Loudest keyboard in existance?

harmattan

Supreme [H]ardness
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Feb 11, 2008
Messages
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My wife continues to complain about the "deafening" noise of my keyboard. I'm using a Gigabyte Auros with Brown MXs. It's an excellent keyboard, near-perfect layout and I don't want to switch. I didn't think it was too loud compared to her MBook Pro (and non-stop work calls), but have installed key silencers which reduced the noise by ~1/2 -- still too loud for her.

Although some will suggest moving to a non-mechanical/membrane keyboard, I'd like to go in a different direction: I want to show her what "loud" really sounds like. What is the loudest keyboard out there? I recall my father's Bloomberg keyboard (think it was made from a PS/2 mechanical) from the early 80s was a banger, but don't think I'll be able to find one.
 
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I even bought her a set of Sony wh1000s, but she says she can still hear the clicking.
 
Get rid of the wife lol!

My Dad used to work for IBM in the 80s-90's and we had a couple of the Model M keyboards at home. Love the sound!
 
Get rid of the wife lol!

My Dad used to work for IBM in the 80s-90's and we had a couple of the Model M keyboards at home. Love the sound!

I still have a Model M that I dug out of a dumpster over 20 years ago at a place that was remodeling their offices. I left it at home for my Dad when I moved but got it back about a year ago when I went to visit. Completely disassembled and cleaned it... 15+ years of grime and they get super nasty. Still works perfectly fine.

Not nearly as loud as the IBM 5251 in the video above though.

As far as it being my favorite old keyboard... I don't think it is anymore. I found a NOS Zenith branded keyboard with Alps switched.... and it can be set to XT or AT so it will work with all of my old computers. Real mechanical switches.

The IBM Model M is just a fancy membrane keyboard that makes clicking noises. The Alps keys are leagues ahead of that.
 
While not as loud as some of those videos, the Logitech G613 is enough to wake the dead from a room away. I didn't notice it in the middle of Best Buy (it was right by the home theater demos), but when mine arrived it was quite the shock. Great action, but this thing is awful for video meetings. I'm on mute like 90% of the day.
 
Some switches can be loud, but the most common cause of noise is when people bottom out their key caps when they type. You can get a set of rubber o rings and put them under your keys to prevent them from bottoming out fully and then you should only hear the actuation of the key switch.
 
Tai-Hao APC (Alps clone) 280g actuation force clicky switches, ALPS64 board, and a brass switch plate + backplate undampened.
 
I had a Das Keyboard 2 which people on WoW always used to complain about. It was slightly before mechanical keyboards were common (during WotL). Anytime I popped up in voice chat they all just said nonsense like: "what are you doing, facerolling on your keyboard?"
I don't know if it qualifies as loudest. But it wasn't subtle. That's for sure.
 
My wife hates the Cherry Blues on my Rosewill, they're loud and heavy to press... but it's exactly what I wanted :)
 
My GSkill KM780 RGB will give it a good run for the money.
It has brown switches but you cant hear those over the almighty clacking, and thats after fitting double o rings to try and quieten it.
Even moving a key can be heard, the whole keyboard is a decent amplifier!
 
I had a Das Keyboard 2 which people on WoW always used to complain about. It was slightly before mechanical keyboards were common (during WotL). Anytime I popped up in voice chat they all just said nonsense like: "what are you doing, facerolling on your keyboard?"
I don't know if it qualifies as loudest. But it wasn't subtle. That's for sure.
This is exactly the keyboard I have (but don’t use) that is mentioned earlier
 
Ah WAF. The reason I am using cherry silent reds. Although she has cherry browns in hers.
 
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