Thanks for sharing your process! I really appreciate the suggestions on varying press speed and force curves. I'll start incorporating the former into future rounds.

I'd definitely like to get a dedicated testing setup, as I'm currently just using my first board, which is a triple mode EP-75—I wanted wireless for couch gaming and 2.4ghz dongle for interacting with GRUB—that came with Gateron Yellows. I imagine location on the board could introduce more variability than location on a tester, particularly given my board has batteries that may change the sound for certain groups of keys.

I also only have one switch of each type, which makes it impossible to quantify intra-switch-type variability. Maybe I got a flawed version of a particular switch, but without replication there's no way to know.

All of that aside, in the end I'm still just trying to find a switch that I'll probably like. The proof will be using it on an entire board for a bit, and then trying a different switch on the entire board, and then another one... Already having fun with the hobby, I suppose.

Thanks! I'm pretty new to the hobby and am still learning the jargon for different sounds, e.g. 'pingy' or 'thocky', and textures/feels, 'mushy' or 'heavy' of 'scratchy'. My fingers also don't seem that sensitive to different actuation forces yet, but maybe that's because I'm testing pairs of switches in isolated sessions, rather than in longer typing sessions on an entire keyboard.

That aside, if I had to take a stab a describing what I like with my limited vocabulary, I'd say I like the sound of 'thock' but prefer silent switches. I understand 'scratchy' now and don't particularly like it. Same with 'pingy' switches being less desired for me. Though, the latter two could just be implicit bias from reading posts here.

I also like a more pronounced tactile response/bump. Still not sure where I fall on actuation force without pulling the data for the switches I've tested, but, if I had to guess, I'd say medium to heavy.

Yep, purely my personal preference. The rankings are derived from repeated pairwise comparisons, or matches, between switches, after they've been randomly assigned to a set of keys. This is what I see when 'scoring a match' between two switches:

Scoring match (1 of 50): h vs '
  Choose an outcome (1="h" wins, 2="'" wins, 3=draw): 

When I see the prompt, I press each key a bunch of times and try to decide which wins or if it's draw.

It's probably also worth noting that I'm very new to the hobby, and I'm still trying to figure out what I like. I just happen to be somewhat data-savvy and thought this might help me understand my preferences.