Thocky. Creamy. Clacky. Marbly. Poppy. The community's sound vocabulary is loose, but it maps to real physical causes — materials and geometry you can actually check on a spec sheet. Here is the mapping.
| Descriptor | What it sounds like | What produces it | Example switches (from our DB) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thock | Deep, rounded, bass-forward bottom-out | Soft landing material (POM/nylon pole), resonant case, thick PBT caps | Gazzew Boba U4T, Cherry MX2A Clear, Gateron Ink V2 |
| Clack | Higher, crisper, more top-end, short decay | Harder housings (PC/nylon), shorter poles, thinner caps | TTC Gold Pink V3, KTT Strawberry |
| Creamy | Smooth mid-frequency, zero harshness | Good factory lube, polished rails, mid-weight spring without ping | Gateron KS-3 Yellow, Pro Yellow, Oil King |
| Marbly | Subtle rolling/undulating texture | Material pairings (POM stem on specific nylon) — hard to engineer on purpose | Gateron Oil King |
| Poppy | Short, bouncy, high-pitched pop | Light springs + short travel + snappy pole | Gateron Baby Raccoon, Akko Jelly Pink |
| Crispy | Sharp, clean transient (often tactile) | Sharp bump geometry + hard housing | TTC Bluish White, Akko Lavender Purple Pro |
| Deep / muted | Bass-dominant, quiet | Dampeners, heavier POM, longer decay | Silent switches, Durock POM Linear |
The database carries a sound tag per switch — filter by these words.
The same switch changes voice across builds. Ranked by how much each layer moves the tone:
Practical corollary: a "thocky switch" video you watched was recorded in that reviewer's board. Buy switches for feel, tune sound with caps/plate/case.
"Deep dinosaur thock" is a meme with a real referent (U4T), fine. But "buttery", "heavenly", "premium acoustic signature" are marketing — they encode no material. When a listing describes sound, check whether it names a material or geometry (POM, nylon, PC, pole length, spring); that is the only part you can verify against the spec sheet.