Unicomp · Enthusiast and custom · sound
IBM Model M
prueba de sonido.
The loudest keyboard most people have ever heard, built on a mechanism nobody else has used since. Press play for the closest thing in the lineup.
Press play
What a IBM Model M
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.
Lo que estás oyendo
How it
en realidad.
A buckling spring is not a Cherry-style switch. Under each key is a coiled spring that compresses until it buckles sideways, and the buckling itself both actuates the key and produces the noise — a loud, low-pitched crack with a metallic twang from the spring behind it.
That combination is what makes the Model M so distinctive. A Cherry MX Blue produces a plastic click; a Model M produces something closer to a snap with a ringing tail, and the enormous steel backplate the mechanism is mounted to amplifies all of it. It is louder than any modern clicky switch, and it is lower.
The honest caveat for this page: no recording in the lineup is buckling spring. Frost Click is the closest available match because both are unmistakably clicky, but the spring resonance is genuinely unique and a clicky Cherry recording does not reproduce it.
Por qué suena así
The build
que hay detrás del ruido.
A buckling spring over a membrane sheet, mounted to a thick steel backplate in a heavy plastic case — a design IBM shipped in 1985 and Unicomp still manufactures today on the original tooling. The spring does everything: it provides the resistance, triggers the actuation when it buckles, and makes the noise. There is no separate contact leaf and nothing to lubricate. Thick two-shot keycaps, and a build weight closer to a small appliance than a keyboard.
- Mechanism
- Buckling spring over membrane
- Plate
- Thick steel backplate
- Keycaps
- Thick two-shot
- Still made
- Yes, by Unicomp
Same category
Other keyboards
in this category.
Or read the full round-up of 51 popular keyboards matched to a sound, and open the laboratorio de sonido de teclado 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.
Llévatelo contigo
Want this sound
en tu Mac?
Esta página solo hace sonido mientras la pestaña está activa. 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.
Nunca lee ni almacena tus pulsaciones, y no tiene ningún acceso a la red.
Consigue TypeLouder — $2.99, pago únicomacOS 15.5 o posterior · Sin suscripción
Buenas preguntas
IBM Model M
en preguntas.
Why is the IBM Model M so loud?
The mechanism is designed to make noise. A buckling spring collapses sideways under load, and that collapse is both the actuation and the sound — a sharp crack with the spring ringing behind it. Mount several dozen of them on a large steel plate in a hollow case and you have something closer to a percussion instrument than a modern keyboard.
Is a Cherry MX Blue like a Model M?
Both are clicky and both are loud, and that is roughly where it stops. A Blue produces a plastic click from a loose collar on the stem. A Model M produces a lower, sharper crack with a metallic spring resonance behind it, at higher volume. People who move from a Model M to a Blue almost always describe the Blue as thin.
Can I still buy a Model M?
Yes. Unicomp acquired the original tooling and still manufactures buckling spring keyboards, including modern USB versions with contemporary layouts. Original IBM boards from the 1980s also turn up regularly secondhand and frequently still work, which is a reasonable summary of how they were built.
The audio on this page comes from community-recorded sound packs, used under the licencia MIT. They are recordings of the switch family, not of a IBM Model M and Unicomp specifically. All product and brand names are trademarks of their respective owners; this page is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.