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geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: skuko on Sun, 02 March 2014, 18:10:40
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last week i got my first DSA set (SP blanks) for testing the profile out and MAN! i instantly fell in love with it, low profile i just love how it feels when typing/gaming with it.
so far i have tested OEM, cherry, SA and DSA and i must say i love the last one the most.
i liked SA too when i first got it, but my wrist started to hurt after longer gaming sessions, even with a wrist rest. the original Filco OEM is ok i guess, but DSA, that's just something :D
so what's yours and why? :)
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cherry
mainly because its all I have to type on right now. Two sets of thin lasered pbt and one WoB doubleshot set
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I had never used them up until recently, but I've started to love SA caps. It just feels like there's more weight behind each press
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Cherry because thick
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Cherry is my favorite.
Probably, in order, my preferred are the following:
1. Cherry/GMK/BSP ABS or PBT. Nice and thick and feel and sound awesome, even if they are shiny.
2. Ducky PBT (since it's decent thickness). Imsto should beat out Ducky and it may even move to #1, but I haven't tried it.
3. Devlin J series (QWERKeys sells it and you can find it on some boards)
4. DCS/DSA/Tai Hao OEM. DCS is too thin, but not bad feeling. DSA is thicker, but the profile sometimes gets to me. Tai Hao actually feels a little better than DCS to me, but it's not perfect either.
5. Standard OEM ABS caps (Cooler Master and the like).
6. SA profile. It says something about how much I loathe it for it to be this far down. Have I mentioned I hate this profile?
7. WASD keyboards ABS. As much as I don't care for OEM ABS and as much as I hate SA profile, WASD's caps just feel so cheap to me that they take dead last.
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it was almost same for me i was using oem ducky abs, then that PBT from ducky as nubbinator said "decent thickness" but when i got mine dsa well i was sold. But now there's fight in me between pbt dsa and doubleshot dsa:D but still dsa all the way.
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I would say...
1. Cherry
2. Poker II thick PBT (underrated)
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For me it goes like this, Cherry > DCS > OEM. Also, Double shot ABS > Dyesub or blank PBT > POM. (Maybe Cherry dyesubs will change my mind). :p
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Cherry/GMK, hands down. DCS work in a pinch.
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I kinda feel like Cherry and OEM (OEM doesn't really mean **** BTW. not a real profile, folks) are close enough that I don't notice or care. It's really the quality of Cherry caps vs what manufacturers make that's the real difference. I think most people are the same and just prefer the superior build quality of Cherry keys and get this placebo effect that they can actually feel a couple millimeters difference. DCS is the same for me as well, it's just SP's version of the Cherry profile which is the original version of 'OEM', which is nothing more than a general term for proprietary profiles that are similar to Cherry but don't want to pay for their patent.
Recently(as in the last year or so) I've really grown to love DSA as well. The face shape of the keys is rounder and feels better, plus the keys just look better on boards because there's less space between the tops of the caps creating a more snug uniform look.
SA and high-profile are the worst imo, although they do look impressive and I like their thickness. They just feel wrong, and decrease my speed by a very noticeable amount. After spending about a month with the Realforce 104UG I just couldn't get used to it. Never again.
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I would say...
1. Cherry
2. Poker II thick PBT (underrated)
I'll agree with you here about Poker II's thick PBT, just because it's "stock" keycaps doesn't mean it's bad. In fact it's one of the best I've used. :)
People are gonna throw a tantrum about this but here's my list: (Assuming same thickness and material, stricly profile)
OEM > Cherry ML > Cherry MX > DSA
Haven't used DCS or SA but I'd assume DCS is similar to Cherry and I'm probably placing SA bottom based on educated guess.
Now waiting for Vortex to release those bi-color PBT double shot.
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Cherry profile is my favorite, because it always feels most comfortable to me on all keyboards I've tried it on. I like the gentle slope of it and the relatively low profile, so it doesn't add much height to the keyboard while still being ergonomic. Feels less "wobbly" vs. OEM profile too, as the caps are lower.
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Cherry. Relatively low profile. The bottom row modifiers do not bite into my fingers.
I think I would like better something like DCS profile (which is like Cherry except for the ZXCV row being somewhat more angled) but with Cherry Space Bar profile for the Space Bar and for the modifiers on the bottom row.
Right now I am typing with vintage Cherry profile, which has Row A keys on the space bar row - these are both more angled and somewhat higher than the ZXCV row.
