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Comment by lproven | Hacker News Reader

> I don't like the normal mechanical keeb market, because they're loud.

Happy owner of 5 original IBM Model Ms here, plus Das Keyboard, Apple Extended, 2 x Apple Extended II and others.

If you don't like "normal mechanical" K/Bs because they're loud, you will not like a Model M. They are much, much louder. I don't know any 21st century keyboard that's as loud as the real IBM deal.

When I moved to Czechia in 2014, I took a Model M in my suitcase, in the spirit of "accept nothing less than the best."

People crossed the floor of my open-plan office with 40-50 co-workers to ask what I was typing on. People multiple rooms away asked what the noise was. My boss' boss, in his own private separate room, said my "typing sounded like rain." Heavy rain, outside, he clarified.

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But remember that the Model M (and the F that it superceded, which was if anything even louder) was released into an environment where the default "keyboard" sound was that of a Selectric typewriter or Teletype unit! These weren't "quiet" devices by the standards of their day, but they certainly weren't seen as especially noisy.

Offices used to be very different places, acoustically.

Oh yes. I am an official Grumpy Olde Pharte and I remember working in the 1980s, in an office full of the things... and a computer room full of people hammering away at DEC VT200s and the like. Noisy as hell but we filtered it out.

My Brazilian 8-bit MSX back in the 80s, by default, emitted the sound of a typewriter, through the TV speakers, for every key pressed! tek-tek-tek...

As others have said, Model M are very loud. What I wanted to add - is that it’s one of the most prominent reasons for its appeal. The “kachung” sound accompanied by the subtle whine of the springs the space-bar makes triggers a bout of nostalgia growing up with a PS/2, and is the primary reason why I personally want to one day possess it again, and until that day fill the void with still loud, but less satisfying alternatives.

Oh my, yes. :-)

I actually don't like using them on my Macs.

The key feel of a Model M tells me I'm on a PC, or a Unix box.

The key feel of an Apple Extended tells me I'm on a Mac, and I hit different combos without thinking of it. Cmd+C/V/X instead of Ctrl+C/V/X etc.

Put the PC keyboard on a Mac and my muscle memory gets very confused...

Agreed. The switches on Model M are loud as hell, and those big plastic cases they used on various vintage keebs give them a real growl you don't get on more modern cases that tend to be smaller and/or machined out of solid metals. I'm not an audio engineer, but seems like the cases act as a resonance chamber and give a really unique sound signature.

Oh, yes indeed. I mean, I like the sound, myself!

Gods help me, I even listened to a record of mechanical keyboard sounds. More than once.

https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/03/mechanical_keyboard_a...

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