Clicky vs Tactile · sound comparison
Blue vs Brown
sound test.
The most argued-about pairing in mechanical keyboards: the loud, proud click against the polite bump. Type a sentence on one, flip to the other, and type it again — the difference takes about five seconds to hear.
Now playing
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Type a sentence on A, then flip to B and type it again
What to listen for
The difference
you'll hear.
The Blue makes two sharp clicks per keystroke — one on the way down, a lighter one on the way back up — layered over the knock of the key bottoming out. At typing speed that becomes a continuous, high-pitched stream that fills a room. The Brown has no click mechanism at all, so what you hear is only the keystroke itself: a rounded knock on the way down and a soft tap on the return.
Volume is the headline difference, but pitch matters just as much. The Blue lives at the top of the frequency range, which is why it carries through walls and headsets. The Brown sits lower and rounder, loud enough that a neighbour knows you are typing, quiet enough that they can ignore it.
The player above is loaded with Frost Click (Cherry MX Blue) and Chestnut Bump (Cherry MX Brown), this site's names for the two recordings. Comparing both on the same typed sentence tells you far more than tapping one key on each.
On paper
Side
by side.
| Cherry MX Blue | Cherry MX Brown | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Clicky | Tactile |
| Feel | Tactile bump plus an audible click | Tactile bump, no click |
| Operating force | 60 cN | 55 cN |
| Pre-travel | 2.2 mm | 2 mm |
| Total travel | 4 mm | 4 mm |
| Hear it alone | Blue sound test | Brown sound test |
The honest version
Which one
is for you?
Pick the Blue if
- You want typing to be audible — to yourself or to everyone — and nobody around you will mind.
- You want unmistakable confirmation that every key registered, without looking at the screen.
Pick the Brown if
- You share a room, take calls, or record anything. The Brown is the polite version of the same tactile idea.
- It is your first mechanical keyboard and you are not sure what you like yet — Brown is the safer default by a wide margin.
If you work alone and love the sound, the Blue is the purer experience — that click is the whole point of the switch. Everyone else is usually happier with the Brown: the same tactile bump, most of the satisfaction, and a fraction of the noise complaints.
Keep comparing
Other
match-ups.
Or open the full keyboard sound lab to play all eight packs, race the clock in the typing speed test, and read the full four-way switch comparison.
Take them with you
Both switches,
on your Mac.
This page only makes sound while the tab is focused. TypeLouder plays the same Cherry MX Blue and Cherry MX Brown recordings system-wide — in your editor, your terminal, your email — on whatever keyboard you already own, so you can live with each sound for a day before buying any hardware.
It never reads or stores your keystrokes, and it has no network access at all.
Get TypeLouder — $2.99 one-timemacOS 15.5 or higher · No subscription
Good questions
Blue vs Brown
questions.
Which is louder, Cherry MX Blue or Brown?
The Blue, by a wide margin. Its click mechanism fires twice per keystroke and sits in a high frequency range that carries across a room, while the Brown only produces the knock of the keypress itself. In the recordings on this page the gap is obvious within one typed sentence.
Do Cherry MX Blue and Brown feel the same?
They are closer in feel than in sound. Both have a tactile bump partway through the press, but the Blue's bump comes from its click collar and feels sharper, and its spring is slightly heavier at 60 cN against the Brown's 55 cN. The defining difference remains the noise.
Is a Cherry MX Brown good enough if I like the Blue sound?
Not if the sound is what you are after — a Brown will never click, and people who buy one hoping it sounds like a quiet Blue are usually disappointed. If you want the Blue sound without the office complaints, playing the recording through headphones while typing on any keyboard gets you exactly that.
Can I hear both switches without buying a keyboard?
Yes — that is what this page does. Both recordings come from real boards, and TypeLouder plays the same audio system-wide on a Mac, so you can type with either sound on the keyboard you already own before spending anything on hardware.
The audio on this page comes from community-recorded sound packs of Cherry MX Blue and Cherry MX Brown boards, used under the MIT licence. Cherry and Cherry MX are trademarks of their respective owner; this page is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.