A Stabilized Situation

[Deadeye]

This is a post about stabs I like and why.

TL;DR: stabs are good now, yay! Stabs I call good include Designer Studio Adaptive (JWICK), WS Stupid (Maiz), and SK Knight.

I find myself with a good problem to have; I’m having trouble picking my favorite between all the latest generation stabilizers I’ve tried. I haven’t tried them all, but it feels like stabs are finally catching up with the rest of the board in terms of easily attainable clean sound and feel, and I’m so happy about it.

I used to dread the stabs, and spent the vast majority of my build time fiddling with them and rarely if ever ending up satisfied. I’ve been obsessed with clean sound for a while, but mostly just chasing it when it came to my wide keys. Now, I’m slapping my space bars without a care in the world and I just wanna share my joy about it, ha.

Ever since a certain someone posted his now-removed video of home-modified stabilizers with silicone inserts around 2018, I’ve been thirsty for (at least relatively) idiot-proof stabs that sound as good as the rest of my builds without disproportional effort. Six years later, I am delighted to say it seems that thirst is quenched - and by at least three different designs.

TX came really close with his Almost Perfect stabs. So close that I happily bought a bunch of sets - and while they were easily my favorite available stabilizer at the time, they didn’t quite live up to the set ideal of easy-mode with great results. I have a few builds with them that I really tried with, but still ended up with a rattly space bar. In some cases I tried to fix the rattle with extra-viscous dampening grease like Nyogel or XHT-BDZ and ended up with a quiet but gummy-feeling space bar instead, having over-done it. I’m not even going to get into the laundry list of iffy mods involving little bits of stuff wrapped around or adhered to parts of the stabilizer, other than to throw them on the pile of wrong-trees I barked-up.

Until this new generation, (which for me includes any innovative or effective design post TX AP), I think I’d gotten my best results with good old Cherry or pre re-tool GMK. How does the saying go? TX walked so that these new ones could fly?

Below are stabilizers I’ve tried, love, and recommend - all three of these just need a little 205g0 on the wires and friction surfaces to sound and feel fantastic:

• SwagKeys Knight: the first ones to really impress me. Similar theory to the TX stabs, with soft material double-shot into the stem interior, but much easier for me to achieve my desired result. Plastic parts seem extra good quality and they just work. I love it. These are screw-in stabs that come in black and clear colors, and are also available in a “long pole” variety like TX.

• Maiz: apparently also sold as WS Stupid stabs (and maybe Invokeys Reserve stabs?), these also really impressed me. There are things about them that I like better than the Knights, and things that I like less, but overall I’d put them on-par. The plastic is more thin and can lend to a similarly more thin sound compared to the Knights, but they also have dampening material around the wire clips that so far none of the other brands have, making wire rattle sound basically impossible.
  
  They don’t leave the same impression of quality that the Knight stabs do, but they might just be even more idiot proof, which is amazing. These are clip-in stabs that come in a few colors, most commonly brown housings with orange stems and black inserts, but I’ve also seen all-black versions, and all-white as well if we include the Invokeys ones, though I’ve heard middling stuff about those. These also get extra points for being refreshingly inexpensive.

• Designer Studio Adaptive: I’d been hearing about the design behind these for a while and it seemed like it would work, but for whatever reason I was less excited about the flexible plastic leg approach vs the soft insert approach. Now that I’ve used them, though, they might just be my favorite so far. Rather than trying to dampen the rattle of the wire with soft material that absorbs the impacts, this design seeks to simply eliminate the impacts altogether by using a flexible plastic leaf spring that holds the wire against the inside of the stem.
  
  All three of these sound great, but I think these might also feel the best of the new ones I’ve tried, being totally free of pre-travel play.
  
  I’ve heard mixed things about some versions of this design, but my experience with these has been very positive. They feel smooth and completely eliminate rattle - even the top-out “thunk” present on some of my other recent builds is absent / clean as a whistle on the build with these, though that could be down to other factors. Still, I’m surprised by how completely pleased with these I am - the little flexible bit of plastic in there works like magic. These are made by JWK like Durock stabs, are screw-in like the Knights, and come in a handful of colors including a sparkly dark translucent blue, baby pink, and a few two-tone varieties - but excluding plain black or white.

Stabs I haven’t tried but hear good things about:

• Typeplus x Yikb: I haven’t gotten to try these yet. I hear they are extra stable, smooth, and essentially “disappear” in terms of feel but have some different considerations thanks to the differently shaped wires, and are also harder to get sounding good vs some other new-gen ones (which is very important to me).

Some other stabs that tried to improve things but didn’t quite nail it for me:

• Staebies: Of the old-gen stabs I think these were the most stable / on-rails feeling that I tried, but also the least forgiving of warped keycaps or otherwise imperfect dimensions. When they fit with the plate and caps, they performed excellently, but I had more instances of not being able to use them at all. As far as I know these are pretty traditional outside of their tight tolerances.

