Author Topic: Hi from Spain  (Read 1276 times)

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Offline xac0

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Hi from Spain
« on: Sat, 06 March 2021, 06:26:07 »
Hey, I'm xac0, I'm 23 and I'm from Spain. I've been using mechanical keyboards for a couple years, but I started my journey in custom keyboards about 1 week ago.

I built a keebio iris rev. 4 with some gateron blue switches. I also have a Glorious GMMK TKL, and I'm waiting for some Kailh Box Burnt Orange switches I'll try to lube without ruining them (first timer  :))

Looking forward to learn as much as possible and share with you all.
Cheers!

Offline Maledicted

  • Posts: 2164
  • Location: Wisconsin, United States
Re: Hi from Spain
« Reply #1 on: Mon, 08 March 2021, 08:45:10 »
Hi xac0. Welcome to Geekhack.

I'm no ergo guy, but that Iris looks nice. How do you like the Gaterons? They're probably the best MX clone clickies. What other switches have you tried? If you like clickies thus far, you'll probably want to look at the Kailh box switches as well.

Offline xac0

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Re: Hi from Spain
« Reply #2 on: Fri, 12 March 2021, 10:42:26 »
Hi xac0. Welcome to Geekhack.

I'm no ergo guy, but that Iris looks nice. How do you like the Gaterons? They're probably the best MX clone clickies. What other switches have you tried? If you like clickies thus far, you'll probably want to look at the Kailh box switches as well.

Yeah, I also have a motospeed 60% which mounts kaihl box white switches, I prefer whites than gateron blue, I think they sound  slightly better and I like how short you need to push to get the click compared with blues. However, gaterons are some really enjoyable and noisy switches, I'm really used to them and love their sound.
I have also tried Cherry blacks, and I'm definitely not a linear person, they felt really boring.

Are there another kind of clicky switches I need to try? I've been thinking to get some jades, but I'm afraid they will barely make a difference  :(

Offline Maledicted

  • Posts: 2164
  • Location: Wisconsin, United States
Re: Hi from Spain
« Reply #3 on: Fri, 12 March 2021, 15:31:14 »
Hi xac0. Welcome to Geekhack.

I'm no ergo guy, but that Iris looks nice. How do you like the Gaterons? They're probably the best MX clone clickies. What other switches have you tried? If you like clickies thus far, you'll probably want to look at the Kailh box switches as well.

Yeah, I also have a motospeed 60% which mounts kaihl box white switches, I prefer whites than gateron blue, I think they sound  slightly better and I like how short you need to push to get the click compared with blues. However, gaterons are some really enjoyable and noisy switches, I'm really used to them and love their sound.
I have also tried Cherry blacks, and I'm definitely not a linear person, they felt really boring.

Are there another kind of clicky switches I need to try? I've been thinking to get some jades, but I'm afraid they will barely make a difference  :(

How do you like the Motospeed? I like having dedicated arrow keys myself, because of my use cases. I certainly couldn't argue with $46.99 for a board full of box whites though. That's fantastic for someone just getting into mechanicals.

I agree. MX blacks I always found to be scratchy and even fatiguing, although that was maybe before I was used to typing on relatively firm clicky switches. I could take or leave linears. I think they're useful for gaming and I do have an old Corsair K70 that still has the original MX reds in it for gaming duty, though I have considered swapping them for Gateron yellows due to their smoothness and increased spring weighting.

Jades are absolutely wonderful and feel and sound almost nothing like box whites. You may notice, in time, that even the box whites are crisper and more refined that the Gaterons as well, although slightly less tactile overall. With jades you'll get just about the most tactility you'll find with MX-compatible switches, and they're nice and bassy (if that's something you desire), which is very rare for clicky switches. They have comparatively light coil springs in relation to the thickness of their click bar (jades and navies are nicknamed thick clicks), so there's a perception of their being sluggish on the return. I sort of like this myself, and have found no problems at all with them being able to properly return every time. They feel the closest to me to Alps SKCM of the MX-compatibles as well (more on that later).

