You bought a keyboard, it arrived, you did all the lubing of switches and stabs, and finally assembled everything with your selected keycap set.
Then you started typing, and the more you type and the more you look at your keyboard, you started to feel so damn satisfied. And all you wanted to do is spend more time with your keyboard, just finding ways to make sure you get to type something on it, to feel the typing and hear the sound…
I wish. I almost always felt the opposite. I overhype it in my mind and then I get disappointed usually.
There are 3 boards I feel this way about though. 2 of them are my HHKB pro hybrids. The other was a plastic case like kbdfans sells for $15ish with a carbon fiber plate and gat blacks. That thing was sooooooo light and so much fun to type on - wish I still had it.
I think I just am not a fan of metal boards so, I’m hoping to get the same feeling with the Rama Kara when that releases. The first board I’ve been checking for updates on daily for a looooong time.
Maybe it’s just because I had to wait 2 years for my first full custom build to be finished, but yes absolutely. I just wish I hadn’t screwed up the lube and one of the stabilizers; I’ve been meaning to take it apart to fix everything but I don’t want it to be out of commission for however long that would take me.
That’s interesting! Do topre boards feel similar to those silent tactile switches?
Yeah same here for Rama Kara! It really looks interesting, and I have been checking Rama’s instagram for updates everyday! So many colourways and the price is really decent but I think eventually it will added to be quite expensive given that we would get dampener/internal weight or if they are selling the replaceable back. Think they gonna announce it next week! I noticed that Rama’s newsletters come every 2 weeks.
Aww man! Stabs are quite tricky, I am not sure how those streamers do it, they didn’t put as much lube as I did with mine but theirs sounded so full and not rattly.
The GB for the board took around 18 months from payment to shipping, but I started buying the keycaps/parts before then. And although I think the lube job on my stabilizers is fine, the wire popped out from the enter key and I can’t get it reseated without desoldering the whole thing. It still works reasonably well as long as you aren’t actively trying to look for issues with the key, so I haven’t really felt the need to do all that work yet.
I haven’t tried silent tactiles, but I’ve been around the hobby since the early Zealios days and I’ve used those, v2, multiple HP clones or imitations (never the original), clears, etc. and used to daily silent reds.
The Topre bottom out feel is soft, similar to silenced switches on HHKBs but the tactile event is nothing like MX tactiles. MX tactiles tend towards a very well defined tactile event. To me Topre could almost feel linear when typing at speed.
Realforces feel a lot harsher on the bottom out to me likely due to the plate being metal instead of plastic. Not really my cup of tea
Topre seems to have been put on a pedestal over the years, but it’s really just another switch option. Some like it, some don’t. My personal favorite switch is just plain old stock MX blacks. The main reason I’m not dailying those right now is down to wanting a plastic case and non metal plate in the HHKB layout.
I used a modded FC660M with Mod-H Tactiles and an aluminum case as my daily driver for 2 years (no complaints, still own it, still love it). I wanted to try Topre so I bought a HHKB and modded it with BKE Heavies, Silence-X rings, 3204, etc. I absolutely loved the feel and sound of it, but I fucking hated the layout with a passion. I’ve been touch-typing since the 1st grade and I just couldn’t get used to the damned backspace and ended up selling it.
Since Topre left that much of an impression on me I decided to buy a Realforce R2 TKL and used it for about a week when I decided that I needed a numpad (I teach so a numpad is key for entering grades and shit), so I returned it. I was searching everywhere for a FC980C, but they were all sold out (this was about a year ago, they still are still sold out everywhere) and I got lucky and found one on eBay with Hangul keycaps for a really, really good price, basically brand new, so I bought it along with some more lube, more silencing rings, BKE lights, etc. It took a few weeks for everything to ship and once I got everything I… …promptly put everything in a box and never touched it for a year. Life be like that.
Then the pandemic hit and I’ve been working from home and like a month or two ago I said fuck it and went through the whole process of modding the FC980C and, let me tell you, it did not disappoint. I fucking love this thing. The sound, the feel, just everything. Its upped my enjoyment of typing to another level. Like, I actively look for things to type, I go out of my way just to type. It’s just that good.
Then I started looking for after-market cases for the FC980C and it brought me here. So yeah, 100% happening to me right now.
It happened to me for my first custom, one that I designed.
Before I had 2 stock Filcos with brown and blue Cherry switches and a Topre Realforce.
The Topre one was my favorite for typing, was using it all day at work and I never thought that any Cherry like switch board could do better in that field.
Man I was so wrong
When trying that thing for the first time (with Zelios V2 lubed and filmed, tuned stabilizers) I was shocked by how good a custom board is if you give him some build love and attention.
The only thing I was not happy with was the sound, otherwise for typing it was an order of magnitude better than any stock board I tried.
Topre feel is nothing alike Cherry and kind of hard to describe.
It is a very polarizing switch technology: people love its feel or hate it.
I personally love it
Downstroke is quite silent due to its rubber dome, upstoke noise is similar to unsilenced Cherry switches.
But never tested with silencing rings or lubed.
If one day Mr @norbauer makes a case for Realforce 104/105 fullsize keyboards it will be an instabuy for me
I recently got my KBDfans Tofu in and I’m not going to lie when I say I’ve been looking for excuses to type stuff since I love the new sound signature! I bought some KBDfans DZ60 foam to go with the Tofu as well so the sound is so moist and muted!
Nice mod you have there with the keycap sets! How hard was it getting used to the HHKB layout? Did you drive you insane kind of hard or just irritating kind?
Haha I know how you feel about the using the keyboard for typing! It recently occurred to me with my kbd67. I just love how the bottom out bounce and the thock it has then just finding ways to get things typing
Indeed, I’m using a DZ60RGB-ANSI with hotswap sockets, housing 67g Tealios V2 lubed with Tribosys 3204. The switch sounds exceptionally wet and pillowy on this Tofu with the foam.
I think Tofus need to have foam otherwise they sound tinny and too resonated.
Sounds like you have a great setup there with tealios (heard that they are really smooth). I have Tofu65 and the foam that I purchased from KBDfans only removes the hollow sound but I still can hear the hollowness. But overall it is still quite a decent board! Though I think the KBD67 feels much better in typing, and I really like it.
Or not a fan of metal plates maybe? I’ve found using a PC or POM top mounted plate with most top mount aluminum enclosures makes for a much softer & nicer feeling typing experience. I pretty much sworn off metal plates at this point TBH.
That’s partially it, but the other parts are I like cold temperatures in the house and I don’t like it when the metal get cold and I like the lightweight of plastic cases.
I also feel that this hobby has been nothing but disappointment. I am crazy about keyboards, ever since I was a kid (I’m 45). Learning to type on an Apple 2e in the mid 80’s was so much fun. These days I’ve stayed up till 1am to get tangies and got them, bought about $4k all together since March of this year and have only received about 20% of it and wonder if any of it will come. A Drop Shift came the other week. It’s… ok. Doesn’t feel like $250. I put lubed tealios in it, after a while I gave the board to a friend because I was so let down a $350 creation just wasn’t… wonderful. It’s very expensive to find out something isn’t perfect with keyboards. I continue the search with hope, but so far I’m feeling empty.
