Has anyone tried Gateron’s new/V2 Ink stabs?
I saw from a review that they have the best out-of-the-box balanced wires and was inclined to give it a spin. How do they compare vs the Durock V2s?
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I’m curious to, I’m planning on ordering some Ink’s soon so I hope the vendor will have them to.
Yo, where did you get these?
skepp has the same link where I saw them. Haven’t tried them myself yet and wanted to get some feedback before getting a set.
They ain’t cheap tho 
Fully agreed! Definitely can’t use them all the time. Probably only for those cherished builds 
One set will give me 4 builds, 6 if I can source some more 2u wires 
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The price is ridiculous. We, as a community, need to stop buying these new fancy stabs that are IMO barely better than the cheap cherry ones, but are at least 3 times as expensive
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This is my sentiment exactly. Unfortunately Cherry botched the retool of their screw in stabs so they’ve been unusable for some time. The Cherry clip in PCB mount are still running on their old molds AFAIK so they’re a very viable cheaper option with shimming them in the PCB. For me Durock V1 stabs have been my go to stabs since Cherry dropped the ball on their screw ins, but I definitely was not happy about the price increase vs Cherry screw in. Even after they got cheaper when Durock released their V2 stabs.
Overall though I do have to say such things as stab sliders & housing being smoother than others depending on brand, certain brands having straighter wires, & all things said about one brand of stabs being better than others is kinda snake oil. IME the only truly terrible stabs I have ever had were no name Chinese clones & Cherry’s retooled screw in stabs. Going from OG Cherry screw in/current clip stabs all the way up to Zeal stabs (haven’t tried INK V2 stabs but don’t expect them to blow any of the others away TBH) I have noticed very little difference in quality & performance between them. Mostly I’ve thought of using more expensive stabs like these INK V2, Zeal, & Durock is more an aesthetic choice than one of quality.
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I just got received the C3 stabilizers in the mail (https://thekey.company/collections/accessories/products/c-equalz-x-tkc-screw-in-stabilizers?variant=39394761637977) for $15 USD.
My initial impressions of these stabilizers compared to the Durock V2’s that are in most of my boards is that there isn’t really a distinguishable difference. I agree with @Rob27shred that most of the stabilizers are honestly appealing to those who have specific aesthetics in mind. The Durock V2’s may have that stabilizer wire security and whatnot, but I’ve never really experienced the stabilizer wires slipping out of their housings on alternate stabilizers anyways. If I ever shell out the money for the Gateron stabilizers I’ll update you all, but I feel that $28 is too steep for stabilizers that offer the same functions as cheaper ones.
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I have only once, and it happened to be Durock v2’s. Granted I was trying the heat-shrink mod but it still made me chuckle.
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I think Durock and Gateron are overcharging so have been focusing on rebuilding what I have. What they’re doing is not good for this hobby.
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Thirty bones for a set of stabs is a lot.
I’m no e-commerce wizard, but I doubt they need to cost that much to turn a profit.
For me, past $20 is when I start to wince at stab prices, and I’d only be happy with that if they were really good.
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It’s like all things in general I guess. Why does the consumer market need Rolex watches, Hermes bags, so on and so forth. There are demands so the manufacturers supplies. Of course, we always have the budget options if we prefer to steer away from the expensive ones. The market will decide and this is the way…
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How much better are properly lubed expensive stabs over properly lubed affordable GMK stabs? 
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Well, there’s likely some voodoo to it, ye? (Proper) Lubing levels the playing field for switches and stabs, but sometimes when you just have a bad/vexing experience with one brand of stabs, and switching to another ostensibly kiboshes the problem, it enhances the attraction of the resolving brand, notwithstanding cost.
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I recently built a Bakeneko style board where I had to use clip in stabs. I was surprised at how well they worked! All you really need to do is the toothpick mod or something like these (kbdfans-pcb-mount-stabilizers).
Even with extras, you’re still coming in less than screw-ins. Once I use up all my existing stabs, I might give these a shot in the future.
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I only have BadSeedTech to refer, but the thing here with the Ink’s is that they package the wires so that can’t get a slight bend during shipping.
And that will make a difference between two proper lubed stabs… 🤷
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I don’t get the whole wire bending/needing to balance wires thing myself. I’ve never really had a bent wire regardless of the packaging or shipping method. Sure it could happen, but if it does it’s not gonna be no little bend.
Then after the whole balancing wires thing got popular I went through my stock of stabs to see if there was any benefit to it or not. Almost all of the wires I had (which was a ton, from almost all brands) were perfectly straight. The only ones I had that were even slightly bent were 2 gold 7u wires from Durock V1 kits. Even with those we’re talking a very slight bend that was easily fixed by very carefully bending it in the opposite direction over the edge of a desk or something. I also think the those 2 wires would’ve worked fine without straightening TBH. So IME needing to balance wires is really a non issue.
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