I got a Das and a friend got a Ducky, why do they feel so different?

[Nyphur]

I recently got a Das Keyboard Ultimate Silent and a friend got the Ducky Shine II Tenkeyless. They both have Cherry MX Brown switches and the key profiles are the exact same, but there's a noticeable difference in quality between them. The Ducky keys have a tactile bump near the start of the key press that's consistently the same for each key press, and it has a nice push back force. The Das feels very loose and light in comparison, there's much less push back force and the tactile bump varies wildly between keypresses (even different presses of the same key!). It feels like if I press keys with my fingers at different angles the tactile bump changes, there are times when I can't even feel the bump at all.

The Ducky's keycaps also sit very firmly in place if I try to jiggle them, but the Das keys can jiggle more. The big keys on the Das are actually also shaky and rattly and one squeaks, but that's probably the stabiliser bar and can probably be fixed. I've even tried swapping the keycaps between the two keyboards and it made no difference, and you can feel the difference when just pressing the switch so it's definitely not the keycaps at fault. I'm just left confused and annoyed, aren't two keyboards with the same switches and keycap profile supposed to feel pretty much identical?

I deliberately went for the Ultimate as it's still made by Costar, and I double-checked that it says it's made in Taiwan, so this isn't anything to do with the new OEM fiasco. Why does my Das feel so low quality and has anyone else experienced this too?

[Vintage]

Weird. It could just be that some of the brown switches used in the Das has differences in the way the plastic formed causing them to feel different. Or it could have been dune to the way they have been soldered into the board.

Or maybe the placebo effect. Did your friend notice a difference too?

[Nyphur]

Weird. It could just be that some of the brown switches used in the Das has differences in the way the plastic formed causing them to feel different. Or it could have been dune to the way they have been soldered into the board.

Or maybe the placebo effect. Did your friend notice a difference too?

I think they're both plate mounted, and my friend did notice a difference too. I don't think I'm imagining this :/

[daerid]

That's very odd. My Das Ultimate was rock solid, and felt better than any Ducky I've ever tried.

[Vintage]

Weird. It could just be that some of the brown switches used in the Das has differences in the way the plastic formed causing them to feel different. Or it could have been dune to the way they have been soldered into the board.

Or maybe the placebo effect. Did your friend notice a difference too?

I think they're both plate mounted, and my friend did notice a difference too. I don't think I'm imagining this :/

Yeah they are both plate-mounted.

 Pretty weird though considering its not the Chinese model.

[KuhnTang]

My das browns were "loose" too.  I didn't like it.  I need more of a bump, and as such, I ordered clears.

[Nyphur]

Anyone have any idea how I can test what's wrong with the keyboard? Or any idea what to do to with it?

[histevenhere]

My das with blues were rock solid , no wiggle whatsoever. Maybe it's the brown switches they used :/ . My two cents .

[TranscendingLogic]

My das browns were "loose" too.  I didn't like it.  I need more of a bump, and as such, I ordered clears.

Is that the same Das you traded me, KuhnTang? If so, I really don't feel any noticeable difference between it and my other mx brown boards. It seems to be as solid as any Filco I've owned. I notice that old WYSE caps make one of my Filcos seem a little looser, but that's just the loose fit of the caps. Keycaps can make a big difference. I put a set of blank PBTs on the Das and it's a great board.

The one board I experienced too much wobble with was the Deck with mx clears. Funny you went from browns to clears.

[Burz]

IIRC the tolerance for stiffness on Cherry MX switches is about 20 grams (+/-). Reading people's reports on Cherry-bedecked boards for the last 12 months, I've gotten the distinct impression that some OEMs test and filter their supply from Cherry somehow to produce a more consistent feel than would normally occur (i.e. the board mfg's standards are higher than Cherry's).

Some people complain also about 'gritty' Cherry switches from certain board mfgs and that makes me wonder if some of them are more stringent about testing their shipments from Cherry and sending subpar ones back. Either that, or perhaps there are manufacturing conditions at some companies that allow the switches to be become contaminated and thus operate less smoothly (and even so, maybe such mfgs have good days and bad days)...

[AnteroX]

i experience the same thing with an fc700r vs a noppoo choc mini. both with browns. the noppoo choc mini feels a lot like reds and the fc700r actually feels more bumpy.

[Nyphur]

Hey, giving a quick update. My set of custom keys from WASD arrived and I decided to try them out before sending the Das Keyboard back. Whatever happened when I fitted the new keys seems to have seriously improved the keyboard. Perhaps some of the black keys weren't pressed in all the way and I couldn't tell, or maybe the old keys had a longer travel distance, or maybe it's that I've moved from typing on my lap to typing on a desk. Whatever happened, I'm a lot happier with the board now. The actuation bump is now right at the top of each keypress, no more than 1mm down, and the keypresses feel way more consistent.

All of the big keys with stabiliser bars were still shaky and rattly, but I fixed them by reducing the size of the hole in the plastic holders the bar goes into. I just cut out tiny squares of clear sticky tape and layered them inside the holder until the bar fit snugly, so now it can't jiggle around and cause a rattle. 5-8 layers worked best depending on which key it was. The only issues I have to fix now are that I need an o-ring for the space bar and there's a bit of a metallic sounding reverberation off the plate when some keys are let go (particularly noticeable on left ctrl, X, and the . key on the numpad). Any idea how to solve that issue?