Unicomp · Enthusiast and custom · sound
IBM Model M
test de son.
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.
Écouter
What a IBM Model M
en pratique.
Chaque bouton joue une courte phrase enregistrée avec cette famille de switchs. Vous pouvez ainsi comparer le rythme plutôt qu’une seule frappe. Écoutez deux options à la suite : la différence devient plus nette.
Ces extraits correspondent à la famille de switchs, pas à ce clavier précis. Les options peuvent varier selon l’année et la région : vérifiez la version qui vous intéresse.
Ce que vous entendez
Son caractère
sonne vraiment.
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.
Pourquoi il sonne comme ça
Sa construction
derrière le bruit.
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
- Plaque
- Thick steel backplate
- Keycaps
- Thick two-shot
- Still made
- Yes, by Unicomp
Même catégorie
Autres claviers
de cette catégorie.
Ou consultez notre sélection de 51 claviers populaires associés à un son, puis ouvrez le labo sonore du clavier pour essayer les huit sons sur votre propre clavier.
Par switch
Ou explorez
par switch.
Si vous hésitez déjà entre deux switchs, les pages dédiées vont plus loin que celle d’un seul clavier : elles proposent les mêmes enregistrements, les caractéristiques publiées par Cherry, une explication du mécanisme et des conseils pour choisir.
Emportez-le partout
Vous aimez ce son ?
sur votre Mac ?
Cette page ne produit du son que tant que l'onglet est actif. TypeLouder joue les mêmes enregistrements dans toutes vos applications — éditeur, terminal ou messagerie — avec le clavier que vous possédez déjà, sur vos haut-parleurs ou dans votre casque.
Elle ne lit ni ne stocke jamais vos frappes, et n'a aucun accès réseau.
Obtenir TypeLouder — $2.99 une seule foismacOS 15.5 ou version ultérieure · sans abonnement
Bonnes questions
IBM Model M
en questions.
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.
Les sons de cette page proviennent de packs enregistrés par la communauté et utilisés sous la licence 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.