my Shine 2 is dying, looking for a new TKL

[Daniel]

Hello everyone

I was using my Shine 2 (Cherry MX Reds) for a few years and it's been awesome, but now keys are not responding from time to time (could be dirt, I normally press them hard and its solved for a little while). I was considering ordering some switches and solder them but I don't have much time for it. So I have decided to get another MX Red board and later on when I have the time I will buy another switch type to solder and try in the Shine 2.

In short, I'm looking for a TKL board with Cherry stabilizers, Cherry profile keycaps (have a Leopold FC700R which I don't like the keycap profile {and the Spacebar sucks}) and the switch that I'm after is Reds. I wouldn't mind Gateron as I heard they are smoother. Don't care much for backlighting but it doesn't hurt.

I was looking at the Ducky One (Cherry) and the MK Disco (KBT)*, those would probably be my choice but I feel that I shouldn't disregard other boards and just buy the very same board (practically).

Side note: Regardless of that, I will very likely get the Realforce 87U when I find a place that sells the 45g version (since I feel it would be closer to Reds and I do love keys being so light) and that ships to my country (found one at KeyboardCo but its ISO layout :\).

Thanks in advance for any ideas and advice,
Daniel.


* Also couldn't find too much info about Cherry vs KBT, at least for Reds. Are KBT\Greetech smoother like Gateron?

[SpAmRaY]

Just an FYI Ducky OEM caps are not cherry profile, it seems you are referring to them as such.

[Daniel]

Oh yeah, thanks for correcting me, Indeed I meant "OEM" profile (Ducky, WASD, Filco..)

[Geass]

Maybe the Glorious PC Gaming Race TKL keyboard. I have the fullsize version and I really like it. I'm just not sure whether or not it has Cherry stabilizers, it's nevertheless a great keyboard.

[ander]

If I had a Shine that was dying, I'd have to say it was "glimmering its last". That's just me, though.

[tp4tissue]

I thought duky had that super duper taiwan quality

[Daniel]

Any other ides?
 

[dante]

I thought duky had that super duper taiwan quality

Or as Ripster used to say: Sucky Ducky.

More accurately though it should be Sucky Cherry. [50 million keypresses my ****]

Any other ides?
 

If it were me I'd suggest two boards.  One is available, one should be soon:

Teamwolf Zhuque with Red switches, available now through Amazon.

Also Glorious Modular TKL.  There is a listing on Glorious page but not available just yet.

Both these keyboards are hot swappable so when your switches go bad they can be replaced quickly.

Long term you may want to look at the Kailh Box Reds which are smoother, dust/water resistant, and last 80 million keypresses.

Fix switches with soldering?!  AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT.

[Geass]

I thought duky had that super duper taiwan quality

Or as Ripster used to say: Sucky Ducky.

More accurately though it should be Sucky Cherry. [50 million keypresses my ****]

Any other ides?
 

If it were me I'd suggest two boards.  One is available, one should be soon:

Teamwolf Zhuque with Red switches, available now through Amazon.

Also Glorious Modular TKL.  There is a listing on Glorious page but not available just yet.

Both these keyboards are hot swappable so when your switches go bad they can be replaced quickly.

Long term you may want to look at the Kailh Box Reds which are smoother, dust/water resistant, and last 80 million keypresses.

Fix switches with soldering?!  AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT.

The Team Zhuque is a good keyboard aswell and it's much cheaper than the Glorious TKL, just the lighting isn't as good as the Glorious keyboard's. If the lighting really isn't important to you, just get the Team Zhuque.

[Daniel]

Thanks for the help guys
Seems like a decent one but I really don't need a hot-swappable board. It could be nice but long term I would rather have 2-3 boards that I can swap between in a moment rather than having to start replacing switches every time I feel like using something different. ^^

My needs are - TKL, Red Switches, nice acoustics*, OEM profile keycaps and standard ANSI layout.

*My Filco F700R sounded hollow on the right side (arrow keys\pgup\pgdwn area) and it was quite annoying.

I dropped the Cherry stabilizers requirement because when I used to read about them being "mushy" I was thinking MX Reds "mushy", but I saw Costar stabilizers performing extremely smooth in some stabilizers lubing guide (also figured they're much easier to lube) so now I don't mind too much either way. I also had some wrong impression about Costar stabilizers, thinking they are more likely to ping and rattle.. that also put me off.

P.S. If I end up getting the Ducky One or the MK Disco, what's the difference in feel between the Cherry reds and the KBT reds?

Thanks once again.