• GMK QMX: Sounded like a good idea with extra support from the housing for the stems and wires, but my experience with these was pretty horrible. I couldn’t use my beloved spacing washers with them at all, and like the Staebies they are very unforgiving of imperfect keycaps. For the build I tried to use them on they felt gritty and bind-y; I’d much rather use regular post-retool GMK stabs than these any time. I’m sure there’s a use-case for these, but I don’t know what it is.

• Meletrix WS: Essentially an earlier attempt at the Stupid stabs; right idea, but didn’t quite get there if what I read is true. I haven’t tried these myself but have read that they didn’t really succeed in getting rid of rattle with their TX-style TPU inserts.

Durock stabilizers (made by JWK) were also a sore point for me - when they were new and for quite a while it seemed like they were the go-to choice for custom builders, but every time I tried to use them they came out so badly I ended up re-building right away. So much rotational play, so much rattling. I think I dislike them because they were how I learned that I’m just not very good at setting up stabilizers - I’d seen and heard plenty of excellent builds done with them, but I don’t think I was ever satisfied with the results I was able to get with Durock V1s or V2s. Kind of fun that my new favorite idiot-proof stabs are made by the same people as my old nemesis ones.

How about you guys? What’s your current favorite? Any examples that meet the hype for you? Any that really don’t? Situations where you might prefer one over another and visa versa?

[Surefoot]

Spent way too much in recent months on various stabs and that TX stab testing station (the one with Kailh sockets and switch holders). One of my current goals is to build an excellent silent keyboard, and that’s a multi faceted challenge, switches being an issue too.
Also used a few of these new stabs on recent builds, so here are my experiences:

TX AP: no idea why they still tick after proper lubing, even with globs of DBZ. Some of them do work well but it’s random enough that the effort is not worth anymore IMHO.

SwagKeys Knight (V2): These are indeed easily rattle free, compared to TX AP they have additional silicon inserts inside the housing itself, maybe that’s the key. Lubing is a delicate affair though: I tried 205G0, 3204, DBZ on the wire, no lube at all… not entirely satisfied with the feeling as they will not “disappear” and add friction to the key stroke when used along with extremely smooth switches (my benchmark is still a lubed JWK Epsilon). Granted it’s still relatively smooth, but it detracts from the perfect experience of recent switches from the likes of Keygeek or HMX, or indeed Epsilons and such. Also the wire can pop out without too much effort. Impacts at each end of the key travel can be heard too with silent switches, especially on the space bar. They do raise the bar quite a bit though and are certainly a new baseline.

Typeplus x Yikb: These are fantastic on multiple aspects. After experimenting, found out that 205G0 on housing and wire holder, and a BDZ just painted inside the “wire hole” in the stem will make them perfectly smooth with no parasitic noise - otherwise you’ll get a metallic impact sound of the wire colliding with either end of its hole. They still do produce a noticeable impact sound if used along with silent switches, but for all other use cases they are now my go-to, no brainer choice. Didnt have to balance the wires either. My favorite aspect is how they “disappear” in use and leave you with the feeling of the switch itself no matter how smooth it is. The impact sound cannot be ignored though and may detract usage with quieter switches.

Meletrix WS: same findings as you - lots of rattle despite the stem insert, worse than TX AP. I tend to think the housing inserts as found on SW Knight are just as important.

Maiz / WS Stupid: The wire holder insert is a good idea and well executed. No housing insert though. Very wobbly. Not extremely impressed so far, I’ll have to test them a bit more to form a proper opinion though. I’m worried that the excessive wobble would produce parasitic impact sounds.

Chaosera / Designer Studio Adaptive (and other clones): I got to admit these are impressive despite the seemingly simpler construction. They do not disappear as much as Typeplus YIKB but zero rattle without much effort at all. YMMV depending on which clone you get, I suppose some would be smoother than others. I got the Chaosera variant (so far) and will use them on a silent build, as for some reason they are also free of impact noise, maybe because of a shorter stem ? They are my other top choice now and opened a new way of exploration for me (and a new buying spree).

[rambus1138]

Very good insights here, much appreciated. I too struggle with ED…I mean stab rattle, and I’ve been looking for a solution. Up to this point, my go to were Durock V2s but the recent success rate on first-time setup is low. I’ve been removing and rebuilding, rotating, same as you @Deadeye, and it sucks. Will be testing some of these options soon.

[PenguinMoe]

I had to get some plate mount stabilizers recently and picked up some Durock V3s. They seem similar to the Designer Studio Adaptive ones mentioned because they have an “elastic support base” which is basically a flexible plastic leg. I haven’t finished the build yet but did install one stabilizer and there is no rattle. It looks like they make PCB mount screw-in versions as well.

[Deadeye]

Given that JWK is the manufacturer for the DSA and Durock stabs, I’d bet they’re the same or at least made with the same tooling. I’ll add those to my list

[Surefoot]

I confirm the Durock V3 are clones of these other “elastic support” variants, at least in use. Only color choice is different. Mounted them on a silent board recently and they were zero hassle (no need to precisely balance wires, and only 205G0 on housings and wire ends was needed). Get whatever you have easily available and your favourite color.