch to the Macbook Pro built-in keyboard if I don't want the other person to hear me typing (it is quite loud and definitely audible over a video call).

I wouldn't say I'm a mechanical keyboard expert in the sense that I personally spent months assembling and disassembling a few of them while putting on custom switches and all of that but I have used (and listened) to a few of them in situations where it was in a controlled environment (I know what the room is like, the mic used, positioning of everything, the switches, etc.) and I haven't found any mechanical keyboard / switches that were quiet enough for me on video based on what I heard.

Do you have a high end recording set up? A good mic, boom stand, etc.? It would be curious to hear your set up on how it comes off on video when typing at your max WPM.

Silenced Cherry, Gateron, ZealPC, Aliaz, and Outemu switches are near inaudible when lubed.

Near inaudible is also bad because it's important that you hear something in the videos (this is explained in the article).

But I definitely never heard of having to lube your keyboard before using it. I'll look into that just to see what it sounds like. Hopefully someone with high end recording gear has done real world tests.

Silent switches aren't completely silent; near inaudible is relative, and given that you're evaluating switches in terms of their sound on a recording, "near inaudible" might work great for you.

There are a lot of variables when it comes to lubed switches, with the type and amount of lube used having an effect on the overall feel and sound. This is an interesting guide and rather long discussion about methods of lubing Cherry MX switches, for example.[0]

You'll find a lot of videos some decent decent recording tests[1] of switches in general out there, but not a ton that are exhaustive comparisons of different switches and modifications. This video,[2] for example, compares decibel readings from Cherry MX Red, Blue, the Topre 45g, and Cherry MX Silent Black and Reds.[0] Comparing across different tests has obvious problems, and since you're looking for a sort of goldilocks sound level for a specific use case (not inaudible, not too loud, just right for recording), you might wind up wanting to experiment a bit with a switch tester. Other factors like the keyboard case construction and the keycaps you're using are going to have an effect as well; a mat underneath the keyboard will have a noticeable effect for many keyboards, for example. Not to mention how you type and whether you're bottoming out. Personally, I find that kind of experimentation fun but not everyone will agree.

Because you're recording, it might be easier to look at testing different microphone positions and experimenting with positioning a few layers of foam between your keyboard and microphone to absorb some of the higher frequencies. You won't be able to make it entirely silent, which isn't the goal, but you might be able to get it to a level that sounds pleasant in your recordings.

0. https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=34332.0

1. https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=56648.0

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdFIht3A2To

Agreed, I have MX Clears and they're not bad at all. That said, they are still louder than standard (rubber dome) keyboards, even with o-ring dampeners installed.

But, I switched to a noise reduction headset and my screen sharing partners say my keyboard noise is now equivalent to people with rubber dome keyboards (you can barely hear it).

I have a keyboard on order with "silent red" mechanical switches. From what I understand, they're similar to rubber dome keyboards in noise level and if that's true then I won't have to use the headset all the time.

You can also get a better microphone.

I use a Logitech G Pro keyboard, which sounds (to my ears) roughly the same as MX Browns, but I use a supercardioid dynamic microphone (the sE L7, which for my money is the best dynamic microphone you can buy until you get up into the ElectroVoice RE320 territory) on an arm. It's got a tight enough polar pattern that I don't even need headphones because my desk speakers don't feed back, let alone the keyboard that's at a 90 degree angle from the business end of the mic.

I do have a few studio microphones and a high end (apogee ensemble) audio interface. But, that setup is even less convenient than wearing a headset. I appreciate the suggestion though... if I am going to record or broadcast any keyboard sessions that require some polish then I'll definitely isolate my voice with a pickup pattern.

YMMV, but I solved the convenience issue by putting that arm on a flange mount (not a clamp) and that alone made things a lot easier. It also makes people think you're more serious, which is a nice side effect.

I have a bunch of studio mics, too, but I've found that teleconference is easier with a cheap but tight-pattern dynamic. Check out the sE V7. It's tremendous for exactly that.

