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Am I crazy, or are MX Blues not all THAT bad?

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ander:
Okay, I know many people here are into the wonderful world of esoterically "improved" MX variants—and that's great.

But I happened to sit down with my Filco Majestouch the other day, which I hadn't used for a couple of years—and found, to my surprise, I was quite enjoying plain ol' Cherry MX Blues.

No doubt part of it was having them in a pretty good, solid board with nice PBT keys. And yes, they're not nearly as smooth as most other Blue-inspired clickies. But hey, as long as you aren't locked into them or anything, they seem to have a charm of their own, in a chattery, in-your-face mechanical sort of way.

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel this way, and isn't embarrassed to admit it?

Now, MX Browns, I don't get at all... To me, they just feel like there's something stuck in the slider. Yick. But Blues aren't trying to be anything they're not, y'know? This is just so you know I'm not being blanketly nostalgic or anything.

And BTW, this isn't an invitation to simply dump on MX Blues—there are many other threads here where we can read that sort of thing. (I also imagine this is the section most of you won't bother reading or heeding—LOL. Oh well.)

butre:
I don't like the feel of the tactile event or the dirtiness of the click.  the new outemu oceans are quite nice if you're into clickjackets, with a much sharper click and a significantly less grainy feeling.

Findecanor:
I've been telling for years that vintage MX Blues are quite nice. Smooth and crisp, even if the tactile event could have been larger.

granola bar enthusiast:
If I am being fully honest I have never tried MX Blues but I have tried RK Blues, Outemu Blues, and some other unnamed offbrand ones. I would say the best one was the Outemu blues although I kind of want to try the broken blues they have over at RNKBD

Maledicted:
We all know you're crazy, Andy. This forum is basically one big asylum anyway and we're all willful patients.

The first board I ever had that I was consciously aware of having mechanical switches was an MX red Corsair K70, for gaming. I read more into mechanical switches and shortly after picked up the same board with MX blues. They were my very first clicky switches, and I happily typed away on them for years. Once I tried more and more good clickies, and become accustomed to typing on them daily, I grew progressively less and less fond of MX blue.

So, at least in this case, even with a nostalgic connection to MX blue ... I very much dislike MX blue today and will take just about any other reasonably nice mechanism over them.


--- Quote from: granola bar enthusiast on Wed, 20 April 2022, 08:21:31 ---If I am being fully honest I have never tried MX Blues but I have tried RK Blues, Outemu Blues, and some other unnamed offbrand ones. I would say the best one was the Outemu blues although I kind of want to try the broken blues they have over at RNKBD

--- End quote ---

For bargain bin bottom-of-the-barrel Chinesium MX clones, Outemu blues are some of the best options in my opinion. They're nearly just as nice as their Gateron counterparts in terms of consistency of sound and tactility, and boards containing them are cheaper than dirt. These days, I slightly prefer decent MX/clone tactiles or linears to clickies of the same category due to the unpleasant and unrefined high-pitched click of even the better clone clickies, but every other cheap/direct clone Outemu switch I have tried has been much scratchier than even Cherry, so the Outemu blues seem to be a uniquely compelling choice. That's sometimes a sample size of one, but it seemed pretty consistent across the family line of switches typically used in $30-40-ish boards.


--- Quote from: butre on Wed, 20 April 2022, 03:42:35 ---I don't like the feel of the tactile event or the dirtiness of the click.  the new outemu oceans are quite nice if you're into clickjackets, with a much sharper click and a significantly less grainy feeling.

--- End quote ---

Never really noticed any click jacket switches feeling grainy/gritty at all, which probably has a lot to do with Outemu blues standing out in a field of extremely cheap and gritty switches. MX and some clones can just rattle a lot, which could possible be perceived as grit? Not really an issue with any Outemus or Gaterons I have tried.

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