What makes a keyboard sound thocky or clacky

No single part decides whether a board sounds thocky or clacky. It's the combination of a rigid or flexible structure (case and plate), how much of that structure's vibration is absorbed before it reaches your ears (foam), and what's making contact on every keystroke (switches and keycaps)^[1]. Change one part and you can nudge a board's sound a long way without touching anything else, which is why the same switch can sound different in two separate builds.

The case is the resonating chamber the sound happens inside, and its material changes the tone as much as its shape. Aluminium is stiff and tends to sound clean and a little brighter, plastic such as ABS or polycarbonate flexes more and rounds the sound off, and how hollow the inside is left matters as much as what it's made from^[1]. The KBDfans Tofu60 Redux Case is a typical example: a slim aluminium tray-mount case.

Mounting style, meaning how the plate is held inside the case, changes things too. Tray mount screws the plate straight to the bottom of the case, which is the most direct route for vibration to travel, while gasket mount holds the plate between soft strips instead, so the plate can move slightly on every keystroke and less of the impact reaches the case^[1].

The plate sits under the switches and is one of the biggest levers for changing sound, because it's what every switch presses against on each keystroke. Stiffer plate materials such as aluminium or brass give a sharper, more clearly defined impact, while softer ones such as polycarbonate or POM flex slightly and round the same impact into something deeper and quieter^[1]. KBDfans sells the same 60% plate in both directions: KBDfans Tofu60 Redux Plate (Polycarbonate) is described as noticeably softer and more flexible than the aluminium version it's sold alongside^[4], while KBDfans DZ60 CNC 60% Plate (Brass) goes the other way, for a firmer, brighter bottom-out.

Foam doesn't change the fundamental note so much as clean it up: an empty case has a hollow cavity that rings and pings on every keystroke, and foam breaks that resonance up^[3]. A thin sheet of case foam, like KBDfans Tofu60 Redux / Holy60 1mm Case Foam, can take some of the hollowness out of a board without deadening it, while plate foam such as KBDfans Module Foam sits closer to the switches and softens the impact itself. It's possible to overdo it: pack a case completely and you can lose the low-end thock along with the high-pitched ping, ending up with something flatter rather than deeper^[1]. Not everyone agrees foam is an improvement at all: some builders prefer a hollow case for its own reverberation, which is part of why sound tags stay editorial rather than measured^[3].

Keycap profile changes the shape and surface area hitting your fingers on every stroke, and keycap material changes the pitch. PBT is generally denser and duller-sounding than ABS, which tends to ring a little brighter and higher-pitched by comparison^[2]. PBTfans WoB and GMK CYL WoB share the same white-on-black colourway and the same Cherry profile in the two different materials, which makes them a reasonable like-for-like comparison of PBT against ABS. Taller, more deeply sculpted profiles add more plastic mass per key than a low, thin profile, which tends to deepen the sound rather than sharpen it^[2].

The switch itself still matters, mostly through its housing material and how well it's lubricated. A switch with a nylon or “milky” housing, like Gateron Milky Yellow Pro, tends to sound rounder than one with a clear polycarbonate top, and factory lube smooths out the scratchy high-frequency noise of plastic sliding on plastic before it ever reaches the plate^[5]. NovelKeys Cream uses an all-POM housing and is known for a sharp clack, and for feeling rough at first and smoothing out as it wears in. Clicky switches such as Kailh Box Jade add their own click on top of whatever the case, plate and foam are doing, so they're really a separate sound rather than a louder thock or clack.

Where we tag a product as thocky, clacky, muted or crispy, the tag is a community-consensus label, not something we've measured with a microphone, and reviewers frequently disagree with each other about the exact same board. The desk a keyboard sits on adds its own colour too: a bare, hard desk reflects vibration back up and can add a hollow ring that has nothing to do with the keyboard itself, which is one more reason two people can describe an identical board completely differently.

If sound matters most to you, treat our tags as a starting point rather than a guarantee, and use the builder to combine a case, plate, foam and switch set that lean the way you want. See switch types explained for how the switch itself adds to the mix.