Brand new Cherry MX

[czarek]

Guys quick question. Are these still crap?

I remember my first modern mechanical keyboard being Filco with browns, which I enjoyed for years. Then I had all sorts of HHKBs, Realforces, Model Ms, Fs, Alps etc, and when I got tired of it all, went for a normal Filco with blues which I absolutely love until today. It's just not appropriate always (like video conferencing) so my current daily driver is silent RF 104 (UB-S) which is near perfect (only issue I'm having with it is fading dark grey coating and black plastic being visible underneath - yuck for €240 keyboard).

I buy a lot of keyboards however and on a way (I think 3-4 years ago) I had QFR with MX reds which felt scratchy. I gave it to my wife for couple weeks to break in, but they still felt scratchy when coming from Topre. So I gave it to my friend as a gift (he did like the feel and didn't find it scratchy at all). He has had it for good couple years and I recently tried it when I visited him. Still scratchy as hell compared to my Realforce, or even HHKB. Tough...

Another sad story with Cherry MX is Code keyboard I bought last year. I went for MX blues hoping for the feel close to my Filco, but nope, nothing like it. At least half of the switches didn't click, and neither of them feel right. I ended up replacing them with NIB Vintage MX blacks (62G springs) and that made it ultimate keyboard.

Couple weeks ago I received another WASD keyboard, this time with silent MX Reds (aka Pinks) and again they don't feel quite right. They are a bit uneven (some keys feel a bit off) and a bit mushy, especially comparing to Topre. They are super smooth though, really on pair with my Realforce. Having those experience with WASD I silently assume they have something messed up with their soldering process (using too high temperature maybe?) that messes up switches. Or they just have crappy QA compared to Filco or CM Storm (all those use Costar manufacturing).

So I'm thinking about getting another keyboard which will 99% be Filco. Just not sure wether I want to go with MX Blues (again, if they feel like my code originally felt, it's a no go), MX Reds (I'm a bit scared they will be scratchy like the QFR), or MX Silents (those feel almost perfect in WASD, could be perfect in Filco, but who knows, maybe it's Cherry, not WASD to blame).

Also I'm running Falbatech with my brother and we used to get Cherry MX switches in batches of 20k - 40k, but at some point there were problems with availability and we pretty much switched for the alternative Gateron and Greetech switches. I love Gaterons for their smoothness but I don't like how wobbly they are (especially zealios, ughhh), Greetechs are similar in smoothness and are a bit tighter, but their consistency is not perfect and when we build keyboards we have to "cherry pick" switches to make the keyboard feel perfect (trust me, no other manufacturer does it).

So please let me know your feelings about the brand new Cherry MX. Are they smooth (in case of reds)? Are they consistent (in sound and feel in case of blues)? Worst case scenario, I'll re-solder keyboard with either MX Blues I scavange from G80 (made around 2010-2012, those feel fantastic), or Vintage MX Blacks (those are getting hard to get though, especially NIB). I would prefer not to have to open and solder the keyboard though.

[1swt2gs]

Brand new blues are awesome, worn out blues can be mushy in my opinion.

As for clears, I would say the opposite. My clears brand new were very stiff but once I broke them in (daily driver for work) I love them.

[Giorgio]

Cherry MX red silents are super smooth. Maybe a little bit heavier than reds.

Cherry MX reds became very smooth after a month of daily use. Don't use any lube or they won't smooth themselves.

[czarek]

Nope, your hands get used to roughness after a month.

[davkol]

I've recently acquired lots of gaming keyboards from 2014/2015, some of them _very_ worn and a few NIB. I've also had a few keyboards from ~2012 (Kinesis Advantage, CM Storm QFR, Noppoo Choc Mini, Das III Ultimate).

I haven't noticed significant differences among modern switches. I can generally tolerate them, but they're nothing like their vintage counterparts, that I actually enjoy. Wear doesn't make much of a difference in my experience (unless, obviously, there's some damage from spills/dirt).

MX Black feels scratchy. Not as scratchy as contemporary Kailh (those are an utter disgrace), but somewhat worse than A4Tech's linear optical switches or gaterons (those are pretty overrated, ime, though). I use it almost daily and it doesn't bother me much, but it's not great. Vintage blacks from G80 boards are a whole different league.
MX Red is the same, except the softness masks scratchiness a bit.
MX Brown is tolerable, esp. with emulated click (e.g., on Kinesis Advantage), but much much much worse than vintage browns. Again, I don't think gaterons are much better (or anywhere even remotely close to vintage browns for that matter), but the grinding sound they make during the bump is different in a way… It sounds like cherries are deeper, whereas gaterons sound quite high-pitched.
MX Blue has always been annoying since the change in stem design in 1992, imo, due to the high-pitched noise. I don't notice any significant scratchiness, but the hysteresis feels "stickier" on the newer switches (Das III Ultimate isn't as bad as a new gaming board, Ozone-branded iirc).

[Giorgio]

Nope, your hands get used to roughness after a month.

Nope. You can feel the difference between the most used and less used keys.

[losing_ctrl]

Having just got a Leopold FC750R with MX Browns last week, I can tell you that those switches are as smooth as butter, and very consistent. I am not sure if different keyboard companies have different QC standards. FWIW, last year I bought a CODE with MX Clears and found that to be very consistent as well.

[czarek]

To be honest new MX Browns are probably the ones I have least issues with. I have (well my wife has) last years CM Storm Quickfire XT and this years Ducky One with those switches and both of those keyboards do feel pretty good. I even used Quickfire for about a month as a daily driver and quite liked it. It is a bit boring switch though and overall the keyboard does feel a bit cheap. It is definitely passable though. And note that I'm used to top tier boards like HHKB (stock and silenced), Realforce (stock 55g, silenced variable), Model Fs, custom GH60s in wooden, acrylic and alu cases. Coming from a borad like any of those to Quickfire and not finding it bad says a lot about it. That's of course taking in consideration build quality, switches smoothness and consistency and keycaps (I use GMK doubleshots and Gateron PBT blanks).

I am not big fan of MX Browns though. May actually go with reds this time. Just for the sake of it. I do have filco with blues, qf xt with browns (my wife uses ducky), which is pretty much same thing, and wasd with silent reds. So lets get a red filco for a variety. I'll use it for a while, maybe I'll get used to roughness, if not, I'll swap switches

[kawasaki161]

Nope, your hands get used to roughness after a month.

Nope. You can feel the difference between the most used and less used keys.

Is that supposed to be a good or a bad thing?

[1swt2gs]

Nope, your hands get used to roughness after a month.

Nope. You can feel the difference between the most used and less used keys.

Is that supposed to be a good or a bad thing?

Depends on the switch.

[Giorgio]

Nope, your hands get used to roughness after a month.

Nope. You can feel the difference between the most used and less used keys.

Is that supposed to be a good or a bad thing?

Good, since linears become smoother.