Ok, I have the board in my hands. Unfortunately, the board was damaged during shipping. It appears to me entirely cosmetic and after pm'ing CPTbadass and going over the options, It has been decided to just keep moving forward with the tour.
Sooooo, my first impressions: It feels like really snappy mx reds to me. The switches are very light compared to what I am used to (mx whites/buckling springs). I already bottom out every stoke on those switches, so with these, I bottom the crap out of them. It is not unpleasant though. There is a nice solid thud from the bottoming and since I have the board sitting on a mouse pad, it doesn't resonate through my desk. It is very quite to type on and I can now see what people mean when they mention the nice sound once in the rhythm. To me, the only distraction is the loud stabilizers, but I am assume that they could be quieted with some thick grease without changing the feel.
As far as the caps go, I much prefer the thick Cherrys and the Wyse 50 sets (thick abs). One note on the Wyse set: some of the keys get stuck while depressing them - particularly the f and j keys. They hang on the switch housing and need and couple taps to get them to release. I am sure with a tiny bit of dremel work to the inside of the offending keys, this issue would be resolved. The pbt has a thinness in the sound and feel that makes it feel cheaper. However, if you wanted a higher pitch sound in your typing, the pbt achieves that. DSA is still a no-go for me, too flat. The stock caps are crap, do yourself a favor and just buy your preferred keyset if you choose to buy this board. SA on this board feels good (mounted my Pulse set that I have been using on my QFR with blues), but I am making typos all over the place. I am not sure if it is due to the taller cap that I am still trying to bottom out or the soft actuation of the switch, or maybe a combo of the 2, but I make several errors per sentence if I try to type at my normal pace. Slowing down, I can limit the errors, but then I lose that lovely sound rhythm.
The overall design of the board is quite nice. I am still not a fan of the rubberized finish, but the sturdy feel, crisp corners, and nice flush finish of where the top and bottom of the case some together is quite nice. Of note: I love that it has a micro usb connector. For some reason they feel more secure than the mini to me. That and I have a ton of them laying around since everything uses them now.
I will continue to use the board for the week and see if any of my initial impressions change, but so far, I could see owning this board - particularly in a work place environment where a cherry/bs switch might be too loud or annoying to coworkers.
