Friend of mine loaned me his HHKB so I guess things have come full circle
It’s quite a heavily modified HHKB:
- BKE redux domes (supposedly increases the tactility)
- Silencing rings and lubed sliders
- Hasu bluetooth controller
- EC 9009 keycaps
To answer my own queries (and to anyone who happens to read and wanted to know):
Is there any significant difference/improvement between Boba U4 and Topre?
The feel of Topre is definitely distinct from Boba U4. It could be due to the BKE redux domes, but Topre’s tactility feels sharper/snappier than Boba U4, yet maintains that “roundness” in terms of having a uniform tactile event across the entire keystroke (as opposed to “P” shaped bumps with pre/post-travel).
Is this difference considered an improvement over Boba U4? In my humble and limited opinion, I do not think so. I can understand how the tactility of Topre can’t really be replicated by MX switches, fundamentally due to the different actuating mechanism (collapsing rubber dome vs piston movement of MX stem). On one hand, it is true that Topre does indeed have more smoothness, tactility, sharpness and roundness.
But I feel that there’s a disadvantage that I’ve not heard about as much – if not actuated right, I can just about make out the “spring ping” of the underlying conical spring. My fingers can feel the underlying springs in a way that MX switches just never gave to me before. There’s a bit of that “twang” on the upstroke as well. This “spring ping” is something that was also present in the Niz that I have. Another friend of mine told me this could be due to insufficient lubing or the effect of mods (apparently Topre doesn’t take too well to opening and closing cases), but to me this feels like quite a huge negative.
Are Topre boards worth the price premium over Nopre boards?
Now that I have both the HHKB Pro 2 and Niz Nano75 on-hand, I will have to cop out with the dreaded “it depends” answer.
Topre and Nopre feel distinct enough such that one does not substitute the other
|
Topre (45g) |
Nopre (45g) |
Tactility |
Sharper and rounder, each keystroke feels confident |
Very soft with a light tactile touch – feels almost linear (in a good way) |
Smoothness |
Not a hint of scratchiness or resistance in the downstroke and upstroke |
On par with Topre, but there’s almost a slight “wetness” to it |
Sound |
Silenced sounds really nice with clean thuds on the downstroke. Unsilenced makes a hell of a clank on the upstroke |
Very nice and quiet all around, with an almost “wet” sound on the upstroke. It can be a little soothing in some way |
How silent are stock Topre over the Boba U4? What about Topre type-S?
Stock Topre is not silent at all. The HHKB I’m using does not have the spacebar silenced, and boy is it LOUD. It’s loud to the extent that I feel embarrassed to hit the spacebar during open-mic calls.
I don’t have a genuine type-S to compare against, but with the silencing rings mod, the Topre switch does have a similar level of loudness compared to Boba U4.
In my experience with silent tactiles, this is how I would rank their level of quietness:
Ranking |
Switch |
1 |
Aliaz |
2 |
Apple Magic keyboard (membrane) |
3 |
Niz/Nopre |
4 |
Topre silenced, Boba U4 |
6 |
Zilents |
7 |
Gateron Silent Browns |