24

I know nothing of mechanical keyboards, but I have always found cool the Corne ish Zen[1]. However, I don't work alone so I would like something as silent as possible. I have an old Macally keyboard[2] that I know is silent enough. Is it possible to find a keyboard like the Corne but silent as a regular BT keyboard? Would you recommend one, or it is not actually possible?

cc @nostupidquestions@lemmy.world @mechanicalkeyboards@lemmy.ml

[1] https://lowprokb.ca/products/corne-ish-zen
[2] https://www.amazon.com/Macally-Bluetooth-Computers-Rechargeable-Indicators/dp/B07K24ZLWC

top 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] ken_cleanairsystems 8 points 8 months ago

AFAIK, right now, there's nothing available for something like Corne-ish Zen that would be as quiet as a standard chiclet-style keyboard (like your Macally). The Corne-ish Zen takes Kailh Choc v1 switches, and a linear switch (like Kailh Choc Red, Pro Red, or Silver, for example) are going to be the quietest kind. I'm typing on a keyboard right now with Kailh Choc Red switches, and it's quiet for a mechanical keyboard, but a little louder than typing on a standard laptop keyboard, for example.

There are some switch mods out there that aim to make Choc v1 switches quieter, like "tape mod" or "floss mod", although mods like this tend to be pretty tedious and time-consuming. There will probably be a "silent" Choc v1 switch someday, but I don't even know offhand if one is in the works.

If you were interested in a non-low-profile mechanical keyboard, there are "silent" switches available for those (a few examples are Cherry MX Silent Red, ZealPC Zilents, and Kailh Box Silent Brown). If you type with a light touch, a silent mechanical switch might be almost as quiet as your Macally keyboard.

tl;dr: A Corne-ish Zen will be fairly quiet with a linear switch, but not as quiet as the Macally keyboard.

[-] alvaro@social.graves.cl 2 points 8 months ago

@ken_cleanairsystems@lemmy.sdf.org this is a great explanation, thank you!

[-] otter@lemmy.ca 4 points 8 months ago
[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I'm not too familiar with the subject anymore. This artictle is a pretty good post about it that points to some good quiet switches. I personally enjoy some NovelKey Creams and find them to be smooth and not too loud. I would go with what ken said and maybe try to mod something. You could buy an extra pack of the switches to play with if its possible but they are easy to open and reassemble with a switch opener tool.

[-] berkeleyblue@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Dumb question: Aren’t mechanical keyboards inherently loud after? Always what kept me From buying one :-/

[-] SolOrion@sh.itjust.works 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

They're inherently louder. But they're not always inherently loud. There's a lot of different switch types, and some are loud on purpose. So if you get a keyboard with blue switches they're going to be loud because they're specifically intended to be both tactile(you feel a 'bump' when the key activates) and loud (you hear a click when the key activates). I had an internet buddy with blue switches, and the whole fucking chat knew when he was typing because his mic picked it up.

Personally I like tactile keys, but I absolutely hate loud keyboards. So I have brown switches- they have the tactile 'bump' that I like the feel of, but they're not obnoxiously loud.

You can also go with red switches, and those are just straight up-down switches. No bump, no click. They're generally the quietest common switch, especially if you're not whaling on them. There's roughly a billion other types of switch, as well. It's not just blues, browns, and reds. There's even "silent" switches. I have zero experience with those, though, so no idea how silent they actually get.

Note: I'm not crazy into mechanical keyboards. I just did a bit of research before I bought one awhile back. So... grain of salt and all.

this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2023
24 points (78.6% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35251 readers
1145 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS