Mmm, don’t think I wanna wait for other films from Ali, as at the moment I don’t have enough, plus while checking top and bottom housing on the one from the test set I didn’t noticed so much wobble: will recheck a sample of TOMs while mounting them when the poron sheets I’m expecting wil be delivered.
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haimu whispers > all
quietest silents i’ve tried while also being the least mushy silents i’ve tried
they’re super cheap to boot, as well <3
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Do you lube them? I have a full set as well but haven’t used them much yet. They’re certainly very good for the price. The linear version called heartbeat is amazing.
I’d like to, but I don’t have the time, tools, nor money to lube any switches 
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Got a tester pack in the mail today with some silent tactile switches that I have not tested yet. The list of untested silent tactiles is getting very short now.
Durock Silent T1: This has a sort of rubber band dampener instead of a solid piece on the stem like Outemu uses. You can find this on the Silent Alpacas as well. It’s a different feel but I like it. They seem solid to me except one out of three had some metal pinging.
I see these switches less often recommended than Boba U4 but form my short test I think I would be just as happy with these.
Keebwerk Tacit V2: Pretty sure these are a just recolor of Silent T1.
Gateron Silent Brown: Holy scratch man, wow. I can’t use this.
TTC Silent Brown V2: Discovered that these exist on this forum and they’re exactly what I hoped to be. I’ll be ordering a full set for my work keyboard.
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I got the Outemu Silent Greys in the mail about a week ago. I installed them into a budget board, and I generally like the way they sound and feel. They are nice and quiet (any tips for silencing the stabilizers?), and feel okay, but not as crisp as the (much louder) TTC Browns that I’m using in another board.
Well, I’ve gone ahead and ordered some tester packs with a bunch of other silent tactile switches. I’ll share my comparative thoughts when those come in.
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@Deadeye I got both the Outemu Silent Cream Yellows and the Kailh Silent Browns. Since, I have a legacy with Cherry MX Clears, I replaced the 45g spring in both switches with the heavier 68g Gazzew spring made from Korean KOS stainless steel.
The Outemu Silent Cream Yellow really feels and behaves as a box stem version of the Gazzew Silent U4, tactile bump included. This is unsurprising, as all components came from the same factory. It is also truly silent and less scratchy, compared to the Kaihl Silent Brown. However, it remains less dust and water proof than the Kailh Silent Brown, as the switch contact remains exposed, instead of being enclosed in a IP56 rated box. The latter Kailh contact box feature should not be confounded with a boxed stem design.
Out of the box, the Kailh Silent Browns have only a light to medium tactile bump, which is inconsistent from switch to switch. The switch also has a faint click which is inherent to the IP56 rated contact box design. However, replacing the 45g spring with the slightly wider, but snugly fitting 68g Gazzew spring, turns this switch in a truly enjoyable tactile switch with a consistent and more pronounced tactile bump. The faint click remains of course. The stem fits correctly to my DSA keycaps, without causing any keycap deformities or stress.
Both tests were performed on only a small number of switches without lubing the replacement spring. So, it only can get better from there with spring lubing.
Conclusion: The modded Kailh Silent Brown will end up both in my outdoor device as my kitchen MagicForce 68, whereas the modded Outemu Silent Cream Yellow will be used in an upcoming build to replace the keyboard under my microphone in my ham shack / web conference corner. Thank y’all for your constructive input. I never thought I would end up resorting to switch modding…
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That’s interesting.
So the inconsistent feel of BOX Silent Brown comes from the springs. Makes sense.
I think you are supposed to use dedicated Kailh BOX springs for replacements, but I guess OUTEMU 68 G worked.
For a milder and quieter BOX Silent Brown, there’s also the Cookies & Cream mod:
Maybe the ideal BOX silent tactile for me would be Cookies & Cream, using aftermarket Kailh springs close to MX Brown [45/60 G].
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I think the way the stem interacts with the leaf through a plastic pusher also plays a role alongside the spring.
That part is usually lubed, and inconsistently - what’s more, what it contributes to sound and feel changes as lube wears / falls off of the part. I have an upcoming project to verify this on the scale of a full set of switches, but in my testing with individual samples manually lubing the part seems to help with consistency, but also seems to encourage that click sound. (That said I genuinely don’t think it’s worth it in the vast majority of cases due to how tiny and hard to work with that part is - replacing the spring will probably go far enough in improving things that messing with the pusher will be in diminishing returns.)
I do like these and have had them in a board for a few years - and now that I’ve had all that time with them I can add an asterisk*:
- If you decide to make some of these Silent Box Brown stem in Box Cream switches, plan on making 5 or so more than you need depending on the size of keyboard you’re populating. I made about 70, and out of those, 3 developed chatter (double input, not an issue I’ve seen with other Box switches so far). I replaced them with some new ones that have been working without issue.
I’m guessing this is due to the leaf not really being intended for use with the tactile stems, and there might be some contact bounce going on. The majority of mine work as intended and you might not end up with any chattery ones at all - but I’d feel bad if someone cut it close and ended up having to make another order over a switch or two.
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I just received a sample set of 27 different Outemu switches (and still awaiting more non-Outemu switches in a separate shipment). I have installed some of these in my board for testing, and below I share some initial thoughts:
Note: all of these switches are in stock condition.
Note: for all these, except for the silent grays, I only have one switch, so the sample size is minimal and I may be skewed by having received an atypical specimen.
(The letters in parentheses are just my notes as to where I put each one)
Silent Tactile
- Silent Gray Switch (rest of the board)
- These have been in my board for a few weeks now. They are quiet and tactile enough, but I have not been entirely satisfied with them. Hence, the switch testing that I am doing right now. The keyfeel and quietness is a bit inconsistent across the batch. A bit more noticeable wobble, and I don’t really like the amount of travel before the tactile resistance.
- Cream Yellow Switch (E)
- In terms of keyfeel, I like these the most so far. Noticeably less wobble and I particularly like the immediate tactile resistance. However, this single switch does have a bit of scratch (but within the range that I have across my silent grays).
- Silent TOM Switch (R)
- Better keyfeel than the Silent Grays, similar to the Cream Yellow. However, noticeably louder than the others, with a lot more scratchiness in the action and even a bit of rattle. Perhaps, I got a bad one.
- Silent Lemon Switch (T)
- Fairly quiet (but a little bit of ping) and light actuation. Keyfeel is quite similar to the Silent Grays.
Silent Linear
Sorry, a bit off-topic, as these three are linear switches. I just wanted to just give them a shot to see if they might grow on me, but so far they haven’t… (edit: and I’ve already removed them)
- Silent Ocean Switch (B)
- Silent Peach Switch (N)
- Silent White Switch (M)
Tactile
- Panda Switch (~)
- Not a silent switch, so not suitable for my purposes here, but I wanted to try it as a baseline for keyfeel. I really like the keyfeel, so I might consider trying these in another board for situations where I don’t need to worry about silence (or maybe I should try the original famous switches that these are shamelessly copying).
Anyways, these are just some initial thoughts, based on a very short time frame of usage, and I’m still waiting on 8 more silent tactile switches to arrive.
Edit: I just want to add that I think that the immediacy of the tactile resistance seems to be quite important in my personal preferences. Several of the switches (e.g., silent grey, silent lemon, and other non-silent Outemu tactiles) have a noticeable amount of travel before tactile resistance is felt. I think this amplifies my subjective perception of wobble, since not only is there the side-to-side wobble in the plane of the board, but also this up/down travel (which can be felt even when resting fingers on the keys) feels like a third dimension of apparent looseness that I don’t like.
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Hi, being a fan of silents myself (and thinking of them as the true masters of thock) i thought i’d throw in my knowledge.
Gateron: calling these silents is an insult to actual silent switches lol. i like to think of these as nicer sounding, slightly mushy, normal switches. the brown and aliaz stem is like the “cherry browns are scratchy linears” meme but taken seriously. zilents, while extremely expensive, at least have a fine enough big bump. overall wouldn’t recommend any of these.
