Sound/Feel: THICK PBT vs Regular PBT vs POM vs ABS (blue switch)

[Djankie]

Overview

In this review I want to show the differences in sound and feeling between certain keycaps. The following equipment is used:

• A filco Majestouch blues
• A shure SM58 microphone
• PRE-AMP MKII (amplifier for microphone)

Keycaps:

• IMSTO - Thick PBT
• Feng Geek - Regular PBT engraved white
• Noppoo Choc mini - POM
• Ducky II (dragon edition) - ABS

Sound


Before the sound can be compared. It is important to illustrated the difference between the keycap profiles (which might affect the sound) and can be seen in the following picture:



The regular PBT (2) and the ABS (4) have the highest profiles. The POM (3) and the thick PBT (1) both have a smaller profiles, where the thick PBT is slightly lower.

So...how do these sound? Well a picture sound clip say's more than 1000 words. You can listen/download it here:

• mp3
• FLAC

In this test, each key has been pressed 4 times (PAM PAM....PAM PAM) and at the end, each key have been pressed one more time. Note that I've tried to press a key with an equal amount of pressure.

All have the famous blue clicks but it sounds quite different. I personally didn't like the high pitched sound from regular pbt (2). The other keys sounded more similar.


Feel

I'm gonna be brief in this part. It is generally known that a PBT keycap feels more rough than an ABS keycap. This is also what I've observed. The difference between ABS and POM, is that POM felt slighly smoother. The difference between the regular PBT and the THICK PBT where surprisingly quite large. Where the surface of the regular PBT felt really rough, like having sand particles beneath your fingers, the surface of the thick PBT felt much smoother, but still rougher than ABS/POM.

Conclusion

I personally, preferred the THICK PBT in both sound and feeling over the regular PBT.

[SpAmRaY]

Thank you for sharing this I had to close my eyes and give it a really good listen. For my ears the second was my favorite.

[keymaster]

Thanks for posting this. I can't believe it hasn't had any replies since your original post. I have the thick IMSTO PBT and am very satisfied with the feel and low pitch they produce.

[Paspie]

Assuming the recording is using the pic as a reference going from left to right, the POM cap seemed to stand out from the rest as having a darker, slightly more mushy sound. Aside from that, there's not really much difference that I can explain properly.

[1391406]

I noticed the thick PBT and the ABS sound basically the same. The sound spectrum of the regular PBT has more top end than the others.