What did you get in the mail today? (Part 1)

JYMV did one using a KBD8X MKII with aluminum and polycarbonate. It was super informative.

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Thx for fishing up the very relevant video on short notice. Very informative. It seems full-aluminum is my preference although I think noises of the stock switch JYMV uses in his sound tests tends accentuate the acoustic downsides of PC case.

I didn’t like PC case sound at first but found that generously applied heavy lube like 205g0 can minimize enough noise that reverbs into flimsy cheap plastic sound in PC cases to let me enjoy its distinct acoustics.

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Agreed. Yup, his choice of stock yellows is my only gripe with these sound tests. I can’t tune out the scratchiness.

Do have a plate preference for PC cases?

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Not really. I tend to try everything til I’m happy. Obviously, hotswap is a requirement for when exploring. I liked POM with Cream in PC Tofu, fully lubed Cream made it feel extra snug with zero unwanted noise brought out Cream’s clacks wonderfully.

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I recently sold my old sim racing gear and promptly went overboard on switches. My Techno Violets are still lost somewhere in the USPS ether but in the meantime, mail day! (L to R) We have JWK Cobalts, Tecsee Purple Pandas, SP-Star Magic Girls, and SP-Star Polaris Greys.

I’ve only tried the Purple Pandas and Cobalts thus far but I’m really enjoying both. My fingertips did not enjoy installing the Cobalts due to being slightly too large and needing coercion into place but we got there. Despite that, they sound excellent! Looking forward to trying out the others soon.

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How’s the wobble on the Magic Girls? Like compared to the Cobalts or Greys?

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Comparatively they’re the worst of the bunch, with the N/S wobble being slightly worse than the Pandas (though comparable in E/W wobble). That said, the Cobalts and Pandas are exceptional in terms of stem wobble so they’re in rare (or unfair) company.

Objectively though? I still think they’re quite good in terms of wobble and I don’t think it’d be bothersome unless you’re particularly cognizant of it and/or using higher profile keycaps. The smoothness, tactility, and sound are all quite good so a hint more wobble won’t keep me from enjoying them.

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Gateron KS-3 X1 Pro switches. Surprisingly smooth, smoother than polished Cherry blacks, with little or no wobble. I’d say these are close to Tangerine but with less wobble so they can be used stock: no lube, no film. Sound is not as great as Cherry black but it’s pretty good TBH.

UPDATE: After opening the switch to try how lubed version felt, I discovered these are factory-lubed and generously so. No wonder they felt smooth. Not a big issue but my last Gateron Yellow wasn’t lubed so I wasn’t expecting this to be. And it does feel and sound better lubed with 205g0. Not smoother but more snug and thockier with less noise.

UPDATE2: Opened 9 more switches and they at first didn’t seemed lubed. Whut? Had to run a finger over the sliders to detect a very thin and difficult to see yet evenly applied lube. Was the first one was a fluke? Weird. If rest of the switches are like these, the lube is thin enough to make the switch feel really smooth yet not thick enough to cut down noise.

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Two norbaforces ready to be assembled

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Nice, can you give a sneak peak to the colors?

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My Norby just came in today as well. I also got a R2 RGB TKL (in last week - not pictured), and some Topre modding accoutrements that I’m too lazy to take a proper picture of (not that my rapidly aging Note 5 camera produces a proper picture anyway). My Xeno is due in today as well, but at this point, until I have it in my hands, I’m not convinced that it’s real.

image

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xeno

ordered for my birthday 2.5 years ago

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I hope yours arrived in wonderful condition

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I’m sad I’m gonna miss out on Norbauer Topre boards…not in my budget this year and sad to see them go soon. (And I’m not really interest in the aftermarket) Haven’t felt this much FOMO in a while. :sweat:

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Please check my picture here with the assembled boards :slight_smile:
https://www.keebtalk.com/t/post-your-keyboards/743/2503?u=alien

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The ano work looks good!

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Yep, looks great. The finish is much more ā€œdryā€ feeling than I anticipated. But other than that, I’m happy with the final product. Would have been more than happy if I would have recieved it 2 years ago :upside_down_face:

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MT3 /dev/tty keycaps arrived today, a 65% set.


Along with a box of 70 Cherry MX Brown/RGB …
Still waiting for the Drop ALT barebones to arrive though!

I couldn’t not get these keycaps, having spent so much time in the deep and distant past on kbds like these! I think I’ll be fitting them to my whitefox for now …

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OK, the /dev/tty wasn’t a perfect fit for the Whitefox, I have three keys that there was no reasonable substitute for … but this is the first thing I’ve typed with them and it’s pretty comfortable so far.

Plus I’ve washed the old whitefox keys (just warm water & dish washing soap, left them for about 30 minutes and rinsed the soap off, everything looks much better now)

So a reasonably productive evening :slight_smile:

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Does anyone know if the alphas / numbers (with the lighter shade) were ever in a colour closer to white in a previous round of /dev/tty? I recently received a set and was surprised by how grey the lighter keycaps appear.