Here is my January market overview with the current best-seller switches:
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Neo Oats in the lists caught my eyes. It sounds somewhere between Gateron Milky Yellow Pros and Vertex V1. Hmm.
I’m still on the ‘revisiting classics with super long springs’ track, currently alternating between New Nixies board and Gateron Milky Yellow Pros board. New Nixies soundly (sorry) beats the Gats but there are subtle differences that makes them pleasant in mundane ways, like clean tap water.
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Currently enjoying a full board of stock Cherry MX Oranges. Best ever raw switch experience for me. I normally lube new switches but glad I didn’t this time.
UPDATE: An odd part of the raw experience with this switch is this: I can feel the grainy texture yet it feels pretty smooth while typing. The same could not be said about old Cherry switches. They’re unbearably scratchy.
I think what Cherry may have done is making texture grains feel more consistent, evenly sized and dispersed. Scratchy feel is not an immediate sensation but irregularities accumulated over short time span. It’s like what random noise sounds like except felt though fingertips.
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I have some Cherry red hyperglides and I cannot believe how scratchy they are. Once I broke them in, lubed them VERY carefully and filmed them, they are pretty nice. The result is a nice switch feels slightly sluggish and sounds scratchy.
Compare this to pulling a MX2A out of the bag. No time invested at all and it sounds more “alive” and feels bouncy and smooth. A slight bit of texture, but like you said, it’s night and day different texture from hyperglides.
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I’ll definitely agree with both of you in the fact that stock vs stock MX2As are much better than HGs, but seeing your posts reminds me just how wildly different everyone’s personal preferences are. While the MX2As are easily the smoothest stock Cherry switches I have ever used (tried oranges, browns, & purples stock so far), I just couldn’t roll with them stock myself. Now I never push my preferences on anybody, but also have been pretty open that I am a bit of a lube snob 
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Up until this past roughly year or so when I feel we finally seen some switches that had acceptable & even good factory lube jobs. I would always either clean factory lubed switches off then relube or touch up the factory lube job if it wasn’t a total botch job at the very least. Dry switches are just completely out of the question for me. Crazy how one person can be totally fine with one type of feel & another person can literally not stand to use that same set up IMO.
Anyways, just wanted to point out how wildly different people’s preferences &/or tolerances can be, Which has always been pretty intriguing to me, especially comparing that fact with the hive mind dynamic we sometimes see in the hobby. Pretty wild stuff IMHO! Also truth be told, I gotta admit I am a little jealous of you guys that can run drier stock switches as is. Since it really is just so nice to be able to only have to tune up some stabs, then insert or solder in the switches for a build! Now that my rant is over though, I am happy to see you guys enjoying the MX Oranges!
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One thing I love about dry switches is the absolute consistency. Sometimes I get an almost obsessive fixation on little inconsistencies in sound and feel when typing. To the point where I cannot even do a simple typing test because I’m too bothered by the sounds.
I can either perfectly lube and film each and every switch (which is what I spent a week doing with my cherry reds) or I can do nothing and simply use dry stock switches. They’re a bit noisier but they all sound and feel identical. (Especially if I put on headphones 
)
I think it’s why I enjoy having so many keyboards. If I get sick of one type of switch I can simply pull out another keyboard. No need to even have hotswap if you can just swap out the whole board
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I just threw some Choc Purpz in one of my Totem builds. These are linear 25g switches. Coming from primarily being a stock MX Black and MX Silent Red user, these things are wildly light. Definitely a cool experience.
I maintain that Choc switches are criminally underrated - I have been absolutely blown away by every single one of them that I have tried. Give them a try if you haven’t before!
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That makes a ton of sense & I would agree stock unlubed switches are gonna be the most consistent for sure!
You’re other points make perfect sense to me also. I definitely know the feeling of spending crazy time on a batch of switches, you do tend to hyper fixate on any unwanted sounds or feels after putting some much time into them. My issue is that I rarely use headphones & am fairly sensitive to feel inconsistencies. Thankfully I’ve gotten good enough at switch lubing/modding to make very consistent batches usually (I’d say roughly 8 out of 10 times I’m happy with my results). I also always lube up/mod 10 extras switches for a boards so I can swap out any that just don’t feel right in with the rest. Then I am with you on the last statement too, having a collection of built boards or extra built setups for any one board definitely is a nice luxury to have!
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I asked around again, so here are last month’s best-selling switches - based on the stats received from 17 shops and manufacturers, representing almost 1 million switches sold:
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So, I have been using my stock MX2A silent reds more often. Wasn’t expecting this, but I have a new favorite switch now I guess.
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Need a recommendation for budget linears in the black category, so 60g-70g actuation force, and ~80g bottom out force. The bottom-out is pretty important as bottom-out is just the way it’s going to be, and I’ve even found 70g to be a bit lighter than I’d really like. Also looking for something with okay-or-better factory lube. 
I have an old gamer board (steel plate, low-pro look, rainbow “RGB”, etc etc) with some “broken in” clone blacks circa 2017-18, so back when “clones” made sense as a term, LOL. I could always desolder them, but I’m curious what’s out there in the super-heavy linear space.
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I’d say Gateron G Pro 3.0 blacks swapped to a slightly heavier spring since they bottom out at 70g ( I actually got a bunch of MX black springs & gold plated 80g springs I’ll never use I could send you way if you’d need them), would be a great candidate for what you’re looking for. I personally haven’t tried any of the G Pro 3.0 switches, but have a huge stash of Pro milky yellows since I thought those were so much better than older milky yellows. Tighter fitting housings (still benefit from thin films after opening) & pretty decent factory lube with the batches I got from Divinikey iirc. So I’d imagine most of the improvements if not more went into the Pro 3.0s as well.
The I’d be remiss to not mention getting some MX2a or HG Cherry blacks, although with those will need modded. Definitely lubed, then film + lubed with the HGs. That would really be the best recommendations I got if you’re looking for a traditional black switch sound & feel.
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I really liked how MX2A Orange spring feels, bottom-out especially. But I think its bottom out is less than ~80g. I’d check first if MX2A Black has same but heavier spring.
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It’s a little heavy for me, but I do like the feel of the MX orange springs, the barrel springs are much improved over Cherry’s former stock springs. MX2A blacks have the same style spring, just heavier.
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I have some 2.0’s and I do like them, but they are the specific ones where I learned that 70 is almost, but not quite enough. So far the only switches I’ve found that were heavier than I’d like are Speed Navys at 100g. The Box Navy at 90 is noticeable when I switch back from something else but very quickly gets back to feeling just right.
I have resisted the temptation to do anything that involves opening switches, but I reckon that’s coming eventually. I may experiment on the hundreds of reds I’ve pulled from various low-end boards these past few years, but if there are decent factory blacks that would be ideal. Sounds like I should at least look into the MX2A.
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