Best Keyboard with Blue Alps?

[filcomanfilthy]

So for starters, i know the kb-101 and the omnikey, could you give your opinion on the best blue alps kbs (could be any models)

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[SneakyRobb]

So for starters, i know the kb-101 and the omnikey, could you give your opinion on the best blue alps kbs (could be any models)

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I find the Leading Edge DC-2014 to be very nice sounding.

I find if you click a loose switch in your hand and then compare the sound to a switch that is inside a keyboard with the keycaps on they sound almost totally different. This can tell you just how important the entire rest of the keyboard is to blue alps for sound.

[Leslieann]

I would go watch Chyrosran22 on Youtube (he is also on here), he is really into Blue Alps. He has an Acer he considers to be the best but he also tends to like Focus keyboards (that link also has him telling his other favorites). Another good resource is the Deskthority Wiki, which will give you hints as to what keyboards came with those switches. 


Honestly though if you're looking to buy it will be less a matter of which keyboard is best and more a matter of what you can find in the best condition within your budget in a reasonable time frame. There are really great keyboards but they are not easy to find and when they do come up for sale they aren't cheap especially in good shape. So while you may choose one you like that doesn't mean you will be able to find it. Blues have skyrocketed in price (partly thanks to Chryros) and these days I don't think anyone would really call their prices reasonable.

I spent weeks watching Ebay for them and the one time I found one for a reasonable cost, the owner didn't know what they had, it was bought before I could log in and click buy it now. So even when you do find one, you're going to be competing with others doing the same thing.

[maaaaatt]

I have a very, very good condition Accodata Keycat (although on my blue alps example there is only 'Keycat' branding, no mention of Accodata or any FCC ID).

I have three Keycats - one with blue alps, one with white alps, and one with dreadful white alps clones (although it's branded as a Keycat II). I hope I don't give anything away to the parasites on ebay, but early Keycats seem to be a fairly reliable source of blue alps, they are easy to spot because the label on the bottom is much simpler than latter versions. The keyboards were for precision drawing workstations, so the layout is.. mostly standard, but there is an integrated track ball that shifts the t nav up to the top of the chassis where it's extremely inconvenient to use, I just use the numpad for moving. Because they keyboards were so specialised, I think they have mostly avoided being typing workhorses - all three of my keycats are in very good condition.

On the downside the doubleshot ABS caps seem to yellow quickly and some of the characters have inconsistent widths, the stabilisers are cheap and unpleasantly thocky sounding (especially noticeable on the shifts), and the cord is fixed and thin.

Overall it's no northgate omnikey, but at the end of the day it's a blue alps board that usually aren't crazy prices, have an almost standard layout and it sounds pretty good ignoring the stabilised keys.