On the hunt for a quiet mechanical keyboard? If so, you’re probably aware that mechanical keyboards are popular for a variety of reasons; silence definitely isn’t one of them. That familiar clicky sound mechanical keyboard users have grown accustomed to is great feedback for typing when your alone, but around others can be a real nuisance.

The answer to this noisy problem is dampened switches. And I don’t mean simply grabbing a bag of O-rings and adding them to your existing keyboard’s switches. O-rings can help to reduce impact noise, but only slightly and they destroy key feel. If you want a truly quiet mechanical keyboard with minimal alteration to feel the switches themselves (non-clicky) must be internally dampened on both the downstroke AND upstroke. O-rings and other similar products only lessen sound on the downstroke from the keycap making contact with the switch housing. The quiet mechanical keyboards reviewed below go to great lengths for noise reduction through the use of dampened switches, lubed stabilizers, case liners, high quality keycaps and other sound dampening modifications. Continue reading