Thx for recommending AEBoard Raeds. Added it to a my list of switches to try.
If you’re willing, I’d recommend waiting for v2, which will take 3-4 months to get to vendors. Keyboard Treehouse will be doing a manufacturing round for the new version Raeds and Naevies along with the v2 Staebies.
7 Likes
Got some Gateron Cap Gold V2s and TTC Gold Pinks in the mail today. I really liked how TTC Gold Pink feels and sounds. Encouraged enough to try TTC’s premium offerings, I went with TTC Hey bc it’s pretty much same as TTC Matrix-1 and I don’t need 90 switches. TTC Hey will be my first exposure to two-stage springs.
Gateron Cap Gold V2 was nice too except spring was tad too tiring. It’s going to sit on the back shelf until there is a source for lighter weight springs that’ll fit Cap switches. Risk of using odd-form switches.
6 Likes
For the past week, I’ve been using my TTC Gold Pink board far more than other boards. Despite it being far lighter spec-wise than my usual 60g bottom range, weight difference is not apparent while in-use. I think the magic comes from its extra long 21mm spring which adds extra chewy feel that makes typing really enjoyable. Highly recommended if you could use a pleasantly surprising switch.
My success with TTC Gold Pink not only prompted me to order TTC Hey switches but also some of the new spring types, all at 55g bottom-out weight, from KPRepublic. Manufacturer mStone is unknown to me but this was the only source offering the variety I wanted to test and I went with a tad lower weight to account for warnings about them being feeling heavier than normal springs.
- 18mm long 55g
- 20mm long 55g
- two-stage 55g
- three-stage 55g
Looking forward to finding out how they differ in feel and weight range from normal switches.
7 Likes
I’ve been loving TTCs shrouded-stem switches lately; Gold Pinks feel nice and solid, and I honestly think they get better from there. Aces are similar, just a bit heavier and might have a better factory lubing. If the Heys are anything like Matrix Linears, I think you’ll like them - those remind me of Cherry Blacks, but more stable feeling.
What a great word to describe that feel 
2 Likes
Variety neo spring pack hasn’t arrived yet but TTC Hey did.
First impression
In-use impression
Although TTC Hey costs more, I’m finding it to be inferior to TTC Gold Pink in many aspects.
- Sound - Not as solid nor loud as TTC Gold PInk and bottom-out sounds and feels weirdly off, like they’re not landing at the same time. There are also minor noises that TTC Gold Pink lacks, making the sound slightly dirty.
- Feel - 3/4 of the batch is smooth as TTC Gold Pink but remaining 1/4 has a noticeable unevenness in smoothness across the batch switches while in-use. Not sure what could be the cause.
Spring swap
TTC Gold Pink with lubed two-stage spring from TTC Hey - This feels great. Better weight, thumpy clack, consistent smoothness, and change in chewyness from Jello to Gummy Bear. I prefer the Jello chewy but I don’t think it’s possible at this weight range.
TTC Hey with single-stage long spring from TTC Gold Pink - better but still meh.
I’d prefer spring-swapped TTC Gold Pink over TTC Hey any day.
Dr. Frankenstein mode
To be continued in a future post…because both combo above came out pretty good but I lost track of which is which other than one sounded solid and the other sounded bongy (bamboo-like hollow sound) like Bobba LT. Weird, I know.
Warning on Light-tube removal
Doing so will make modding easier and potentially remove keycap interference but also lets switch bottom housing be damaged during hot-swap switch removal. I’m going to be grinding away parts of TTC Hey light-tube as well as its top housing to sleep better at night.
3 Likes
Frankenstein combos I tried
TTC Gold Pink top/stem + TTC Hey bottom/spring
Solid sound. Higher pitch than TTC Gold Pink.
TTC Hey top/stem + TTC Gold Pink bottom/spring
Solid bongy sound. Lower pitched than TTC Gold Pink.
It seems TTC Gold Pink bottom housing is where most of its deep low-pitched sound comes from. Not sure where bongy sound is coming from though. It could be TTC Hey top housing or the light-tube.
Bizarre thing is both combos feel and sounds good as TTC Gold Pink, meaning better than TTC Hey. Whatever it was making TTC Hey feel and sound bad is gone when they’re used separately in combination with TTC Gold Pink.
If you have both TTC Gold Pink and one of the premium variants (TTC Hey, Wild, or Matrix-01), you should try mixing them to find the sound you like. They’re all pretty good in different ways.
- Gold Pink sounds solid and low-pitched with no noise.
- Gold Pink top frankenswitch sounds higher-pitched ringy.
- Gold Pink bottom frankeyswitch sounds even lower-pitched and bongy.
Weird is the word. If I passed above to GPT-3, it’ll likely answer: WTF you trying to say homei?
Next, I’m going to build two sets of above frankenswitches and try them in-use to see if they really feel good in-use.
4 Likes
And, tata, I now have a board of one of the combos (TTC Gold Pink top/stem + TTC Hey bottom/spring) to test in-use for a week. It feels and sounds great already but want to be sure. Leftover combo will take some time to prepare (top housing and light-tube needs to be sanded).
Since TTC Hey bottom housing has no problem with other top housing, I think TTC may have made some mistakes with TTC Hey’s top housing that just happens to be at its worst when paired with its own bottom housing. Yikes.
5 Likes
TTC Hey’s 50g activation 58g bottom-out two-stage spring turned out to be too strong in-use. Wrist muscles started to hurt.
