Methodology

Every audio sample on this page comes from the open-source mechanical keyboard community. None of these were recorded by us. We are the curator, not the field recordist.

As ThereminGoat has argued, sound tests are inherently limited: microphone, room, host board, keycap set, codec, and your speakers all color the result. You are never hearing "the keyboard",you are hearing one recording of one build, played through one chain. Treat this as a listening museum, not a buying guide.

Some entries are proxies. Topre Purple Hybrid is the closest publicly available analogue to HHKB and Realforce. "Full travel" entries are field recordings of the same switch in a different host board,the sound difference is the plate and case, not the switch. Where we proxy, we say so.

All audio is sourced from Mechvibes (community library, MIT app), Bucklespring (GPL-2.0, IBM Model M), keyboardsounds (GPL-3.0), Monkeytype (GPL-3.0), keyBeats (MIT), daktilo (MIT), wayclick, and keebsound. If you are an audio author and want attribution corrected or your sample removed, email [email protected].