Kailh: Theres four of these now…
BOX Silent Brown: due to the circular top, loose tolerances and only one leaf leg, these feel like they’re twisting out of the way of the tactile bump rather than going over it, the bump is small-medium. These like to tick over time and it’s especially noticeable because they’re silents, i actually used some oil on one and managed to turn the switch into a clicky lol. the silencing is first place out of the four kailhs for tactiles but second place for linears. let me explain because this’ll come up again later, tactiles with halo like no-pretravel bumps generally do worse in silencing than their brown bump and linear counterparts, this is because the upstroke of the bump causes the stem to hit the top housings with more force than linears, more force equals less silent, so because this switch is a brown bump with an essentially linear top out, it’s more silent than the other tactiles which have no pretravel, halo like bumps. the silencing is middle of the pack overall, not silent silent but not gateron “silent”. wouldn’t recommend personally
BOX Whale Fall: I haven’t actually tried these yet but I’m pretty sure deep sea clears have the same silencing method and i’ve tried those. The linears are more on the gateron side possibly even less silent, i’d probably put them in 4th, again, haven’t tried them so idk. it will likely still have the same problem of ticking and twisting because they’re still BOX switches so i can’t recommend them because i don’t have them but i also wouldn’t want to recommend them because of those problems that seem to permeate all box tactiles.
Midnight Tactile (V1): medium strength halo like bump, pretty short travel, 3rd place among the kailhs. pretty nice silencing, very even but thumpy. I’d recommend trying them but they were EoLed by V2s and are impossible to find now…
Midnight Pro Tactile (V2): same bump as v1s, not as even as v1s but quieter overall i’d say so they take 2nd within the kailhs. I’d recommend trying them.
JWK: I think there’s only silent t1s right now, nice big bump, smooth, the second most silent tactile i’ve tried so far but i don’t think it’ll take second after I try one switch i’ll mention later. I’ll use this switch as an opportunity to talk about the bane of silent tactiles, leaf noise. jwk leafs are especially bad, silent t1s (and most other strong tactiles in general for that matter) have a noticeable ping that can be really annoying when you’re trying to make quiet and good sounding switches. lubing the leaf can fix it but my preferred solution is the shroud mod. this can kill most the ping but then just the sound of the friction of the bump going over the leaf can become noticeable, still haven’t found a solution for that that isn’t just lubing the legs. Would recommend regardless.
Haimu: these are the only non-silicone based silent tactiles i know of, if you think that means they can’t be mushy, you’d be lying to yourself, while the leaf spring cutout in the pom stems of these switches is a different feeling than the molded silicone dampeners of most silents, they still have mush in the form of about .5mm of extra travel on bottom out, because of the unique silencing these have a certain flipping point where if you bottom out too hard, they’re pretty loud but otherwise the bottom out of these is second best only to outemus. meanwhile the top out is second worst only to gaterons… they get substantially better with lube though but so does everything on this list… would recommend if you’re going to lube them and if you don’t bottom out too hard.
Outemu: boba u4 68g are still the best stock silent tactile i’ve tried, the bump is big and the silencing is the best. only minor downside is that all those traits combine to make it feel and sound like a really good quality rubber dome. theres brown bumps (silent lemon/grey), clear bumps (silent forest/sky), and halo bumps (boba u4/cream yellow). silencing is the best but is mushy, in my experience, silence is directly proportional to mushiness, i embrace and accept the mush, it’s like gasket mounts but on every individual switch. leaf noise is a bit of a problem, not as bad as jwks though, its the only unintentional problem with boba u4s imo. get these first, highly recommend.
TTC: I recently found out ttc technically has three kinds of silents…
Half Silent Bluish White: only silenced on bottom out, top out is like a normal tactile, the bottom out is pretty thumpy too, i like to think of these as normal tactiles but technically they’re not ig? wouldn’t recommend as silent tactiles
Full Silent Bluish White (Flat pole): same as HSBWs but now with pretty good top out silencing, if you want thumpy instead of silent this is it. i shouldn’t recommend because i haven’t tried them but i’ve tried the linears (silent red v3s) and the HSBWs so i think i understand them enough that i want to recommend them.
