The blame needs to get placed appropriately here: one shouldn't be bothered by the keyboard; one should be bothered by the horrendous office layout that allows

The blame needs to get placed appropriately here: one shouldn't be bothered by the keyboard; one should be bothered by the horrendous office layout that allows trivial sounds to propagate so easily. I use a mechanical, as the Apple keyboards gave me RSI. My pain has gone away since, and I've not had any complaints about noise. (Much of my office uses mechanical, and most of us do it for our wrists.) I use some of the quieter switches; I'm not in mechanical for the noise, but for the feel & layout. That said, it's about on-par noise wise with an Apple keyboard, but people think mechanical == noise.