@djmantis I honestly just plan to lube the sliders a little. Surprisingly, the stock stabilizers don’t sound bad at all a couple of days in, so may just keep them as is. I do have some silencing rings I can add as well, so that’s tbd. My 87u came with them installed and I liked them, but enjoyed the board even more when I took them out.
I actually replaced the stock 55g domes in my 87u with Metakeebs 35g and I’m enjoying them a lot! I feel like with any niche hobby, there are some purists in the Topre/EC side of keebs, but I wouldn’t let that detract from how you feel! If you like the aftermarket domes, nothing wrong with that.
Was there anything else in particular that you haven’t been enjoying? Or was it just the aftermarket domes? Which domes did you try? :o
Good to know about the Metakeeb domes. Those are the ones I have been eyeing. I really want to snag the 35g and 40g versions.
I grabbed some Astrodomes at 35g, and I am not happy with them. I like them feel wise, but they added a lot of “loosey-goosey” ness into the board. Keycaps wobble more, sound is off etc. It might be the shape of and weight of the domes though because other people don’t seem to have the same issues as me with the heavy weights.
I think my overall feelings was that I was excited to hop into the EC space and have some experimentation again, only to find that once I was in it, everyone has really mixed opinions. Some people love the stock experience, other people love these domes (while these people say they suck). I was hoping there would be a little bit of a “standard” but it seems like the EC is the wild west.
For instance, DESkeys are readily available, and it seems like everyone has tried their domes, but every opinion I get is that they are just “meh”
It really depends on what you’re optimizing for. One of the annoying things about online discourse is that it’s really easy to get a lot of opinions on a thing, but you don’t get the “why?” for them. Is the reason folks don’t like the DES domes because they tried the old versions? Or maybe they don’t like as much tactility? Is sound or feel more important? etc.
Case in point: both KLC’s and Metakeebs domes were “meh” to me, while the DES and Astro domes ones were awesome. But, this is because I’m going for tactility with my Topre setups, and looking for stuff that works well with silencing rings. The Astro domes “wings” help with dampening stabilizers. If someone’s looking for something else from an EC board, they might prefer something different.
I ordered some Gateron Khonsu switches and I’ve been using them this week. These are rail bottom out switches with fairly light springs.
They are all pom. Essentially it’s a sea salt smoothie recolor that bottoms out on the rails, allowing a full 4.0mm travel.
I think you’ll have to find the right case and mounting options for these to really shine, but I’m really liking them. I have mine in a Minerva LX which has a very springy isolation mount. The sound in this case is not great. It sounds a bit thin and muted; however, they feel fantastic. I went from rating them a 2/10 when first trying them to 9/10 after using them a few days. I’m interested in finding a board where they might sound better.
My favorite thing about all-POM switches is that they handle being inserted/pulled for more cycles than other materials (especially PC). Not something that comes up for most folks, I presume, but is definitely an advantage when I’m swapping switches as much as I tend to.
These Khonsu switches really do sound terrible, yet they feel so good. Has to be a good case for them, but I haven’t found it yet. Anyone else tried these? I’m trying to find a way to describe the sound… it’s “brittle” “harsh” “thin” “plasticy”
I hadn’t realized just how bad they sound until I was trying a new build with a variety of switches. I often try out which switches I like best by putting several different switches (5-6 varieties) on each row and then covering them with keycaps. Then I decide on what I like with a “blind” test (since I can’t see what switches are under the caps). These were by far the worst sounding of 6 different switches I tried. And most of these switches are pretty cheap pickups.
I suspect lubrication would clean up the sound, but since they’re rail bottom out, it might end up sounding too quiet.
Sounds like that might be a blessing, no? Time for krytox and ALL THE FOAMZ!
More seriously, there are obviously many folks who aren’t as concerned about sound, but unless the feel is truly unique, I would assume there are equivalents in price and feel that sound better.
EC Agar Mini off eBay for £70. Didn’t have keycaps so I got these from KBDfans since they are all marked up correctly what with it being my first 40%.
Loving the switches. I had Naevies on my full sized Agar and liked them.
Might have created a monster as my kid took a liking to it (the 60% version) so they’ve got it now. Then they fell in love with GMK Gregory, so I got them a clone set of that since I couldn’t find the OG version for a reasonable price.
Final eBay bargain. Base set and the alphas for £80ish iirc. Looks so nice. Thinking to put them on my orange Float65 once it arrives. It’ll either look amazing, or gross. Time will tell.
I got this nice IQUNIX EV63 HE. Targeted at gamers, the typing feel is a bit too direct for me. Love the design though, especially the multipart/multicolor sides. Was a bit wary about the proprietary software, but the (single) mod-tap function works fine for e.g. the spacebar, so you can easily access an extra layer with all the frequently used stuff.
That’s an interesting design. It looks like it has RAM sticks on the edges. I like the colors too. What do you mean by too direct? Is it stiffly mounted or are the switch springs too light?
Rigid alu plate, tray mounting. Not the slightest flexibility. Expected from a HE gamer board, but I prefer a much softer typing experience in general.
