KBDFans Topre Silencing Rings and POM Keycaps

[Riverman]

I just received a set of KBDFan's Topre silencing rings and their engraved POM keycaps.  I installed a set of the rings and the keycaps on my Type Heaven the other night, and the improvement is nothing short of amazing.  I had previously bought a silenced Realforce, but I didn't care for how mushy the outer keys were, and I sold it.  I did enjoy the relative silence, though.  My Type Heaven is now extremely quiet with no upstroke clack at all, just a muffled thunk, and since it's a uniform 45g keyboard, there are no mushy keys.  The worst thing is installing them.  I turned on The Last Jedi when I started the job, and I finished it around the time the movie ended.  They went on relatively easy, but with nearly 40 screws to remove and the need to unsnap every stem, it's definitely a labor of love.  I'll be doing the same job on my Realforce RGB in the near future.  The Type Heaven is my office keyboard, so I was a little more anxious to silence that one.  I can safely say it's now quieter than any of the Logitech and HP rubber dome keyboards that are in use around the office.

I don't have a lot to say about the keycaps except that I was impressed with how cleanly the markings are engraved, and the finishing of the caps is great.  They have that slightly slick and shiny look that Cherry's G80-3000 black keycaps have, but of course the markings are much harder to read since there's no infill.  The only disappointments are that the space bar is ABS (mentioned on KBDFans's website, so that wasn't a surprise), the Windows logos are the old '95 versions, which are more dated (or retro) looking than what Topre uses, and one of the Alt keycaps has some weird white marks that won't come off.  I'll have to email KBDFans about that and see if they'll replace it.  Other than that, if you like POM keycaps and don't need to clearly see the legends, these are great.

I haven't posted any pictures since the ones on KBDFans's website are pretty good, but I can if anyone would like to see something in particular.

[zslane]

I just received a set of KBDFan's Topre silencing rings and their engraved POM keycaps.  I installed a set of the rings and the keycaps on my Type Heaven the other night, and the improvement is nothing short of amazing. ... The worst thing is installing them.  I turned on The Last Jedi when I started the job, and I finished it around the time the movie ended.  They went on relatively easy, but with nearly 40 screws to remove and the need to unsnap every stem, it's definitely a labor of love.  I'll be doing the same job on my Realforce RGB in the near future.

Your experience is much the same as mine. A Topre board with silencing rings installed is, as you say, nothing short of amazing (but without them the upstroke noise is irritating as f**k). And yes, installing them is a tedious process that takes forever. I performed this mod on four Realforce RGBs and three NovaTouches so far, and I really hope I never have to do it again. But as much as I hated having to do it, these boards are now my endgame boards as a result of going through all that effort.

[Riverman]

I had really thought that a variable weight factory silenced Realforce was going to be my endgame keyboard, but those 30g keys just turned me off.  I can't even imagine silencing 7 keyboards!  You're far more patient than I am.  I was very impressed with my RGB right out of the box, but after typing on my newly silenced Type Heaven for a while, I completely agree with you that the upstroke noise is irritating as f**k. 

[qq]

I have the exact same experience with my HHKB and KBDfans silencing rings, yes, it's nothing short of amazing! I've started to think silencing rings installing is a must if someone owns a Topre board. Also, KBDfans has done a good job 

[Hyde]

How are the POM keycaps compare to the Topre original PBT keycaps?  Also now KBDFans is having the 9009 PBT group buy, I wonder if I should get a set for my Type Heaven.

Hmmmmm choices........

[Riverman]

The POM keycaps are completely different.  If you've ever used a black Cherry G80-3000, they're exactly those: slightly slick feeling and a little shiny, but fairly thick and with a nice sound.  It's been long enough since I've had a Realforce that I can't really compare the sound to the PBT keycaps.  I'm probably going to do the same thing and order a set of those KBDFans PBT keycaps for my Type Heaven.  Even though I don't have to look at my keyboard much at all to type, I still like having the legends visible.  The engravings on the POM keycaps are nearly invisible in my office's admittedly poor lighting.  I also prefer the styling of the Type Heaven to any of the Realforce keyboards and the fact that it's uniformly weighted, so I plan on keeping this one around.

[Hyde]

lol yeah I'm kind of in similar situation.  I like my Type Heaven but I think the KBDFans Topre PBT keycaps will have a closer feel to OEM keycaps BUT it's kind of light grey/grey over Type Heaven's dark grey.  I think it might look weird, while the POM set might match colour better but I don't know how I feel about blanks even though I can touch type fine also I don't have experience with POM so hopefully I'll like the feel?

Did you end up getting the PBT set?  How do the look and feel end up matching up?

[Riverman]

I did end up getting the PBT set, and it's very nice.  I've had a few complements on the keyboard at work.  At first the light grey and darker grey keys looked a little odd against the black keyboard frame, but it's grown on me, and I like the green space bar, escape and enter keys.  One of the Windows keycaps is very slightly rotated, but other than that, they're about as perfect as I could expect them to be.

[Hyde]

Ohhhh that's good to know, thanks for the reply.  Yeah I kind of suspect the PBT would feel closer to "stock topre" type of feel isn't it?

Would you be able to take picture of your keyboard by any chance?  I wonder how the colour would look together.

Thanks!

[Hyde]

Actually I found this person on reddit seems to have exact the same setup, doesn't look too bad!  Like you said it's slightly odd but definitely something you can get used to it.



https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/a864wz/type_heaven_relooking/