Hi everyone. Last year I bought my first mechanical keyboard (coming from whatever random keyboard I had before) and I've been moderately happy with it. It's a Tada68 with Cherry MX Clear switches.
I ordered a hot-swappable PCB to try out a bunch of switches. Naturally, I ordered browns - if they are to light I'll play with clears + brown spring. From just looking at the graphs it seems like I might be interested in checking out the blues. I would also like to play with shorter actuation distance so I'll check out Kailh Copper and Gold. Oh - and for now I don't care about the sound of the switch.
Do you have any recommendations on what I should try out: tactile or clicky, lighter than MX clear, actuation right after the tactile event, and possibly <2mm travel to actuation.
I've been down this road, so I can help you out. I'm someone who bothers with this stuff.
Yeah, MX Clears can be too heavy, not forgiving of low-actuation on your part.
Browns can be good, but might require some tuning.
So for the intermediate switch - the Ergo Clear - there are a lot of options, and they matter.
It is good to modify MX Clears into Ergo Clears, because it's easy and produces results. The lighter the spring, the more lube you are going to want to use [unless you like crunch, some do.]
A good 'knee of the curve' weight for Ergo Clears is probably 67 G. You may not even need to lube at that weight - the spring may be enough for this 'bigger Brown.' I personally think that 65 G 14mm TX is a good weight. A modest amount of careful lube can be used with this weight. The tactility is not compromised.
Another successful spring is 62 G TX. With lube, this makes for a poppy Ergo Clear, a short snappy impulse kind of like MX Blue. You can also use 'progressive' springs to very slightly mimic the gradually-increasing force curve of the regular MX Clear spring. Getting a lighter MX Clear, in a way. I find 68 G Progressive Spirit to be a good choice, moderate lube. Or you can go 63.5 G, but that's very borderline, feels like an MX Red at the top. Wants ample lube.
Anyway, it's worth experimenting with Ergo Clears, and is not difficult. These stems and housings are fairly forgiving of mediocre lubing. You can also try using films. They don't have as much effect on Cherry housings as in others [e.g. JWK], but may make the sound profile slightly more consistent, which will help on boards with mediocre sound-profiles, such as factory boards and TADA68.
There are also a number of switches that resemble the intensity of Ergo Clears: Zealio V1 Redux, SP Star Purple / Magic Girl, Durock Medium Tactile and variants, Naevies [very close], Gateron CAP Brown, some of the TTC Browns are more like Ergo Clears.
Those above switches are all in-between the intensity of Browns and the heavier tactiles like Holy Panda and Zealio V2. For Browns, there's a whole other range of choices. You may wish to try Durock Light Tactile / Pewter / Cotton Candy, Greetech Brown, and so on.
One thing I would consider in your place is Kailh Pro Purple. It is an older design and very scratchy [lube-starved]. However, it was kind of an attempt at a factory Ergo-Clear. It's more intense than Brown by the spring-weight alone, and the bump is placed higher. So if that's something that matters to you, they may be worth lubing and trying. I find that 63.5 G Spirit springs are good with these.
Unlike some others, I agree with you that bump placement even on light tactiles makes a difference - Kailh Speed Copper is a different switch than MX Brown or MX Clear, and worth trying. I have a keyboard made up of Pro Purples and Speed Coppers, they find their niche on a keyboard.
[Pro Purples and Speed Coppers will give you faster actuation, as will Durock Medium Tactile, and perhaps Zealio V1 [especially V2] and CAP Brown.]Also try Kailh BOX Brown, as that's a medium-tactile that actuates in a very definite manner. Everglide Jade also actuates higher than MX Brown, and could function as a kind of Ergo-Clear with 62 G Spirit springs. Just be sure to film, and lube generously.
