Like with switches, I’ve gone back to classics so GMK for me. If it’s rough, polish.
Cherry stabs are fine and cheap. For a bit more, I’d get Durock stabs. If you really have a lot of money, go for zeal stabs. Durocks are Zeal clones (with some changes) at about half the price, and cherry stabs are much different mechanically and much cheaper than Durock and Zeal stabs. GMK stabs used to be popular but I think they made a new mold and it has problems.
I heard the answer is NOT the GMMK ones
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Ooo. I so hope this becomes the standard.
Do we have a term for this difference? We were kicking around “Zeal Seal”, but it turns out Cherry (snap-in) was the originator.
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Oh cool! I actually just got some of these. One set I ordered by themselves, and another is coming with an Aurora I just got on r/mm >.>
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I just built my Ikki68 Aurora and which came with some OA stabs. So far so good (granted it’s only been a couple of days). They feel as good as the C3 stabs for sure (they have a similarly deep sound), and also feature metal thread inserts.
This is also the fist time that I’m trying krytox 206g2 on stab wires as I wanted something injectable with a syringe but thicker than 205g0. I bought a tube off of Amazon for my Realforce stabs (recommend here), so I thought I’d give it a whirl for these.
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Thanks. This information is enormously helpful.
I have an Aurora build coming up, and mine ships with OA stabs.
I have to make a decision to use the provided OA stabs, or use a set of Zeal stabilizers. I am going for a silent build with the Aurora. So what I am looking for is stabs that aren’t going to make extraneous noise, and can survive hotswapping.
Do you think the OA stabs will be up for the job (a dampened Aurora), or will it be necessary to use the Zeals? Any advice is welcome.
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I’ve always found Zeal and Durock stabs to be really clacky. Don’t get me wrong, I like them both, but GMK, C3, and now OA sound deeper/more muted to me. Granted, slamming plastic down on fr4 will never be totally quiet.
At least being a hotswap build you can take the OA stabs out of you don’t like them. And if neither one is as quiet as you need, you can try stab pads or the bandaid mod.
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I’m into wrapping the stab wire now when modding so tight stem tolerances aren’t much of a concern for me anymore, but I think ispy that extra mold plastic Zeal does with Swagkey’s new V2. In a smokey too, classy.
They do sport the box housing design still, something KBD and AEBoards seem to moving away from.
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