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IDOBAO x Kailh Elf Ultra-Silent Mechanical Switches

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... / TACTILE SWITCHES / LINEAR SWITCHES / IDOBAO

IDOBAO x Kailh Elf Ultra-Silent Mechanical Switches

Name: IDOBAO x Kailh Elf Ultra-Silent Mechanical Switches
Brand: IDOBAO
SKU: idobao-kailh-elf-ultra-silent-mechanical-switches
Price: 20 USD
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 4.485714 (35 reviews)

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Product Description

IDOBAO has teamed up with Kailh to create two new switches that are nothing short of magical. They’re called the Elf Ultra-Silent Mechanical Switches—and, true to their name, they sound almost like nothing at all Read More

Customer Reviews

4.5

(35 reviews)

(25)

(5)

(3)

(1)

94% would recommend to a friend

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eveesaur7

Jun 18, 2023

Verified Buyer

Silent Tactile Switches??! Are those words supposed to be together?!

I. Love. These. Switches. Normally, I use Box Jades, so you can probably tell that I love having my keyboard sound as obnoxious and feel as tactile as they possibly can. I like my tactile poppy with a good level of cronch, the louder the better, the thicker the caps the better. Let's just say that I pound those puppies because I love the satisfying smack in the face that I get with tactile switch sound. HOWEVER. I did want to go back to the office at some point, and I couldn't bear the thought of not having my tactile cronch. As far as I have known for years, silent tactile just hasn't existed, much like shine-through keycaps that feel more substantial than an eggshell. In comes these switches. I bought a Drop Sense75 barebones on sale and purchased three sets of these. I also went and bought the Dusk keycaps, because I've been dying for them. I am not lying when I am saying that I think I've somehow magically found my endgame. I put it together the first night and didn't lube the switches because I wanted to feel the cronch without accidentally turning my tactile keyboard into a linear one (yes, that can happen). I have not lubed the switches and don't intend to. In most instances with ambient noise, I can barely hear myself typing. This is with a keyboard that bottoms out pretty deep and with keycaps that are pretty thick. I can feel the tactile bump flawlessly. There is no scratchiness, no wobble either. These are five pins, and it does make a difference -- I didn't have as many issues with getting the switches seated. Normally I get three because they're the most compatible with various boards, but I took a chance on these, and boy...am I impressed. With the sound reduced, somehow I enjoy them more, can feel the sensation of the switches more, and that's what I have always missed with the linear quiet. I took it to my office just to test it with my work computer and I haven't stopped using it. Seriously. It's amazing. I would say that it requires a certain person to enjoy it, though. I actually started out my keyboard hobby liking linear switches, but the more obnoxious side of things won out because linear feels incredibly passive, and I'm not. My keyboards always feel like they're an extension of myself when I am typing, so the more that I get to express myself, the better. But these...well, they let me quietly play the drums next to someone at work who doesn't know at all. I'll probably be buying at least five more sets to replace some of my other keyboards that were getting close to my endgame. Even if you're unsure, I'd give them a try. At the worst, they're a pretty cool experience.

Recommends this product? Yes

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its4theshah

Keyboard Club Member

Oct 9, 2023

eveesaur7My biggest concern with these was whether there was a tactile bump or not haha. I'm currently using the Aqua kings in my board at work. If you've tried those, how would you rank these against those?

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ClickySwitch

Keyboard Club Member

May 14, 2023

Verified Buyer

Silent Subtle Tactility

While a switch with a great sound is my favorite, these silent switches are amazing in every way. I got the purple ones and they have a nice light touch with just a hint of tactility. Very pleasant to type on for long sessions, and as the name suggests, they are indeed silent (at least on my setup). With these switches on my board, the ONLY keys that make noise are those with stabilizers. I assumed "silent" meant "quieter than your average tactile" but they are so quiet my co-workers hear absolutely nothing when I type. Fantastic if a light tactile or light linear and VERY quiet switch fit your requierments!

Recommends this product? Yes

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Aspirant_Fool

Mar 22, 2023

Verified Buyer

Purple - Almost perfect

Big fan of these switches, but I don't like them as much as my Haimu Whisper silent tactiles. Comparing both switches 'factory fresh', without modification or lube, I prefer the Haimus in almost every way, but it's so close that I'm not sure I'd have 100% success differentiating between them blind. I'm comparing them here because the Haimus are my current favorite 5/5, and for reference I'd call these an easy 4.5/5. The tactile event is stonger on the Haimus, which is the primary reason for my preference. Both are very quiet, but the Haimus feel a little quieter overall, and what noise they do make is a little lower in pitch than the Elves. The Elves have a slight edge in upstroke, as they have dampening material in the top housing where the Haimus don't. I'm actually surprised that dampening material doesn't make more difference; They're definitely quieter on the upstroke, but not as much as I expected. I also get some occasional spring or leaf ping from some of the Elves, which I've never had on the Haimus. This would probably be trivial to rectify with a little lube, but it hasn't annoyed me enough to steal any of my free time for that task yet. Not particularly important to me, but noteworthy, the Haimus support through hole per-key LEDs, while the Elves don't, but the Elves' transparent top housing should offer better RGB performance overall for SMD per-key LEDs. At the end of the day, if I was forced to choose one or the other, I'd choose the Haimus, unless the board would benefit aesthetically from the Elves, in which case I'd sub them in without hesitation.

