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Comment by sandGorgon | Hacker News Reader

so what's the recommendation for a mechanical keyboard that can be used in a silent, office environment (with coworkers) ?

i went over some of the comments and read about "MX Browns" and "low profile switches", etc. What should I be googling for ?

this is one of the reason me and several of my colleagues never got into mechanical keyboards - the sound. not all of us have the liberty to work at home because we prefer mechanical keyboards. OTOH we would prefer not to piss everyone off with loud keyboards. I suspect many people are in this boat.

Are there mechanical keyboards which have the sound profile of a regular keyboard ? i know they may not be the best in the "mechanical keyboard feel"..but im ok with that.

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Browns (Cherry MX is the brand you might have heard referenced, but other switch manufacturers tend to align their colour coding for analogous offerings) are noticeably quieter but they're not going to sound like a mushy non-mechanical switch. Also, they're not meant to be bottomed out but many typists do bottom them out frequently, which makes them louder. Still I find they are a lot more forgiving to your coworkers than a clicky switch.

Part of me wants to say "that's the company's problem to fix", if the working arrangement is such that keystrokes can negatively impact your coworkers. Things like white noise generators and walls go a long way to dampening that.

Two things made my WASD Keyboards's blue switches much quieter:

- Installing the little rubber O rings around the base of each switch so that it's not super loud if I do happen to bottom out.

- Replacing the ABS keycaps with PBT. I was genuinely surprised at the difference that made. It's not subtle in the least.

I still probably wouldn't use it in a coworking environment because I don't hate my colleagues.

sorry im trying to figure out the jargon here. you bought a mechanical keyboard and then replaces the keys (ABS with PBT) ? is there anything that has this off-the-shelf ?

I'm very new to mechanical keyboards, but I just got an Epomaker EP84. PBT keycaps, and hot-swappable switches (I got brown). Very happy with it, though I've not tried any others. $85 (though I'm in UK, it was £70 here).

>Part of me wants to say "that's the company's problem to fix", if the working arrangement is such that keystrokes can negatively impact your coworkers. Things like white noise generators and walls go a long way to dampening that.

so not all of us are based in the US. And we are limited by access to products like "white noise generators" and also land availability.

I would love recommendations if possible!

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