Gateron brown and zealios v2 are my “classic”
I recently got some milky cap brown v2, they remind me everything about gateron brown but better. They are actually quite fun to type on.
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Maybe they don’t want to go the “new coke” way. German companies are not into the “agile way” of products development. They see a rise of demand on some items on the market and they start to analyze this. They gonintondeliberations and studies and before they take a sigle penny into their hands and paying engineers the rising trend has stopped since two years have already passed and a new “disruptive thing” is on the verge. Plus, it is easy for new companies to accomodate for a small niche market and put more thoughts into their production process. They can more easily adjust to the volatile and small demand of the custom-and-tinkerers market. Just by designing the production process to be much nore adjustable. While the old “dinosaurs” stick to the machines they’ve got. Why would they invest in changing machinery to listen to a small demand, when the unchangebly standard items they produce are sold massively and well to the main audience e.g. mass keyboard manufacturers.
I could imagine it will cost them a hell lot if money to add additional machienery and employees just to create the same switches with different stem colour and springs. And switching the existing product lines may angrify their mass audience since their next 250€ Corsair Gaming Keyboard doesn’t “feel” or “actuate” as fast as the old revisions.
They won’t potentially upset their cherry fan base just for the sake of getting a few more users from the custom scene and the fuzzy gray area between both.
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I have to go with:
Gateron Blacks (the 78g OGs)
Halo Clears
Ergo Clears (62g)
MX Blacks (55g + 60g Vints)
Zealios (67g)
Aliaz (from which I regularly stole the stems to silence my awfully loud spacebars back when I was too lazy to lube)
I dislike these new switches. They’re the same thing recolored and almost all of them manage to sound bad. Other than Clickiez and BOX switches, none other have impressed me because they’re all the same design.
Gateron Milky CAP Brown are impressive for such an affordable switch.
However, I would say that the factory lubing is only 75% of the way there. It sounds ‘lubed,’ but it still makes a squeak or especially a ‘swishing’ noise. Something is making a noise in there that is reduced by hand-lubing.
From Gateron Brown > CAP Brown, I could never fully get into Gateron tactiles. I find that the bump is too low, and when they give you a large bump [Zealio V2, even CAP Brown somewhat], there’s not enough post-travel.
Those who like Gateron tactiles are lucky, because most are smooth and affordable. Talk about “classic” - an old Keycool 84 with Gateron Browns can be a great keyboard. Light and smooth.
[BTW I hear that Gateron CAP Golden Brown may be a little more tactile than Milky Brown, but I can’t verify, despite owning both. Anyone know? My Golden Brown leaves are hand-lubed, which quiets them down and makes them nicer.]
If you like Ergo Clears and similar, you might want to try Naevy 1.5.
They are very much like Ergo Clears, but not as scratchy. Some say that the factory lube is okay, you don’t need to lube them. But mine are lubed anyway.
They actually sound pretty good with MT3, even on a cheap board.
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I like the slight bump in the gat cap brown. They are not sharp like ergo clear but also slightly more tactile than mx brown. For the money, I don’t think I want to spend money and time to get hyperglide brown and make them great.
About those “swishing” noise, I don’t hate it, and I am also too lazy to lube any switches these days.I got a logi mx mechanical (which has those kailh choc v2 brown), which I enjoy using despite the shorter travel, and it led me to revisit light tactile.
Milky cap brown is indeed underrated and affordable. I sold my gold cap brown last year - it would be nice if I still have them here to compare.
I know the cap switches leaked oil in the past, but I have yet to open the case to check this year.
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I like the scratch tho, it’s one of the unique elements of their sound and feel which I love 
I might grab a pack to try out. Still searching for that elusive endgame tactile!
P.S. hearing about all these classic switches feels like a trip to the past. I still miss Winkeyless’ and Gon’s designs, these were the best customs IMO. No bullshit, just a good looking rectangle. I really liked their design.
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You are absolutely right.
The bump in the CAP Brown is larger than MX, but still round. [I just find that it still slams down after overcoming the bump, though, like Zealio V2.]
You are the target audience for the CAP tactiles, you want a decent switch and lubing them just isn’t worth your time. I’m more sensitive to that swishing noise than most, something about the Gateron [CAP and Zealio V1] creates this ‘plastic plunger’ noise that bothers me.
I hope Gateron keeps working on this. I want a CAP Brown with better factory lube, more post-travel and/or a smaller bump.
