Author Topic: Really impressed by Tai Hao Cubic  (Read 9151 times)

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Offline ms264556

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Really impressed by Tai Hao Cubic
« on: Fri, 06 October 2017, 11:35:55 »
I've been using Tai Hao Cubic at home and work for a month now, so I thought I'd give some thoughts / a mini-'review', since they're nice and cheap.

I've got a some earlier Tai Hao ABS and PBT sets. These were cheap but very thin (I crushed a PBT space bar by accident trying to straighten it a bit), with not-great texture and finish, in my least-favourite profile... so that I never used them much before I went back to an SA or GMK/JTK set.
The new cubic keys subjectively feel thicker, but visually they look similar (the angles are different so I can't be sure this isn't my imagination without buying a micrometer).
The new sets have a better texture than anything else Tai Hao have produced lately. This looks and feels much nicer than I expected, so that I actually prefer to almost everything else I've got: they have a great satin texture which is less textured and glossy than GMK or even JTK, but not quite a smooth as MaxKey SA.
The quality of the doubleshot legends is outstanding too - everyone raves about cherry/gmk legends but I think they look too blotchy, whereas these have beautiful sharp corners and straight edges.

I'm a terrible human being hunt-and-peck typist (or whatever you call a six finger typist, who likes to pound on the keyboard), so I find OEM less satisfying than SA (which sound sublime when you thump the hell out of them) or cherry (which are, for some reason, harder to miss than OEM from a great height) profile. The squarer shape with larger tops on Tai Hai cubic make a big difference accuracy-wise, so that I'd be happy to use these long-term. They don't sound as nice as good thick cherry or SA caps, but are miles nicer sounding than thin OEM or DCS caps.

One thing I noticed, which I hadn't before, is that OEM stems end further inside the key than cherry stems. I couldn't use these keys on a Plum electrostatic board, because the keystem can't be pushed down far enough to seat properly before the outside of the key hits the baseplate.

The concrete colourway is, for a change, not too offensive to use at work (but not perfect - if you look closely then you can see the dark grey keys have purple text). I'd love Tai Hao to release a super-boring Cubic colourway - I'd snap up a few sets of white on black for work.

Offline rowdy

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Re: Really impressed by Tai Hao Cubic
« Reply #1 on: Sun, 08 October 2017, 21:00:48 »
I like the look of cubic - I kind like squarish things like that.

Might get a set when I find a colourway I like.

Thanks for the review and pics!
"Because keyboards are accessories to PC makers, they focus on minimizing the manufacturing costs. But that’s incorrect. It’s in HHKB’s slogan, but when America’s cowboys were in the middle of a trip and their horse died, they would leave the horse there. But even if they were in the middle of a desert, they would take their saddle with them. The horse was a consumable good, but the saddle was an interface that their bodies had gotten used to. In the same vein, PCs are consumable goods, while keyboards are important interfaces." - Eiiti Wada

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Offline ojrask

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Re: Really impressed by Tai Hao Cubic
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 10 October 2017, 14:57:00 »
Ordered some Concrete a while back. Still waiting for them to arrive. I would love to see a plain white on black Cubic set.
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Offline Prothrin

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Re: Really impressed by Tai Hao Cubic
« Reply #3 on: Thu, 12 October 2017, 05:50:37 »
Will definitely have to check out some of these sets. Thanks!

Offline Findecanor

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Re: Really impressed by Tai Hao Cubic
« Reply #4 on: Thu, 12 October 2017, 09:20:29 »
Wider key surface means more unwanted presses.

Offline mogo

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Re: Really impressed by Tai Hao Cubic
« Reply #5 on: Thu, 12 October 2017, 10:06:01 »
Thanks for the review! It's very helpful. I know there's a very interesting colorway on sale that 00Zero talked about in another thread and since these sets are still selling at the typically low Tai-Hao price point, I imagine I'll be picking up a set to try out sooner than later.