Recommends this product? Yes

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Morbii

418

Keyboard Club Member

May 4, 2023

Verified Buyer

insanely light tactiles

To preface: I originally ordered the linears. However, I was sent the tactiles and support told me there was a factory issue (or something similar - looks like these were taken down altogether now too for the time being). Anyway, I opted not to return them as I'd already opened them before I noticed they were the wrong ones.... and I felt them... and whoooo boy. I've never felt a tactile this light. If anything, I had to have them in my switch collection. I'll get the linears in the future (hopefully), but for now, these are great.

Recommends this product? Yes

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mattris

1266

Keyboard Club Member

Nov 29, 2023

Verified Buyer

Very quiet... and scratchy

These switches are made well but require lube to sound and feel pleasant.

Recommends this product? No

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sillydan

Jul 14, 2023

Verified Buyer

I have the most silent keyboard in the office now

I bought the linears, and they are incredibly silent. My coworkers' membrane keyboards are louder than these switches! As always, there is a very slight mushy-ness to silent switches and it is definitely noticeable, but I've tried much worse/mushy-er silent switches. I strongly recommend these if you want to use a custom keeb at the office!

(Edited)

Recommends this product? Yes

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CCC333

Keyboard Club Member

Dec 13, 2023

Verified Buyer

Amazing non-scratchy and non-mushy silent switch, just can't lube

I have tried countless combinations of franken silent switches trying to find the right combination. It's absolutely crazy how this switch stock beats most of my combinations that I have spent countless hours trying to tune. By the way, for those who like taking switches apart and customizing: These are cushioned via bottom housing, not the stems. So you could theoretically combine the bottom housing with your favorite stem to make your favorite stem silent if it fits in the housing and actuates properly. Downsides to silent switches: scratchiness and mushiness These switches have neither of those two problems. I tried the tactile variant first, and they are not scratchy at all. I define "scratchiness" as the opposite of smooth. The tactile variant of these are not the smoothest switch in the world. But they are at least as smooth, if not smoother, than the average non-silent tactile switch. People who consider these scratchy are probably comparing to buttery smooth lubed high-end linear switches, which is definitely not a fair comparison. An apples to apples comparison would be to compare to other silent switches. As for mushiness? The bottom out is still soft, which is just the way silent switches are by design. The bottoming has to be cushioned in order for a switch to be silent. But what's important is that the bottom out is still well-defined despite being soft. To me, mushiness doesn't just mean cushioned. It means poorly defined and poor feedback, like a membrane keyboard. The bottom out for these is soft, but still well defined and have satisfying feedback. Lubing is not recommended for these. Or if you do, use a thin lube and lube very lightly. I tried lubing a few with 205g0, and they ended up feeling sticky and getting stuck in the middle of the upstroke. But the good news is that they really don't need to be because they're so nice out of the box.

(Edited)

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NickL12

Oct 6, 2023

Verified Buyer

Silent linears for the office

Already had two sets of linear switches (Aqua Kings and Moondrop Lunalights), but needed a set of silent switches for the office -- the two sets I had felt and sounded great, but were just too loud for an open-office space. These green silent linears definitely solved this issue, making my typing sound no louder than the default keyboard on a Macbook. An additional plus is that the pins feel a bit more robust/thicker than those on my other swtiches, lending to these being a tad less prone to bent pins when installing in hotswap PCBs. HOWEVER, the cons of this would just be the typical 'mushiness' of silent switches. Not super significant to diminish the typing experience and office use case, but definitely noticeable. Would still recommend if you need silent linears.

Recommends this product? Yes

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Meekz

Keyboard Club Member

Jul 3, 2023

Verified Buyer

Soft tactile. Feels like the worlds greatest membrane (in a good way)

I've heard some people say that membrane keyboards are better for silent typing unless you want to get into ridiculous modification. It's like someone took the feel of a membrane and then made it REALLY good. It's not mushy, feels firm, rounded, with a soft bump confirming the stroke. Paired with MT3 keycaps on a sense75 stock barebones, it so much quieter than any other tactile, and the return action sound is amazingly soft. I'm still pretty new to keyboards, but I think these are a great option for a firm silent tactile out of box, no lubing. This is the switch you buy for people who don't like the the mechanical click-clack-thock, but need a good keyboard.

(Edited)

Recommends this product? Yes

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wavecult

132

Keyboard Club Member

Mar 30, 2023

Verified Buyer

Smooth... and silent as the name suggests

I wouldn't normally do this, but I purchased a couple of boxes of Green Elf Ultra Silent switches without having carried out any research on them before-hand and boy am I glad I did! The sound tests I've since watched of these really don't do them justice. They are in fact silent. Comparing them to the silent Boba U4s, I'd risk saying these are even quieter - or at least that's how I perceive them. They're pretty smooth, no lube required and feel and sound (or not sound!) great. I definitely recommend them and will be buying more when they do another run!

Recommends this product? Yes

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