The T1/Fake Tealio/Koalas, I guess Ride Never Ends

They’re literally recolors of knockoffs of offshoot/competitors of HP’s anyway. HP’s are semi-affordable now to make and while Zeal can be seen as pricy it isn’t that bad for the quality you pay for.

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Zeal tax it usually worth it imo, but yeah, there are tons of options out there these days. I’ve got some Outemu sky switches I found to be pretty nice

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when you pay Zeal Tax, you’re not only paying for great switches that you could all use stock and call it a day, but R&D that trickles down to the rest of us, so I think it’s a pretty fair bargain, which is why I’m after some Healios for my next build!

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Can’t wait lol

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I have a new conspiracy theory, Durock manufactured a ton of these switches before everything went down and all these group buys for them popping up are Durock trying to unload their stock

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This might not be too far from the truth. I’m assuming all the Stealios at the least (if not the T1s as well) were made during so called “3rd shifts” where everything is off the books. SO it would make perfect sense to make as much as you can when you don’t know how long you’ll be able to keep pulling off “3rd shifts”.

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I don’t think this is a case of Durock plants, but I do have a strong suspicion that’s a reason they’re being sold for dirt-fucking-cheap at group buy prices.

I wasn’t aware that “3rd shifts” were a thing until now! What an interesting outcome of legislation. While it’s quite possible that the Stealios were made on the third shift, I think that the T1s probably weren’t put through that much secrecy, considering the fact that they were publicized to hell. I have a feeling that Durock has fingers in a great many more pies than we first suspect - the Everglide and Geekmaker switches appear to be made by them.

…Actually, thinking about Geekmaker…

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Yeah a good bit of the shady stuff & shady cheap stuff you can find on Tao-bao, DHgate, Alibaba, those crazy malls in Shenzhen, etc. are usually made during a 3rd unauthorized shift where the workers get paid even less & QC goes out the window. It’s been a huge issue in the PC components space for years & years now, that’s really why I was aware it.

Although I definitely do agree the T1s were probably made on the books & Durock has it’s fingers in much more than we know of with MX clone switches like you said. Another funny thing is, I’ve worked with tons of Durock products & tools over the years in the bldg. trades (mostly ceramic & exotic stone tiling), makes me wonder if there is any connection between the two? :thinking:

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It’s legitimately worrying that some are so ravenous for a product that they are convinced ethics don’t matter.

Whether or not you support Durock, how is being informed and trying to make better decisions ever a bad thing?

I feel like the hobby has a growing trend of ignoring rationality in favor of…I don’t even know what, hype maybe? Am I just letting this bother me more than it should?

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You think this would be something #gamersriseup would get behind

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I doubt it, in my experience the factories I’ve worked with in China have no regard for similarly named companies elsewhere in the world. One that I’m working with now comes up with a company of the same name in an unrelated field in the US if you search for it, and I’m not even sure the factory has a website.

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The GB is going ahead and even has merch attached. I’m very disappointed in /r/mm now.

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Can’t say that I’m surprised though.

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Our special boy Qlavier even came out with the revised art.

Doesn’t Qlavier just sell stickers with Winthea art on em? also i’m not surprised considering their demonstrated lack of taste

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Qlavier makes a bunch of stickers that are pretty cool and some that are uh, interesting. But they also make those sweet acrylic boards like the keeblade!

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I own a keeblade myself. My Kuro Shiro keys will go on it once they finally ship!

I was under the impression that Qlavier didn’t do any of the art themselves, but there’s absolutely no argument that their cases are drop-dead gorgeous.

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God, especially the ones they’ve been doing with dichroic film applied as of late. It’s frustrating to watch good designers tie themselves to this stuff.

I think T1’s do feel quite a bit better with 62g springs rather than 67g springs. With 67g springs they were a bit too tactile, with the bump being too stiff. 62g softens that a bit and feels pretty nice. They sound kind of bad without switch films, but quite nice with switch films. They do feel a lot closer to Zealios than to Holy Pandas. From feel alone I would rank them Zealios > T1 > Holy Panda. Sound wise Holy Pandas still win hands down. I have no idea how the different stem material would affect things though.