Thoughts on Cherry MX Silent Red switches

I’ve had these switches for quite some time now. I bought them when I got back into mechanical keyboards again and wanted to try out some silent switches. At the time I found I rather enjoyed them but, in the time since, I’ve found better, stock, switches that made some of their aspects more noticeably lackluster. Something I’ve been meaning to do with them is to lubricate them to improve their feel and sound and have finally gotten around to doing that.

 

These are based on the other linear switches from Cherry, some of the oldest and best-known linear switches. However, the silent switches with dampening added to them, making them one of Cherry’s newer MX switch options. This dampening helps to mute the sound of the switches on both actuation and return. It also gives them the signature softness that is inherent of using rubberized dampening for key switches. That said, it does exactly what it claims on the tin and results in a quieter keyboard.

 

That difference in feeling is part of what makes silent switches so divisive. For many, that softer feel of bottoming out the switches is unpleasant. Some people compare it to the feeling of rubber dome keyboards without the tactility. Others are offput by the softness and prefer the distinct bottom out feeling that is brought by more traditional switch designs. Some, however, prefer the softer feeling of dampened switches. Regardless, it’s very much a personal preference and is easy enough to steer clear of if you don’t like it. What is more difficult, though becoming easier, is finding dampened switches. There are options but there are far fewer options than there are non-dampened switch options.

 

I fall into the group that likes typing on dampened switches. I don’t necessarily want to type on them all the time, but I enjoy having them to go to when I want. Some days I want everything to be as quiet as possible and being able to swap over to a dampened keyboard can be wonderful for that. Regardless of the reason behind it I can suffer from sensory overload and even just reducing the sound of the keyboard can be wonderful for me. For other people with sensory issues silent switches can be a welcome relief. They won’t be completely silent, but they will be markedly quieter than typical switches. I find them not just beneficial to anyone else around me while I type but as being a benefit to myself as well.

 

Having said that, there was a distinctly unpleasant aspect to these switches when I used them in stock form and that was how scratchy they felt. Cherry switches prior to their retooling under the Hyperglide name had become somewhat infamous for being scratchy during typing. In fact, it was one of the reasons for the rise in clone switches gaining so much momentum. These Silent Red switches were no exception to that. They felt incredibly scratchy in stock form, similar to a Ducky Shine 2 with regular Cherry MX Red switches that I’ve had for nearly 10 years. They also reminded me of the Kailh Speed Silver switches in stock form. Regardless, they felt heavily scratchy when I would use them. And after using so many other, much smoother, switches they began to really show that weakness off far more than any strengths they had to play.

 

So, for quite some time now, my Silent Reds have been sitting in their container unused. I didn’t have the setup or lubricants to improve them, so I ended up largely ignoring them. That changed recently as I purchased some Krytox GPL 205 G0 along with the kit for doing the hand-lubrication process. The first set of switches I did this with were some NovelKeys Cream switches which helped to smooth them out greatly. These Silent Reds are my second set of switches to lubricate and won’t be the last of course. The result is striking compared to stock but still not nearly as smooth as other switches. They feel evenly done, with no switches standing out as being distinctly better or worse from each other. I’m proud of that, that I have them uniformly lubricated. But I’m also somewhat disappointed that they still retain enough of that stock scratchiness that it’s noticeable when typing.

 

When typing there’s that distinct sound of rubbing scratchiness. It’s not bad enough for me to not want to use them, but the feeling of rubbing and the sound of that rubbing still is present. Perhaps I need to be more heavy-handed with my lubrication process. I didn’t want to over-lubricate and end up with mushier switches with that almost-goopy sound to them, but I may have erred on the side of under-lubricating them instead. I’m not sure if I’ll go back to these all that soon as even 70 switches take some time to do but I figure I’ll at least test out one switch and be more heavy-handed with it and see how it fares compared to where it's at right now.

 

That really is the nature of the hobby though. It’s all about experimenting and testing to find what you enjoy most. I’ve used over-lubricated switches and did not like the experience. I’ve used completely stock switches that were in desperate need of lubrication as well. And I’ve certainly been spoilt by the plethora of options there are now for factory-lubricated switches that are a delight to use with no modifications needed to have a sublime typing experience with them. And in most cases I do want to go with those. There’s much to be said for a user experience that is quite literally plug and play. But there’s also fun to be had with the process of setting up the lubing station and going at it for an hour or two while watching a movie or some episodes of a show. It can be a relaxing activity precisely because it is very repetitive. But, again, I really have to be in the mood for that also because of the time that is involved.

 

So, what makes these switches special. What reasons should you get them, put in the work to lubricate them, then use them. Using them in stock form, barring all other aspects, simply isn’t particularly fun given how abrasive they are to type on. If you’ve only had experience with equally scratchy switches, they are par for that course but if you’ve used any remotely recently produced linear switches they will come across as like typing on switches made of sandpaper, wholly distracting and unpleasant. When lubricating them I would suggest a heavier application versus what you might normally do for switches. Overdoing the lubrication of course will introduce its own issues, such as stickiness, possibly even lube sounds, but thankfully the threshold for that is rather forgiving. They’ll never be the smoothest switches but what they will be is a serviceable option for silent switches to give you a quiet, if slightly soft and scratchy, typing experience. Of course, this makes them only ideal if you are already planning on putting in additional work into the switches in the first place. Otherwise, for a higher price there are other silent options, such as the Kailh HUSH switches that I tested early this year.