GoKawiilWhat do Google Sheets experts do for fun? In the case of the staff at sheets.works, they have built The Listening Museum for mechanical keyboard audio aficionados. This is a collection of 36 iconic to modern classic keyboards that have been multisampled and put into an interactive site. Just click on any of the keyboards represented on the page, turn up your speakers, and bash away. The museum features keyboard models, including the IBM Model M, a multitude of Cherry MX models, and popular modern product samples from the likes of SteelSeries and Logitech.
I’ve owned, and still own, some great keyboards, with some vintage models dating back to the 1980s, and newfangled models with hall-effect adjustable actuation switches. However, there are plenty of samples at the Listening Museum that I can’t recall testing/hearing.
The interface at the online museum is pretty good. Clicking on the IBM Model M (for example), a soft keyboard panel appears to the right, so you can make keystrokes by mouse clicking. I did this as I’m currently using a CoolerMaster CK720, which has pretty noisy Cherry MX Blues and Greens across its various zones.
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Back to the IBM, and I do believe it would be even noisier than my compact modern input device with gaskets and foam dampening layers. The museum makers assert that the Model M is “the archetypal ‘clacky’ keyboard and the reason people collect vintage boards.”
Its characteristic sound comes from the way “the coiled spring buckles sideways and slaps a pivoting hammer into the membrane. The spring resonates like a tuning fork inside the hollow ABS barrel; the steel backplate amplifies that ring; the big case acts as a soundbox,” explains the Model M section of the museum. “That is why nothing modern sounds like it.”
Image 1 of 6 (Image credit: SteelSeries) (Image credit: Atomic Keyboards) (Image credit: Cooler Master) (Image credit: Asus) (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) (Image credit: 8BitDo)
Audio accuracy?
As I’m actually using Cherry MX Blues while perusing the Listening Museum, I had to check out the accuracy – in the context of my ears, speakers, and environment. There are three MX Blue sampled keyboards to check through, and I must say none of them sounded like my CK720.
That’s a bit of a shame, considering the work put into making the museum. The curators have thought about such disparity, though. If you scroll down to the bottom section of the main page, you can read the headlined plea “A note before you flame us.”
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