I've been on the lookout for a set of SKCM Blues for a while now but as of now, they are simply too expensive. I am sure they'll feel fantastic if I ever get my hands on them. I love the ping on the NEC blue ovals and as you said, they do sound musical. I think that keyboard really built my tolerance for ping so much so that it doesn't really bother me now. And they feel good to type on as well, nicer than SMK 2nd Gen clickies for me personally. Clicky space invaders are like the nicer versions of MX Blues in every regard. They are a bit too heavy for me but sound and feel good.
BTC dome with sliders are really tactile and sound quite good to my ears. Definitely not "mechanical feeling" but they are actually my favorite tactile switch at this point. I haven't ever tried Topre and I'd wager Topre feels better than the BTCs but the BTCs are just so much cheaper. The keyboard I have is a BTC 5140 from HP, if you are looking for one.
The only desoldering project I would ever consider is a 40% keyboard. I have a WYSE 60 keyboard in excellent condition with smooth MX Blacks in it but I would never even dream of desoldering it for the switches. As soon as get my soldering iron in, I'll probably convert it to USB using a Teensy.
I hadn't heard of the silent Box switches. I'll keep an eye out and maybe you can let us know how they feel once you get them in.
I would settle for a Model F-XT at this point but again, too expensive for me currently. I definitely plan to get one as soon as I can since I've heard nothing but praise for the capacitive buckling springs. I'll take your advice about the Futaba MA clickies onboard. They definitely sound interesting but if they are as much of a nightmare as you say they are, I am better off staying away.
As I see it, using a 60% gets you comfortable with layers and 40% is just the natural step. To each their own though. QMK allows you to assign key combos to a single key but depending on how many layers you are using you might end up hitting the same number of keys anyway so it depends on your use case. I like the challenge of using multiple layers as it is forcing me to think up a layout I would be most comfortable and is a huge step towards keyboard personalization, which I feel is a huge justification for this entire hobby.
That's interesting to hear, because I have yet to feel any SMK switches and had just recently been thinking about hunting a board down. Your space invaders comparison to MX blues does sound like it aligns with my feelings. Still better than any clone I have felt though too, although I haven't felt Gaterons. I find MX blue way too light these days, too much buckling spring, blue Alps, and box thick clicks I suppose.
I think that a major part of the reason that I don't own any BTC dome with slider boards now is I most likely had already owned at least one or two before my parents had me donate them, years and years ago, before I knew anything about keyboard mechanisms. For that reason, and their very low cost and abundance, I haven't been in much hurry to snag one. It sure would be interesting to compare them to Topre though, yes, if I ever get a Topre board.
You wouldn't desolder anything other than a 40% out of principal, or because of how much less effort a 40% takes? The only vintage board I have pulled the switches out of is an old Unitek K151L, and that's partly because a few of the keys were not functioning ... because the diode legs had rusted through. They're cheap and plentiful, so I didn't destroy history. I put box jades in it, which is a wonderful combination. I'm generally against just harvesting switches and tossing a retro boards unless everything else literally cannot be saved. All of the other boards I have modified are just random modern-ish boards, like TG3s, a Das, a Corsair, etc.
Wyse boards are really cool. I hope to get one some day.
The silent box switches literally came out right before I ordered them. Ironically somebody was asking a question about silent switches on this forum, box switches were mentioned. Kaihua obviously used telepathy or something and swooped in to say that they had literally just released silent box switches and linked the their Aliexpress store page for them.
At this point, it is getting harder and harder to even find an F AT for less than $300, and the XT layout is basically unusable for most people (myself included). I would consider Ellipses' F62 and F77 reproductions. I'm using one right now. It weighs enough to literally anchor a small boat, the most solid brick of a keyboard I have ever beheld. Yes, Futaba MA is, unfortunately a nightmare. It is cool that they do sort of feel and sound like playing with the top of a glass jar lid, but it just isn't worth it.
You've got a point with setting up macro keys of sorts in place of complex hotkeys you would otherwise run out of fingers for with layering, but that would result in no less keys needing to be pressed than on a regular keyboard either way in many instances, and at that point then I'm stuck with an extremely specific key mapping that will eventually alter my muscle memory. You've got enough retro boards to understand it when I say that I type with one heck of a large variation of keyboards, on a whim, just to feel an interesting old switch sometimes. Going back to normal modern ANSI keyboards after typing mostly on something with the AT layout for a week can already be jarring enough. I can't even imagine going from some extremely proprietary mapping, which may well be (in some cases) more efficient/optimized for my use cases, back to a regular keyboard and trying to re-train myself. This is even more of an issue for me than it would be for most people in that very niche situation, as I am also a computer technician by trade. So, not only do I use one heck of a lot of retro keyboards with a lot of time-saving hotkeys, I also use one heck of a lot of random laptop and desktop keyboards that are not even mine with a lot of time-saving hotkeys.