Full Silent Bluish White (Round pole): whats a flat pole? whats a round pole? well first, ttc silents are fairly unique in that they are pole hole silenced, they’re long poles but with rubber where the pole would bottom out, this means the shape of the pole of the stem determines how pressure is distributed over that rubber, the sharper the pole, the more the rubber can compress, therefore flat poles are thumpy and round poles which reduce contact area are mushier and quieter. i haven’t tried these either but i have tried linear round poles (frozen v2s) and they’re likely to be similar. with that said, they’re second only to outemus overall and the leaf noise isn’t as big of a problem. it seems that newer listings of FSBWs have round poles now. again shouldn’t recommend but want to anyways because im 80% sure these will be great, good luck trying to figure out which listings are flat and which are round pole though…
Lichicx: most people don’t know about these yet and again i only have the linears right now but these are a good middle ground between the louder flat pole ttcs and quieter jwks, the bottom out silencing is unique in that it bottoms out on the tower that the pole of the stem goes into. right now it seems there are brown bump silent tactiles called Old DG silent teas, and in the works is one with a bump thats more halo-like but in my opinion closer to momoka sharks where its no pretravel but also sharp like mx clears, i’ve tried it in the non-silent varmilo ec iris v2 switches. Would recommend once they become available lol.
Ranking in terms of silencing ignoring leaf noise
- Outemu
- Round Pole TTC
- JWK
- Lichicx
- Lubed Haimu
- BOX Silent Stem Kailh
- Midnight Pro Kailh
- Flat Pole TTC
- Midnight V1 Kailh
- Unlubed Haimu
- Gateron
- BOX Silent Housing Kailh
- Half Silent TTC
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All great information.
Ha, agreed
JWK does make some other dampened stuff but not much - I think the T1s are indeed the only tactile right now. There’s the silent linears, which I think are sold under the name “Dolphin” in addition to just “Durock Silent Linear” or something along those lines. Kono has a glow-in-the-dark one. Same dampeners that the T1 Shrimp has.
JWK also has the JWICK Semi-silent linear; it’s a long-pole with a dampened top-out. These use a different dampening design but aren’t anything out of the ordinary there - I mention these because I do expect to see them show up on some dampened tactiles eventually - these share tooling with the Taro tactiles. Here’s a photo from ThereminGoat’s review; the dampeners are the blue bits:
I’m a huge fan of TTC silents (typing on them now), but I actually had no idea about the different kinds of pole. This definitely makes me want to inspect and compare this aspect more closely - fascinating. 
Anywho; whichever version the ones I’m using happen to be, I love the fully-silent Bluish Whites even if they aren’t nearly as quiet as U4s - easily my favorite silent. The only thing I’d change is adding a 5-pin version.
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Yeah i guess i should have included the other half silents like U4Txs and JWK Semi-Silents since i included ttc half silents but i don’t think theres been a tactile jwk semi-silent yet… if your FSBWs are a bit older and you yourself said they aren’t nearly as quiet as u4s then i’d bet they’re flat poles, still trying to find places that have round poles because those are nearly as good as outemus like u4s.
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Is JWK just a synonym for Durock? They also have the Blue Macaw, which at least seems to be marketed as a “silent tactile”, right?
I just got an email that my shipment has arrived. Once I get home, I can’t wait to try the following:
- Wuque Studio Silent Tactile
- Haimu Whisper
- Durock Silent T1 Shrimp
- Durock Blue Macaw
- Zilent V2 62g
- TTC Silent Bluish White
- Gazzew U4 Boba 62g
- Gazzew U4 Boba 68g
- Gazzew U4Tx
The last one is only silenced on the upstroke.
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All durock switches are made by jwk so yes but they also seem to be their own company separate from jwk. I hope you got the round pole FSBWs, round pole ttc silents are my current favorite silents
Macaws and shrimps actually should be the same switch other than spring weight and colors, same with whispers and WS silent tactiles, but yeah pretty good selection there.
