Come Tuesday, I’ll have a barely-used Novatouch coming in to grace my desk! And, as is tradition, I have many plans to mod the new baby. So, to all of the people who use Topre, I have a few questions:
What should I lube this thing with? I have a couple of bottles of 3204, should I go with 3203 or some other lubricant?
Silencing rings - what’s the thinnest? KBDfans Silence-X? I’m just looking to make sure that there’s some upstroke silencing, but I’ve also heard horror stories of ruined domes. Any suggestions?
Does Norbauer offer any financing plans for a Norbatouch? /s
3204 or 3203 will do you solid, although I’d personally recommend 3203 above 3204 since it will make it smooth without it being as mushy in case you overlube.
For silencing rings, I’d recommend holding off until after you lube. Lubing will drastically reduce the sound. If you’re okay with it just lubed, then stick with that. If you want it even quieter, than go for silencing rings. The reason I say this is because silencing rings reduce the total travel distance which changes the feel slightly. Personally I don’t like the silencing rings and prefer to go with just lube for silencing/smoothing needs on topre.
But if you’re going to go with rings, then your best bet are probably the KBDfans silencing rings if you want them thin. If you want them thick, then hypersphere rings used to be a pretty solid go-to, but they’re pretty pricey.
I hope you enjoy your Novatouch adventure! Show us some pics when you get a chance
Of course! While i don’t have the MT3 that i’m planning to put on this board right now, i’m going to put some JTK on there - hopefully it sounds as good as it’ll look!
I believe you’re talking about these silencing pads. Also, I just put together my first Novatouch and used the BKE Redux Light domes. They are super tactile, almost too tactile, but they’re great.
Oh and I used 3204 to lube the housings and it feels quite nice and smooth. I opted to install Silence-X rings too.
I was trying to find “the best” silencing thing out there for topre (and of course this is subjective, but…). Heard good things about silence x from kbdfans, which is thin and nice because it doesn’t reduce the tactility much, if at all. The bad side of it is that they don’t silence as much. Back when I was doing more research I found the soft-landing pads from elitekeyboards , which some people would iron (actual cloth iron) them to make them thin enough to not hurt the tactility that much (example). Back on this time the keyclack v2 wasn’t out yet so can’t say about them. People also talk good about the hypersphere ones. I bought the soft landing pads but never got to actually put the hours to make them thinner. After a while I realized that I actually liked the sound of the lubed topre, but maybe a little more silenced, so a few days ago I ordered the silence X, I’m looking to not lose much tactility, or at all, and want a bit of sound still, and since the sound videos from Natham sound amazing, hope this will be the correct one for me (Natham thocking 1, 2)
Yes. I can definitely comment on them. I think they’re a bad fit for the novatouch. The BKE lights, heavies, and extremes make Novatouch sliders extremely loud because the slider isn’t that tall. My fc660c has them and it makes about as much noise as box clickies. It’s the antithesis of quiet tactile thocking, which is Topre’s strength.
I would recommend finding 55g domes or sticking with stock weighting.
Is that with silencing rings or without? I have BKE lights in my Realforce and after getting used to them, I no longer like the feeling of stock Topre domes. I planned to swap out the domes in my Novatouches for BKE lights.
Absolutely loving this Novatouch! I haven’t really had the chance to get a good picture yet, but once I do, I’ll definitely be posting it. The real question I have - should I go for NiZ, Ziise, or Hansung dome sheets? I like these 45g domes, but I’ve become used to weightier switches and I demand more.
Without silencing rings. There were some silencing rings included with my Novatouch, but they looked quite large, so I didn’t want to risk damaging the sliders, since the sliders weren’t designed to use silencing rings + the force of the bke lights.
(Natham thocking