I just put a set of Gateron Baby Kangaroos on one of my boards and was disappointed. I like the tactility, but there is persistent leaf ping that even a liberal lubing doesn’t eliminate.
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There aren’t many Gateron light-tactiles that don’t ping. At least in my experience.
The Longjing Tea were among the least pingy. G Pro Brown don’t ping a lot, but they have air-escaping noises. I found that Gateron Mini i are like a snappier, more consistent-sounding [less ping] version of the Gateron Beer.
Ironically, I think the Gateron Lanes are relatively ping-free. But they are based on clickies, so there is extraneous sound and they need to be lower-pitched.
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Can confirm the Lanes are leaf or spring ping free, but they do have a slightly audible click on the alphas & on almost all keys when typing at speed. The click also seems to become more prominent as the switches break in according to @ThereminGoat’s review of them. Definitely super unique switches & pretty damn good out of the box IMHO. However I wouldn’t solder them into anything because of the degradation with use.
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The baby kangaroos do make nice fidget toys though (as do jade box kailh clickies). In fact, not to rock a boat, but tactiles reign when it comes to fidget toys.
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Geon Works has a (new?) TKL in stock, Frog Leggera.
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Cool. I guess the Leggera comes set up for HE builds now. And the weight is maybe aluminum? Hard to tell. But they must have changed something to make it that much more affordable.
Also, there are new tray mount minis. No o-ring compatible in the aluminum in stock yet but there is a B grade brass one for o-ring.
Cool stuff
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Seems like a GB for GMK Hangulbeit (Handarbeit colors, Hangul legends) is running:
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My immediate reaction was to get it but I reminded myself that am not doing GMK GBs anymore. It’s just a bad business practice to get your customers to loan you money interest free. I will just get it when they ship and confirm it’s without a need of fix kit.
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I think it is acceptable for startups. But GMK has been around long enough to stop leaning on its customers to bolster its cash flow.
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I’ve noticed that many vendors have significantly reduced stocks. I wonder if this pressages something larger?
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I think pandemic crowd has thinned out. Buying multiple keyboards year after year is generally not sustainable for many people. Also the rise in HE gaming keyboards really took out the wind. And HE switches, at least for now, do not intersect with mk hobbyists because they don’t feel/sound great.
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I do think they’re working on feel specifically. For me though, it’s also that a big part of their value-add almost depends on being linear. Tactile events, whether clicky or not, are meant to be tied to switch actuation. Sometimes directly, but even when they aren’t, the relationship between where tactility happens and where actuation happens is fixed. For tactiles and clickies, HE at best will be a set-it and forget-it operation when you get a new board, and that could certainly be fine, but it’s not worth a premium or a compromise in other areas. Get back to me when they finish taking over the space and offer decent tactile or clicky options at a competitive price, and I won’t object.
I also marvel at people who regularly use keyboards without bottoming out, further reducing the usefulness of variable actuation points. I need heavy springs just to remind my fingers to begin letting up, and I find lighter switches more fatiguing because of it, which also blunts other HE use-cases like gaming analog inputs and dual-use keys. That one’s much more a me-thing, though, LOL.
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I paid for the all the switch travel, so I intend to use all the switch travel.
And I do. 
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Gave me a good laugh. People in this hobby care way too much about “flex” to touch type. They want to feel their board flex every time they press a key. Also touch typing makes my hands tense up. Can’t explain it well but having that type of control is hard as you age.
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Heck yeah. I keep seeing new switches on the market with cool materials… then I read up on them and they are 3.0 - 3.4mm travel. No thanks, fam.
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My HE board sounds fantastic. Probably my “thockiest” board that I own (Sunder boards). But to be fair, the switch plate is POM so that probably has more to do with the sound profile than the switches themselves. One other thing that I noticed is that HE switches don’t have a “rubbing” feeling, which I never thought that I could feel until trying a switch that doesn’t have a leaf in it.
I am one of those people that don’t bottom out, but it is mostly because I don’t like the feeling of my fingers “falling” when typing and I need pretty immediate feedback either from pressure (from the springs) or a tactile event. That being said, I can’t stand using linears that are 4.0mm in travel since it does feel like the hard stop or high pressure takes too long. So, changing the actuation point is only really useful if I was to change it to less than half the travel of the switch. That’s just my preference obviously, it’s certainly possible that most people that buy those boards buy them for different reasons.
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Very cool. The infinite variations that people find intriguing is a huge part of what keeps me interested in keyboards. I also didn’t realize there was another vendor doing CNC ergo-splits. I wonder if there’s anyone truly comparing like-for-like with HE boards, or if it’s more “My Wooting sounds like ass, therefore HE sounds like ass.” I don’t have a particularly discerning ear, and as discussed I bottom out on everything, so many of the complaints folks have about switches get overwhelmed by case, caps, and plate for me. In actual use, I don’t think I’ve ever noticed spring ping on anything quieter than a Model M. 
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Looks like DCS Superweld group buy is running [GB] DCS Superweld | Jan 2nd - Jan 30th ! I can’t decide if I’m joining yet…
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I hate joining group buys for keycaps with a passion b/c there’s a 99% chance that there will be in-stock extras, and I much prefer getting something when I spend the money. But I’ve been burned twice this year for not pre-ordering. Hmmm… Can’t decide
I also thought it was interesting that they are running Foundation in MTNU profile. The set is very versatile and I think it will look great in MTNU
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I feel like the vendors involved could be pretty open to having extras around, but I know absolutely nothing about this system! I kind of have my heart set on DCS Lil’ Lav ([IC] DCS Lil' Lav v2 - Received final quotes and artwork), so I’m not sure about getting in on this too…although I’ve always loved the colorway in general. I know they are nothing alike 
…at least there’s some time to think on it
Foundation is a great set for MTNU I agree - I don’t have an MTNU set yet, but I think it’s a great match!
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