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The whole round vs flat bottom business had me fascinated so I decided to look at all the TTC silents I had on-hand. Most if not all of these are going to be less-recent side, relatively speaking:
Top-left to bottom-right:
- Bluish White (non-dampened top, gold spring)
- Silent Bluish White (full-silent, silver spring)
- Silent Brown V2
- Frozen Silent V1
- Silent Red V3
I ended up adding another regular Bluish White from my extras bin to the comparison when I realized the one in my Oddities jar might be a V1.5;
- Bluish White (from the extras bin)
- Bluish White (from the jar)
- Silent Bluish White
- Frozen Silent V1
- Silent Red V3
- Silent Brown V2
It looks like none of the examples in my collection have a fully-round bottom; the closest to it is a slightly tapered one that might be a 1.5 - still flat at the bottom though, just a smaller surface area.
Closeups and recordings:
I recorded these with a phone and in this tester in the middle slot, with a Ducky (OEM profile) numpad 7 key. The phone was close, about as far as that box of springs.
Frozen Silent V1:
Silent Red V3:
Silent Brown V2:
Silent Bluish White (V1, I suppose):
Bluish White “A” (V1?):
Note the slightly more rounded-in but still flat bottom; the bottom surface would be a little smaller than all the others so far. As far as I can tell this one matches all the others in my parts bin, though this one is especially greasy. There’s another comparison photo below with the grease wiped-off the bottom.
Bluish White “B” (V1.5?):
This one is more obviously different; still flat on the bottom, but with a short second tier after the rounded-in area that otherwise matches the previous “A” switch. This one would have a slightly smaller-still bottom surface area than the last, but also keeps that diameter a little longer in compression vs the round bevel which effectively increases surface-area as compression happens.
Direct comparison between the three stem shapes I have on-hand:
On the left is what I assume to be older V1 Bluish Whites, the middle is V1 Silent Bluish Whites, and the right are what I think might be V1.5 Bluish Whites.
Again none of these have the round bottom, which at this point I think probably features on the more recently-made switches. I’m of course super curious about this now and am going to seek out some more samples for further testing and comparison. :3
I think it makes perfect sense for TTC to revise these towards being more quiet. That said, I actually love the “thud” sound that these flat-bottom ones make - it might be cool if they kept them around as a middle option alongside the more quiet round ones.
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I didn’t read the giant post above yours just yet, but I have some experience with Aliaz.
Sure, it’s very close to a Gateron Brown / Silent-Brown stem. But it isn’t that scratchy, surely. I found the problem to be with the spring. The springs are awful.
Seriously, the springs are the worst part of that switch. Once you replace them with good, lubed aftermarket springs, they noticeably improve. The stock springs are very, very crunchy and somewhat pingy. As well as not being as consistent as Spirit / TX.
I find 65 G 14mm TX to be a very good weight for Aliaz. 70 G is a bit much, given the limited tactility. But 65 G allows it to give some resistance, and a fairly gentle curve, while still giving a tactile indication.
Aliaz is very light, and something like the silent T1s are noticeably heavier, esp. Zilents. What’s needed IMHO are more silent light-medium and medium-tactiles. Bluish Whites are close, but they are a little heavy or seriously punch. At least Durock/JWK figured out the need for medium-tactiles like DMT [which is close to Zealio V1]. But they don’t have a silenced version.
Ever since Zilent V1 was taken off the market, there’s been a gap in silent tactiles. You could go with OUTEMU Silent Forest, I suppose, but Zilent V1 or a silent Durock Medium Tactile would be lighter and smoother.
Anyway, I wouldn’t completely discount Aliaz. It has some uses. It can form a good housing for OUTEMU Silent Forest at light weights. You don’t even need to lube (the housing). Makes something closer to Zilent V1. Also, you can put Aliaz stem into more tactile housings like T1. That makes Taliaz, which is a fairly poppy and spicy switch.
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Here are my initial thoughts about the nine new switches that I just received. Overall, I was quite underwhelmed and even disappointed with these. I was hoping to find something new and even better than what I had already tried, but I have not.
Of course, a big caveat is that these thoughts are entirely based on only a single sample of each switch in stock condition. Given how poorly some are performing right now, I would hope that lubing should improve them dramatically.