Of the better clicky switches ever made, the only ones that are relatively low-pitched are box jades, box pinks (lighter and less tactile than jades, a nice middle ground between them and whites), Matias and Alps SKCM. Jades are probably my very favorite MX-compatible switch, but navies (crisp and well-balanced, a joy to type on, but high-pitched, pingy, and pretty stiff) and pinks follow closely behind. Some of the best clicky switches ever made are Alps SKCM blues, but they went out of production in 1989. The ones that remain are often ruined by dust and dirt, which is their Achilles heel, but if you can find some in good shape they're wonderfully buttery smooth and refined.

An affordable and currently-produced spiritual successor, and the best of the modern mass market clickies (in my humble opinion) is Matias' clicky switches. They're a clone of simplified Alps, which descended from SKCL/SKCM (complicated Alps). They don't feel quite as good as SKCM blues, and the better SKCM whites (which came after blues) but they come close, and I do prefer them even to box jades. I went over some of the tumultuous history, and my more of my own experiences with Matias switches in this recent response in another new member thread.

In my opinion, further contenders for the crown of best clicky switches of all time are also capacitive buckling spring and beam spring, both being old IBM designs. Beam springs were IBM's first attempt to create a computer keyboard meant to sound and feel like the mechanical typewriters that people were accustomed to before they started transitioning more and more to personal computers in the late 1970s. They're exceptionally smooth, maybe the smoothest clicky switches I have ever felt. The tactile vent is ever so slight, but the click is still somehow very satisfying, and thunderous. Many of these boards came with solenoids that could be toggled on and off for even more noise, if so desired. These boards usually sell for well over $1,000 these days, and I actually feel I may prefer capacitive buckling spring anyway. Capacitive buckling spring was a simplification/cheapening of the beam spring aimed at producing a comparable feel and sound with a much less complex mechanism. It is literally just a coil spring that, when depressed by the keycap, compresses to the point of buckling to the side. When it does so, it moves a plastic flipper that changes the capacitance between two pads on the PCB beneath to register a key press. It is dead simple, outstandingly reliable, wonderfully smooth and crisp, and satisfying to type on (although it is high-pitched and can be pingy depending on the case construction). It gives an illusion of high tactility when most of that tactility is mostly just the spring pressure stacking sharply shortly before the spring buckles cleanly and you bottom out. It also has a lower tactile event and actuation point than most switches, which I personally like. If you use Model M keycaps (membrane buckling spring) with a Model F, it slightly raises the point of actuation and tactile event (which are perfectly aligned with both mechanisms due to how they operate) due to a minor difference in design of the caps.

Long story short, most of the best clicky switches are either totally out of production, in limited (and not cheap) new production, or live on in slightly inferior descendants. Box switches are still fantastic switches regardless, and a surprisingly novel design in a world so oversaturated with slight variations of MX.

There's so much more to be said, but we could focus on something specific if you have any questions, otherwise Chyrosran22's Youtube videos and the Deskthority wiki can help get you up to speed on almost anything you would like to know about most of the better-known/documented clicky switches.

Offline WoobEC

  • Posts: 54
  • Location: Spain
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Re: Hi from Spain
« Reply #4 on: Wed, 17 March 2021, 12:39:26 »
Hey, I'm xac0, I'm 23 and I'm from Spain. I've been using mechanical keyboards for a couple years, but I started my journey in custom keyboards about 1 week ago.

I built a keebio iris rev. 4 with some gateron blue switches. I also have a Glorious GMMK TKL, and I'm waiting for some Kailh Box Burnt Orange switches I'll try to lube without ruining them (first timer  :))

Looking forward to learn as much as possible and share with you all.
Cheers!

Hey there! We are also from Spain!

Let us know if you happen to have any questions, we are more than happy to talk about keyboards  :D