Frankenswitch made out of leftover parts had to TTC Gold Pink’s weaker spring so I went about preparing it for use: disassemble then wet sand switch light-tubes that I now suspected was part of the inconsistency in smoothness. Mind you, this is with South-facing hot-swap PCB which normally has little or no issues with Cherry profile.
All that done, I put the board together again with lighter frankenswitches. Partial success. Now only about 1/7th of the switches are inconsistent. I’m going to move all bad ones on the number row for now. Too tired to figure out what else may be wrong.
3 Likes
I’m now almost sure scratchy feel was all due to TTC Hey’s light-tube, what Korean reviews used the expression 서걱서걱 (suh-guk suh-guk) about, an expression commonly used for sound of cutting through something like an apple but with something catching. With nothing catching, expression would be 썩썩 (ssuk ssuk). So what I’m doing is removing the 걱 (guk) part. I love how expressive Korean language can be.
Because I didn’t like the sound of the switch with light-tube removed, I went through the board switch by switch and regrinding light-tube of switches with slightest out of place resistance when pressed. Almost there. Going to do another pass another day in case I missed a switch. Tedious but pleasantly rewarding process.
6 Likes
Today I’ve realized I might stick to linear switches and ditch the tactiles, after using lubed linear switches for a while, tactile switches just sound unclean now, the ping and chattering sound of the leaf is terrible to my ears. even the U4Ts don’t cut it anymore.
BTW your commitment to experiments never fails to interest me, so I’m definitely reading this post.
6 Likes
I need the light-tube in-place to prevent damage to switch housing while removing the switch from hot-swap socket. I cut the light-tube in the left switch bc I couldn’t get rid of the interference by sanding. Switch on the right had no interference after sanding. These light-tubes are not made of glass and can be cut without shattering.
FYI cutting the light-tube will noticeably raise the switches pitch. Not kidding.
3 Likes
Spring weight reduction hack
WARNING: Destructive modding ahead.
Spring weight of Gateron Cap Gold V2 switches I bought while back was too heavy for me. And I failed to find a source for the wider springs used in the switch. So I came up with this brutal mod out of desperation. I have not heard of anyone trying the same.
How
Simple. Clip off one or half coil at a time til you get to the weight you’re comfortable with.
Side-effects
None I could tell with few samples I tried. Inevitable minor differences don’t seem to matter much. Doesn’t seem to add more noises.
Don’t try this mod until fully tested in-use which, based on my experience, is where it really matters.
UPDATE: Tried clipping TTC Hey’s two-stage spring (just 1 coil instead of Cap’s 2 coils) with similar result and the spring remained chewy, suggesting this may mod may be generally useful. I spent quite a bit of money getting springs with just the right for me so, if in-use test is successful, I’ll able to fine-tune springs without buying replacement springs.
8 Likes
I’m interested to see how this goes long-term; I have some switches I’d use more were they a little lighter.
When I hear “cut springs”, I think of things like this:
5 Likes
Ha. Forgot how I used to fuss over cars. It’s been awhile since I had a car of my own.
1 Like
Now I think the light-tube is only part of the problem. After removing the light-tube and replacing two-stage spring with normal spring, some of the switches were still feeling weird in-use.
It feels like the stem was catching on something about 3mm into the key press when top of the stem is pressed at a slight angle from the light-tube side toward the leaf. TTC Gold Pink doesn’t have this problem. Only TTC Hey.
Further tinkering will be needed to figure out whether it’s the leaf, housing, the stem, or some combination of those three to blame.
UPDATE: I’ve narrowed it down to the bottom housing so the we can rule out the stem. I’ve visually checked the leaf and inside of the bottom housing, comparing to TTC Gold Pink. Nothing that stands out. Inside of the stem hole felt using a sponge tip surprisingly rough, reminding me of how baking powder residue, left behind after polishing and sloppily cleaned, made the switch feel scratchy in a similar way. But TTC Gold Pink felt similarly rough there so I don’t think that’s it. I cleaned out both using alcohol just to make sure. Still there.
ASIDE: I tried the stem in a Cherry black. Fits but too tight. Top housing fits better. Both springs made Cherry black practically tactile. Looking forward to trying extra long springs (single and multi-staged) with my large stable of polished Cherry blacks. Yummy.
UPDATE2: I’ve ruled out leaf as the cause after testing with contact leaf removed. Rough inner surface of stem hole is now my highest suspect in addition to the light-tube.
ASIDE2: TTC Hey bottom housing can be replaced with Boba LT bottom housing.
Last 2 pics don’t remind me of cut springs, they remind me of cut (or soon to be cut) cat converters lol
3 Likes
I would greatly appreciate if someone could help me know what are the latest trends and what are the best silent linear switches out there nowadays. I’ve been out of tune with mx switches and feel overwhelmed of how many of them popped up.
I’m interested in:
- smooth
- low tolerances/wobble
- easy modding to reach great performance ex: out of the box use or only lubing required.
- low to 62g weight max, to be easy on the fingers
- silentish to silent, doesn’t matter to be very quiet, just not that unsilenced clack clack
Color, price do not matter
Thanks in advance !
2 Likes
IMO, I’d throw Bobagums, Silent Inks, and Silent Alpacas out there. Bobas can be used stock while Alpacas really take lubing and filming to bring out the best in them. One thing I liked about the Bobas is the firmness of the silencing pads - they strike a nice balance of volume level and not having the bottom out being too mushy.
2 Likes