Silent Tactile
- Haimu Whisper (H)
- Out of this latest set of 9 switches, I like these the best. Similar keyfeel to Outemu Silent Yellow Creams, except maybe a bit more crisper on the bottom out and a bit stiffer (nice and snappy). However, the sound level is considerably louder. It’s reasonably dampened compared to a typical tactile. If you hit this key hard enough, it seems that the dampening sometimes (inconsistently) gives up and it gives knock much closer to an undampened tactile.
- Wuque Studio Silent Tactile (W)
- Very similar to the Haimu Whisper, except the sound is a bit less pleasant (with a bit of ping), slightly louder, with even a bit of rattling on the upstroke.
- Durock Silent T1 Shrimp (S)
- Fairly loud and high-pitched scratchiness, almost like squeaking. Really awful sound.
- Durock Blue Macaw (D)
- Similarly bad like the Silent T1 Shrimp. Keyfeel does not justify the bad sound.
- Zilent V2 62g (A)
- Out of the entire set, I dislike these the most. Quite loud and terrible keyfeel, with a significant amount of loose, wobbly travel before the tactile resistance. Also, after the bump, a really ugly amount of loose, mushy travel.
- Gazzew U4 Boba 62g (B)
- Underwhelmed with this switch. The keyfeel is pretty nice, but there is a quite loud scratchiness.
- Gazzew U4 Boba 68g (N)
- Similar to the 62g, except this one seems a bit slow on the upstroke after release. The spring is slightly stiffer, as can be seen by pushing it stem-to-stem against the 62g.
What’s the deal with most of these? Are these switches just typically awful in their stock condition? Built to require manual lubing and additional tweaking?
Half-Silent
- Gazzew U4Tx (+)
- Interesting switch that is only silenced on the upstroke.
- TTC Bluish White (-)
- When I ordered this switch tester set, this was listed as an option as “Bluish White (Silent Tactile)”, which I incorrectly assumed meant the fully silent switch. However, it clearly appears that this is instead the half-silent version, which is dampened on the bottom out, but not on the upstroke.
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Facts.
I wouldn’t say Aliaz are inherently bad, aside from that spring. They just have a stock bump mild enough to fit nicely into the existing memes.
I’m glad you pointed that out - it really is worth noting just how profound an impact spring quality can have on an entire switch experience.
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Generally, I think it’s more challenging to make a pleasant dampened switch than a traditional one for a handful of reasons;
-
If you’re successful in making the top and bottom-out impacts more quiet and less impactful on the feel, other aspects like scratch and ping automatically have less to compete with and become more obvious, all other things being equal
-
Any dampening of harsh sound and feel necessarily means some kind of softness, so there’s a necessary balancing between those factors; it’s not a totally linear scale, but in general, more soft also means more mush / less definition
-
Softer parts are more challenging to shape precisely. Different manufacturers have handled this in different ways and some issues exist only on some switches. The main thing I’m getting at here is “flash” - those little unintended flaps on injection molded parts that come from material getting into the seams of the mold. Stems that use injection molded pads tend to suffer from less consistency and a lot more scratch thanks to those little flaps sticking-out into places like the slots where rails slide. Looking at you, Cherry & Gateron (that means Zeal, too)
So far my favorite silents aren’t necessarily the ones that are the most quiet, but the ones that manage to balance taking the edge off with retaining cleanliness. That translates to switches that have a plenty audible “thud” when they bottom-out, but that won’t pierce the attention of nearby folks trying to focus on other things. Switches I’d put in this category:
- More refined examples of Haimu silents like the Whisper
- The fully-silent version of the TTC Bluish White as well as the Silent Brown V2
- Kailh Midnight Pros & and the more recent BOX Ocean (Master Series V3 and later switches)
These are my personal favorites, but they all still involve some kind of compromise - if less-so in my opinion than other examples like Zilents, MX Silents, Durocks, etc.
A couple folks I’ve done multiple builds for strongly prefer Boba U4s, but fully-lubed including the tactile legs. This mellows the bump, but makes them pretty darn quiet and tamps-down a lot of the unwanted noisiness.
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