DSA is actually not low profile. It is only as low as the home row keys of OEM profile. Cherry's home row keys are lower, as are the keys on the MX-Board 2.0 and 3.0. (G80-3800 and 3850).
Also, Signature Plastics describes DSA as "medium profile".
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why are people talking about OEM like all OEM caps are the same? It does mean 'original equipment manufacturer' right?
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OEM ended up becoming a nickname for a commonly used profile on keyboards like Filco, CM QFR, Ducky, MAX, and many others. Originally OEM means what you said, but because many companies use basically the same profile, it became known as "OEM profile." I first saw feng use that terminology.
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I've been on Cherry-profile caps for a while (Imsto's PBTs), and... I don't know. I just don't like them. Too low-profile for me. OEM-profile just feels "fuller" to my hands, due to its bigger height, of course, and I miss it.
This is not to diss on Imsto's PBTs. The keys are absolute quality. I'm just not a fan of the Cherry-profile.
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SA for me, the sound of these things on reds on poker II is just glorious.
(got an almost full set for 60% from crap bag)
The thing I really hate is shorter key presses, I believe cherry profile does this? (at least my old DS abs cherry keycaps are shorter throws)
I also hate poker 2 stock keycaps but only because I can feel the printing on them which makes me think of my stock QFR caps.
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OEM ended up becoming a nickname for a commonly used profile on keyboards like Filco, CM QFR, Ducky, MAX, and many others. Originally OEM means what you said, but because many companies use basically the same profile, it became known as "OEM profile." I first saw feng use that terminology.
Yup. Some people call it Asian profile, but it doesn't fix one issue, i.e. some OEMs made slightly shorter keycaps back in the 80's and early 90's. The usual height was somewhere between modern OEM and Cherry (which is about 2 mm shorter IIRC), and there were other differences among rows.
The thing I really hate is shorter key presses, I believe cherry profile does this? (at least my old DS abs cherry keycaps are shorter throws)
Nope, as discussed in the other thread (http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=53174).
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The thing I really hate is shorter key presses, I believe cherry profile does this? (at least my old DS abs cherry keycaps are shorter throws)
Nope, as discussed in the other thread (http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=53174).
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Interesting, man the placebo got me good. Just measured aswell to see if I got the full travel.
I do hate o rings for this reason though.
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Yep. Davkol is correct; that the lower-profile of Cherry keys doesn't actually affect the key travel. I still have a preference to OEM-profile while knowing this, though; the keys just feel more "natural" and "fuller" (which I know isn't due to the keys actually being "fuller" but to the height) to me.
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Yep. Davkol is correct; that the lower-profile of Cherry keys doesn't actually affect the key travel. I still have a preference to OEM-profile while knowing this, though; the keys just feel more "natural" and "fuller" (which I know isn't due to the keys actually being "fuller" but to the height) to me.
This feels so weird but I am having the exact feeling as you. I went back and forth this weekend testing profiles and the taller the keycap the more "full" I feel.
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I have a set of BSP dye-subs on my daily driver, before I got them I didn't think I would like having an A profile bottom row, but they've grown on me to the point that using B profile bottom row mods/arrows just feels kinda weird. So I guess my answer is bastardized old school Cherry profile (ABCDEE). Because screw F-profile, that's just weird :/
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OEM is my favorite profile, I think that they look the best (tall and distinct) and feel better to the fingers than less sculptured shapes like on RDs. Cherry isn't flat per se, there's just less change in incline.
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I have a set of BSP dye-subs on my daily driver, before I got them I didn't think I would like having an A profile bottom row, but they've grown on me to the point that using B profile bottom row mods/arrows just feels kinda weird. So I guess my answer is bastardized old school Cherry profile (ABCDEE). Because screw F-profile, that's just weird :/
What are A F & B profiles?
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I'd say Cherry > DCS > OEM / SA > DSA and other non-contoured profiles. I don't like flat caps or caps that don't have different row profiles.
I have a set of BSP dye-subs on my daily driver, before I got them I didn't think I would like having an A profile bottom row, but they've grown on me to the point that using B profile bottom row mods/arrows just feels kinda weird. So I guess my answer is bastardized old school Cherry profile (ABCDEE). Because screw F-profile, that's just weird :/
What are A F & B profiles?
A is original Cherry bottom row profile, B is second row (Shift row), F is original Cherry top row and it's very tall. Most sets nowadays just use B profile for the bottom 2 rows and E profile for the top 2.