this time I’d love to bring this discussion up. How much the weight of the board affects the sound?
The story is: I joined the Massdrop Holy Pandas, got a H87A pcb and designed a case inspired by the Jane, the thing is: My idea is to manufacture the board in aluminum by I designed it with no weight. I’m not super crazy about heavy boards so to me its fine. Until something crossed my mind: What if it sounds horrible because of the lack of weight? What if it sounds hollow and with a nasty ping? So before I manufacture I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject, I can always add a weight…
I don’t think that weight affects sound as much as density. A hollow plastic case and a solid plastic case definitely have different sounds, despite having close weights. I don’t think having a weight would change sound at all.
From what I’ve gathered, the amount of resonance in the case is what changes the sound - even plastic cases sound great when they’re dampened a fair bit. Hell, everyone loves how the HHKB sounds, and that thing has the weight of a wet feather. Just make sure that you’ve foamed your case and you’re good to go!
I’d say weight or density is a factor but perhaps minimal in comparison to other factors like dampening material, plate, etc. If my science is correct, the more dense the material the more it should absorb sound? But yeah, other factors in my experience have outweighed (haha) the effects of case weight.
You’re totally right. I wonder if the resonance is consequence of the space between the inner bottom of the and the pcb…in this case a tighter fit inside would diminish the resonance…I have no idea what Im talking about thought. But yeah, foam will definitely help. Thanks for the reply
It is, actually! You’re 100% on the right track. Foam in between the pcb and plate is also helpful, but it’s more difficult and doesn’t have nearly the same amount compared to pcb/case damping.
Thanks fot the reply! I got you. My only doubt is: my Alice sounds amazing and I didn’t use any dampening material inside…maybe its the density of the aluminum, right? For course, I can always add some foam
I saw a Chokkan video recently where he damped the sound of a Tofu HHKB(including between the plate and pcb) and damn, It sounded amazing after the procedure.
I think even the shape of the board and the cavity between bottom case and PCB will change the sound quite drastically with how it reverberates through the space.
Dampening and lubed switches! All my boards have lubed switches which almost completely eliminates spring ping. On top of that I have dampening material in the cases under the pcb. I’ve used a cut to fit old mouse pad in several and foam weather striping as well. This gives it a cleaner more solid sound.
Has anyone experimented with padding layout variations like strips vs whole sheet and flat vs cones vs grids? I’m also curious about dampening, filtering, and routing effects of channels in the padding layout on sound.
Also, I got one of those Gateron optical boards where the PCB is SUPER thin and the case is extremely large and cavernous. It was SO bad–it felt like I was typing on some sort of boom-stick gong. I think the most important element of anything in this MK world is density.
@g3rain1 nice! yeah, I’ll definitely will damp the sound with sorbothane or something…since I never experimented with that before, will be fun to try new ways of making the sound of my board better.
@AugustCanaille yeah!!! somehow I’m not fond of thin PCB, even though I never tried them hehe. Also I’m not really into thick plates, idk why it looks odd to me. I like the standard 1.6mm pcb and 1.5mm plate…
Unrelated question but did anyone would recommend me milky tops on Tealios v2?
I have the Tealios v2 on my Alice, and I absolutely love them, but someone told me on Reddit that it would be even better I swap the tops to milky tops…what you guys think of it?
