When Mechanical Keyboard Sounds Are Your ASMR

My First Mechanical Keyboard

I made the switch from membrane to mechanical three years ago. Heard a coworker's keyboard and asked "what is that?" Cherry MX Browns. A bit loud for the office, but something about the sound was addictive.

That same day I went down the search rabbit hole. "Best mechanical keyboard for beginners." Spent two hours watching typing test videos on YouTube. Reds, browns, blues, blacks. This whole world existed? Ended up buying a Leopold FC750R with Cherry Reds. 139,000 won.

Ripped it open the moment the package arrived. First keystrokes. Clack-clack-clack. How do I describe it — my fingers were happy. If membrane feels like tapping a watermelon, mechanical feels like pressing piano keys. (Okay, that's an exaggeration.)

Then Things Escalated

I was happy with the Reds, but then I watched a YouTube video claiming "Reds are entry-level; the real stuff is custom."

Custom keyboards are a thing. You buy the housing, PCB, switches, and keycaps separately and assemble them yourself. Like building a PC. Actually, deeper than building a PC. There are hundreds of switch types alone.

Second keyboard: Keychron Q1 Pro with Gateron Oil Kings. 243,000 won. Lubed the switches. Disassembled all 67 switches one by one, applied Krytox 205g0, and reassembled. That process took 4 hours and 15 minutes.

The result sounded different. Not "tok tok tok" but "thock thock thock." Smooth yet solid. Typing on it genuinely improves my mood.

Did Productivity Go Up?

Honestly? No.

After going through four keyboards, I measured my typing speed. First keyboard: 412 characters per minute. Fourth keyboard: 423. An 11-character difference. I spent a total of 847,000 won for that.

Code quality has nothing to do with the keyboard either. Buggy code typed on a great keyboard is still buggy code. There's no magic where better key feel means fewer bugs.

So why do I keep buying them? Honestly, it just feels good. The act of typing itself becomes enjoyable, which lowers the barrier to start coding? But that might just be placebo too.

The Office Menace

I briefly used Blue switches as my third keyboard. That was a mistake.

Blues sound like "click click click click." A metallic click with every keystroke. ASMR for me, noise pollution for everyone else.

My deskmate asked "can you do something about that keyboard sound?" after two days. His face was serious. I switched back to Reds the next day.

(But I still use Blues at home. I live alone, so.)

Can I Escape This Rabbit Hole?

Right now I have three keyboards on my desk. One for the office, one for home, one waiting to get new switches. The fourth I gave to a coworker.

In the custom keyboard community, they use the term "endgame." The final state where you never need to buy another keyboard. But I've seen plenty of people who declared endgame and then bought another one.

This hobby has no finish line. And no money left. But whenever a new switch review drops on YouTube, I click.

Writing this post while watching a typing test video. Volume up.