It would be remiss of me not to mention that choc minis exist (pg1350) they have slightly less travel than choc v1 but are less common, but they use the same keycaps. I think there is a corne version somewhere (that I made) that uses them. I like choc minis a lot, but they have a bad reputation for price/consistency.
Kaihl choc switches (the V1 type) are going to have the shortest travel out of the keyboard switches that are common enough to use, and that’s what most low-profile hobbyist mechanical boards out there use. There’s a “choc amber” version that recently became available that have the shortest travel distance among choc switches (1mm actuation, 3mm overall), but they’re pricey and I haven’t seen anyone fill a keyboard with them yet. Those are also designed for fight pads, so I don’t think they’re made with silence in mind.
There are “silent” choc switches on their way (developed by Darryl lowprokb.ca), but they’re not available quite yet.
There’s also the Kaihl X switch with a 2mm overall travel distance, but they’re also pricey and I think it next to impossible to get key caps for them (at least it was last time I checked). Hazel is the only person I’ve seen make a keyboard for those: github.com/hazels-garage/shortstack. Awesome stuff, but probably not easily obtainable.
I cannot comment on the noise of the Kailh browns at the moment as the board has been giving me some grief and I am waiting on new Elite-C controllers from Omega Keys. The keycaps came from ChocFox, the PCBs were ordered directly from JLCPCB using Foostans design, everything else was mainly through amazon. As for the acrylic, I have my own CO2 laser and just cut them out of 1.5mm clear, also from Foostans GitHub repository.
There are several good tutorials out there with parts lists and the build process, Marek Piechut has a good one called Corne MX 3.0 Keyboard Build Guide.
I wanted something super thin so soldered the controller to the board, I do not suggest this as I had some errors on my part and destroyed the controller, thus I’m waiting for two new ones before I can use the board, until then I’m stuck with my hand wired dactyl manuforms.
Just make sure you know what board and keycaps you want, sounds like the Corne chocolate to me, and pay close attention to the LEDs if you go that route, I have 600 that are of no use to me and am waiting on the proper ones.
Other than that have fun and there are plenty of people willing to offer help and advice between here and Discord.
I’ve achieved something similar with MX Ergo Clear along with G20 keycaps and o-rings. The switches have a much more similar tactile bump to laptop switches, the G20 keycaps lower the overall height and make the keyboard nearly flat, finally the o-rings shorten the travel to just under 3mm. DSA keycaps are the same height too but have sculpted surfaces.
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