Das Keyboard · Mac and office · sound
Das Keyboard
sound test.
An unapologetically loud office keyboard with genuine Cherry MX underneath and nothing inside to soften it. Press play on both switch options below.
Press play
What a Das Keyboard
sounds like.
Each button plays a short phrase typed on that switch family, so you are comparing rhythm rather than a single tap. Play two in a row — that is where the difference actually shows up.
These are recordings of the switch family, not of this exact keyboard. That is the honest way to do it — the family is what dominates the sound, and switch options move between model years and regions. Check the listing before buying on the strength of a match here.
What you are hearing
How it
actually sounds.
The Das Keyboard is a rare thing in a modern lineup: a full-height mechanical board with no attempt made to tune it. There is no foam, no gasket mount, and no dampening anywhere in the case, so what you hear is the Cherry MX switch, the plate it is mounted to, and the empty volume of the case behind it.
On the Blue version that adds up to one of the loudest keyboards you can buy from a mainstream brand. The click fires on the way down and again on the way up, and the unfilled case gives it a resonance that carries. The Brown version drops the click entirely and lands as a rounder knock, but it is still not a quiet keyboard — the same hollowness that amplifies the Blue is still there underneath it.
Whether that is a flaw depends entirely on what you wanted. An unfoamed case is the honest presentation of a Cherry switch, and plenty of people prefer it to the muffled thock that modern builds chase.
Why it sounds that way
The build
behind the noise.
Genuine Cherry MX switches on a steel plate in a plastic case with an aluminium top panel and no internal fill. That absence is the whole story. Modern boards put foam between the PCB and the case specifically to kill the resonance an empty cavity produces; the Das leaves it in place, which is why it sounds bigger and more hollow than a similarly specified 2026 keyboard with the same switches.
- Switches
- Genuine Cherry MX
- Plate
- Steel
- Case
- Plastic with an aluminium top panel
- Damping
- None
Which one to pick
Choosing
the switch.
Das sells the same chassis with Blue or Brown switches, and on a case this resonant the gap between them is wider than usual. The Blue is not a slightly louder Brown — it is a different category of noise, and in a shared office it is the difference between a keyboard people notice and one they complain about.
Same category
Other keyboards
in this category.
Or read the full round-up of 51 popular keyboards matched to a sound, and open the keyboard sound lab to play all eight packs on a keyboard you can type on.
By switch
Or shop
by switch.
If you already know which switch you are choosing between, the switch pages go deeper than any single keyboard page can — the same recordings with Cherry's published specifications, what the mechanism is actually doing, and who each one suits.
Take it with you
Want this sound
on your Mac?
This page only makes sound while the tab is focused. TypeLouder plays the same recordings system-wide — in your editor, your terminal, your email — on whatever keyboard you already own, through your speakers or privately through headphones.
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
Das Keyboard
questions.
Is a Das Keyboard too loud for an office?
The Blue version usually is. It is a clicky Cherry MX switch in an undamped case, which is close to the loudest combination available, and it fires twice per keystroke. The Brown version is generally accepted in most offices, though the unfoamed case means it still carries further than a modern gasket-mounted board with the same switch.
Why does the Das Keyboard sound hollow?
Because there is nothing inside it. The space between the PCB and the bottom of the case is an air cavity, and an empty cavity resonates. Boards built in the last few years fill that space with foam precisely to stop it. Das has kept the older, unfilled construction, which some people hear as hollow and others hear as the switch being presented honestly.
Does the Das Keyboard use real Cherry switches?
Yes. The Professional line ships with genuine Cherry MX rather than a clone, which is part of why the recordings on this page line up with it so closely — the Cherry MX packs here are recordings of the same switches. What differs between your board and the recording is the case around them, not the switch.
The audio on this page comes from community-recorded sound packs, used under the MIT licence. They are recordings of the switch family, not of a Das Keyboard 4 and 6 Professional specifically. All product and brand names are trademarks of their respective owners; this page is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.