As I listen to proliferating recordings of isolation mount typing sound, I am less certain isolation mount is an improvement, at least from sound perspective.
They seem overly subdued with tendency to sound higher pitched than non-isolation mounted boards, perhaps because little or no vibration makes it to the case. In theory, what might be happening with sound should also be happening with feel but I don’t have a isolation mount board so it’d be nice to hear what those who do thinks.
Are they better or just different? If better, is it worth the extra cost?
There is also the spring mount. I frankly did not like typing sound of Thermal which got uploaded today.
I would like to try isolation mount myself just to see what the acoustics are like in person. It’s also important to take into account the switch being used, if the springs have been swapped, lube used for each part, as well as the plate material. For switches that are generally known to be higher pitched, it could work better (spring-swapped Inks, Retooled/Vintage Blacks).
I also agree that I don’t like the spring-mount sound, at least from the two videos uploaded thus far.
I think isolation/gasket mounts can go both ways. I think its implementation is highly dependent on the plate material, case material, and internal acoustics of the case.
I have a meme which only has gaskets on the top of the plate, so it’s still more akin to a sandwich mount than full isolation, but I think it sounds absolutely superb.
On the other hand, my Leaf60 has gaskets on top and bottom but is a polycarbonate case and a polycarbonate plate. Pretty sure the gaskets are absolutely pointless in this situation.
I think a better way to think of gasket/isolation mount, is to think about how they’ll change the internal acoustics of the case since it’ll depend on the switch as well as how much space is inside of the case as well as the geometry.
That may be a great hybrid approach. I’m going to experiment with the idea.
I wholeheartedly agree. But I wish custom keyboard designers would do more research on this as well as other areas. It’s disappointing to see so much focus and attention on how keyboard looks and blindly copying latest trendy features without due diligence. By due diligence, I don’t mean asking customers to pay for their latest experimental designs.
