I’m gwillad. I’m a software dev living in the US (but… uh… if you have any job opportunities elsewhere, lmk lol)
I’ve been into the keyboard community for a few months now. I, like many others, got my first nice keeb in May of this year. since then, I’ve dove headfirst into the community. I’ve been lurking here for a while now, but finally wanted to make an account to actually like… participate. I am gwillad on pretty much all platforms; github, twitch, reddit, geekhack &c. Feel free to reach out!
I like orthos and splits and 40s and HHKB boards and no arrow clusters. I usually prefer silent tactile switches. I am starting to discover the beauty of a good sounding linear as well. Currently I have been daily driving a Maja w/ 67g Zilents. I also often use a tfv2 w/ linears (I’m trying to find the right one at the moment before I commit to one full time). I’ve got a phoenix45 w/ bobas, and a preonic also w/ bobas. I’ve also got a handful of other boards that are mostly collecting dust - lily58, boardsource 4x12, 5x12, a dz60 w/ aliaz. I’ve also built a couple of 96% for my partner.
haha yeah i figure as much - I usually have to explain that silent switches still have a sound to them. I don’t try to make them completely silent. There’s something very satisfying about it to me.
Thanks! I have an IMK corne coming (eventually) which is really exciting. And I have been kicking around the idea of a premium case for a preonic layout. just gotta learn how to design and model and do stress simulations and…
it’s also interesting that practically everyone tells me bobas don’t start as a switch until you take out all the silencing pads, which makes me think why they even have them to begin with if the first recommendation is to remove them lol
If you take out the silencing pads… it is just another HP clone… Whatever floats your boat I guess, but to me this kills the point of the switch.
I don’t think I would call them “hollow” but the silencing pads are so thicc that it does reduce the travel and really quiets them down. I think this is were maybe the “hollow-ness” is coming from. Zealios V2 might have some more character, but that character is that they are loud AF compared to Bobas.
A cursory glance I took at the two stems in my workspace shows that:
The Boba stem does not have the long pole traditionally associated with Halo/Halo-clone stems, and
The Boba stem has more rounding to its bump (it may also be a hair less deviated).
But, I haven’t tried it so I can’t really say; what I think I can say is that if it does still end up feeling very HP-like it will have done so via a notably different combination of factors.
Great points @iaman! I might not be as refined as others, but to me the bump on HP, T1s, Koalas, Bobas, Zeal V2s all feel about roughly the same.
It reminds me of the DnD character sheet/character creation in classic Baldurs’ Gate or IceWind Dale games. You start with 20 points. Zeal might put one more skill point in charisma, vs. HP deciding instead to put it in constitution, but at the end of the day they are the same character. Just the variables are tweaked ever so slightly.
I don’t know if any of that makes sense, but that is how I see it in my head.
I actually just did a bunch of testing with bobas the other day. I think that without the silencing pads, they are a perfectly serviceable tactile switch. It’s a nice round bump compared to something like a T1, but unless you SUPER want that, it’s really not worth the effort of removing the pads. I would say that the real boon of bobas is the silencing. Really quiet with a great tactility. And like you said it kinda kills the point of the switch.
I also made some holy bobas and these might be my new favorite switch. They sound so good