I have MX Reds at work and while they don't have the 'click' that Blues have, when the keys bottom out it's still louder than a membrane keyboard. Fortuently, you can get cheap o-rings on Amazon designed to force the switch to bottom out before the key cap hits the floor of the keyboard or the switch. It's a remarkable improvement for especially quiet offices.

Many mechanical keyboard users bottom out. That is noisy.

It also hurts their fingers. My brother loved his mechanical keyboard (Cherry MX blue). Very loud (he bottomed out), very satisfying, but he had to quit because his fingers hurt.

Not all bottom-outs are created equally. I bottom out on my MX Clears but the increased stiffness dampens the force to the point where my typing is comparable to the latest apple keyboards my colleagues use. I don't even use rubber dampeners which would further reduce sound.

As long as the switches aren't of the clicky variety (e.g. Cherry MX Blue) you can make the keyboard really quiet with GMK QMX clips or something similar [1].

How well isolated the keyboard is from the table can also make a big difference so it can be worth to put a piece of folded microfiber cloth or something underneath it.

[1]: GMK QMX Clip sound test https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UroBHvL5LZ8

MX Clear switches are a joy to use and are Open Space friendly. I tried a lot of cherry MX and I wont switch.

My Cherry MX Red Silents are really quiet (as quiet as a membrane or laptop keyboard, without the chatter) and very crisp.

+1 on cherry clears. I recently switch from typing on WalMart keyboards at home and Mac keyboard at work to using a Code keyboard with clear switches. By God typing is such a wonderful experience now, and the noise isn’t worse than the WalMart keyboards. granted it’s not as quite as the Mac keyboards that are so thin, but it just feels day and night different (better).

The average rubber dome keyboard is significantly louder than my cherry pinks

Well the author also thinks pair programming is a good idea so I'd take what they say with a grain of salt. Also I get the impression this article is just a thinly veiled ad for their courses.

Sorry, enlighten me - why is pair programming such an awful idea, in your opinion?

You are paying 2 people for what is, 95% of the time, less than twice the output of one person.

There are particular mentoring objectives that you can hit with it, and there is value in bouncing ideas off another person, but I don't need to sit in front of a computer screen for the latter.

There are definitely benefits that are larger than just mentoring or bouncing ideas. Often, the sum is actually greater than the individual parts, as fewer mistakes get made and more fruitful paths get explored earlier/faster.

Most coding mistakes are not very expensive.

As the other poster said, most coding mistakes are not expensive and the ones that are should have automation/testing in place around them. It is definitely not worth having someone look over your shoulder and eat up the little breaks you naturally give yourself. There is a reason that hardly anyone at companies like Google, Amazon, etc. do pair programming.

My situation is a bit different.

I often go on remote calls with people and our task is to implement something while also training the person or giving tips on how to do it in the future while answering any questions they have in real time (related or not).

So it's more of a 1 on 1 teaching gig for an hour or 2. Not 8 hours of pair programming every day full time.

Pair programming is great. But as with all things, only in moderation. An hour or two per week can actually be quite enlightening and eye opening.

What exactly is empirically wrong with Pair Programming?

Then what is empirically wrong with trio programming? If the pair programming wonks actually have data to show that it is a net benefit, then they surely must have evidence showing that 2 is a good maximum on return.

Like to this day, I have never seen any reproducible strong evidence provided that pair programming is beneficial. And I don't know if I would call the occasional ad-hoc (unstructured) "pairing" anything other than what a normal person would call it: "two people collaborating like normal fucking human beings."

But if there is evidence that 2 is better than 1, why is 3 or 4 not even better?

Have you personally tried it? It's great!

So call it collaborative programming. People tend to work well with someone checking their work, and more than two is limited by human communication. You're creating a strawman that I'm saying "The more, the merrier". I'm not.

So you think that pair programming is never a good idea?