@windfall Yeah, the scratch is luxurious when paired with generous lube and a strong spring. I think GMK might amplify that luxury scratch, compared with heavier hi-pro keycaps.
Lots of rectangle designs in the past, but I welcome the brave new world of blockers. Almost considered a discounted 75% with blockers the other day.
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I like some blockers too, like the HHKB ones (actually, to be painfully honest, those are the only ones I like lol)
I prefer my F-row and media clusters on 65s and 75s to be integrated in the rest of the board and not look like they’re separated, if that makes any sense.
I’ve used my Ergo Clears with SA keycaps and the scratch was indeed a bit heavier than with GMK. I still liked them though, they all have a unique sound. I might have to get less lazy and actually start lubing my switches though lol
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I feel like I am at a point where I will just go mx blacks & browns, gat cap v2 browns/yellows, jwick blacks or H1s. Don’t understand how others can go really nitpicky on switches. 
For spring weight I will usually go for TX 67g or any stock springs of equivalent or not lower than 55g.
Keeping it real simpleeee…no funny progressive springs or double stage thingy…
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H1 - now there’s a modern classic. I had samples of R1.
Really great weight - heavy, but somehow not that fatiguing. It felt like 72 G, not 78. The smoothest switches I had ever used at that point.
The feel was such that you could basically use them stock, although you’d get better sound by modding them.
They were acceptable as a typing switch for me, but really excelled with platform games for some reason.
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I put my R1 H1s in a TKC-1800 because I wasn’t sure I loved them and didn’t mind putting them in something less expensive. Ended up really liking them. So much so that I ordered some newer ones for my GHS RAR board. For some reason that batch had switches that made weird chirping noises. I couldn’t figure out how to fix it and ended up desoldering them. But the original batch in my TKC-1800 still feels and sounds great.
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My “Back to the classics” story:
When I rebuilt my Polaris board recently, I had used Durock stabs. It was fine when I tested using just PCB and plate but, after assembly, left-side of the spacebar was making irritating noise. I then remembered that Polaris PCB is thinner so they provided some flat pieces to use with stabs. Turns out they were incompatible with Durock stabs. But they did fit GMK stabs perfectly and the noise went away.
The lesson here is to try the ‘classics’ when compatibility becomes an issue.
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You can always go with reds! My understanding is that they are intended to be the same exact thing as blacks but with the lighter spring.
I’m actually tempted to try Hyperglide reds to save on having to spring swap.
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Reds are an option, but macclack is talking about another satisfactory spring-swap for MX linears: Ghost Blacks.
If you place an MX Clear spring in an MX Black housing, you get a “Ghost Black,” wherein there is a slight simulated tactility from the compression/decompression of the uneven [slow/progressive] Clear spring.
The Clear spring is heavier at the bottom, so there’s a kind of ‘ghost’ tactility. MX reds are different, as that’s a light linear spring.
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Reds are on the other end of the spectrum IMO. The spring weight and actuation force is too light and they are therefor unusable for me. Cherry either goes super heavy or super light with linear switches with no middle ground.
I remember that being the big deal behind Gateron yellow switches. People loved them because they were a medium-weight linear switch. It was honestly a no-brainer. Why Cherry never added something like this to their product offering is just kinda strange.
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Honestly Ghost Blacks are something I’ve never come across and definitely interesting. My guess is that clear springs would still be too heavy for my fingers, but still worthy of a try if I have some spare clears and blacks lying around.
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I’ve tried them. I had built a big batch of Ergo Clears which meant I had ~1500 Clear springs, and I also had a batch of MX Blacks which I wasn’t using.
They felt a bit lighter than MX Blacks but still too heavy for me. I prefer 55-67g springs on my switches, but if you like heavier switches they’re a nice option. There is a tiny bit of tactility, but it’s a lot less than even Browns.
I too don’t get why Cherry insists on using these heavy springs. My guess would be that the springs they use are much cheaper to buy, and the average user wouldn’t really mind a heavier weight unlike us enthusiasts.
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One other “Classic” feature that I have really grown to appreciate for its reliably good typing experience is the tried-and-true top-mount TKL design.
Fancy gasket designs, plate springs, etc. have had a lot of attention of the last several years, but honestly the keyboards that I find myself always going back to are the ones that have a simple top mount design like my Moon TKL, Keycult No 1, TX 84, etc, particularly with an aluminum or FR4 plate.
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Heck yeah. I still think top mount is best mount. And like you said, especially on larger boards like TKL.