SA Keycaps on MX Blues

[Kavik]

I ordered Orange on Dolch from Keyclack since I have wanted Hack'd By Geeks for a while, and, holy wow, SA keycaps make MX Blues sound good.  In the past year or so, I really grew to hate the sound of MX blues, but the SA caps seem to subdue the sound a bit and make them sound more mechanical somehow (as in like a machine), but the spacebar is ten times worse for some reason. O-rings do nothing for the spacebar. I think that may be because the stems are so long that they hit the plate. Maybe some tape on the bottom can help cushion them.

Ultimately, I am going to put this set on The Moon or M65-A. I'm curious to try them on gat greens, silent blacks, and zealios now.

[HotRoderX]

This brings me a bit of hope! I put a set of Maxkey's Portland on my Tada 68 with Gateron blacks and hated them! The profile being so tall its almost impossible to type properly with. Then that hollow thunk sound when bottoming out was not at all pleasant.

Then I threw them on a MX clear board and once more just couldn't deal with the profile and the hollow thunk!

Now i have to give them a shot on my Ducky One Board its got blues. I hate to think paid for the caps and wasted the money. I like to use them on something.. thought not sure I buy anymore SA profile caps. There so tall.

[scwoopz]

This brings me a bit of hope! I put a set of Maxkey's Portland on my Tada 68 with Gateron blacks and hated them! The profile being so tall its almost impossible to type properly with. Then that hollow thunk sound when bottoming out was not at all pleasant.

Then I threw them on a MX clear board and once more just couldn't deal with the profile and the hollow thunk!

Now i have to give them a shot on my Ducky One Board its got blues. I hate to think paid for the caps and wasted the money. I like to use them on something.. thought not sure I buy anymore SA profile caps. There so tall.

When you type do you use a wrist rest? If you do, you may find some help in lifting your wrists up and not touching them to anything as you type. Otherwise, some people just don't like tall profile keycaps, like me. I really only like cherry or Topre and don't like to type on anything else.

[Kavik]

This brings me a bit of hope! I put a set of Maxkey's Portland on my Tada 68 with Gateron blacks and hated them! The profile being so tall its almost impossible to type properly with. Then that hollow thunk sound when bottoming out was not at all pleasant.

Then I threw them on a MX clear board and once more just couldn't deal with the profile and the hollow thunk!

Now i have to give them a shot on my Ducky One Board its got blues. I hate to think paid for the caps and wasted the money. I like to use them on something.. thought not sure I buy anymore SA profile caps. There so tall.

If it's the tall profile that you don't like, you might still be out of luck. I myself like the way they feel though. They make me feel as if I'm typing faster, even though according to keyhero, I'm typing slower, which is weird.

The only thing I don't really like, besides the awful spacebar sound, is that the bottom row slopes toward down me, the opposite way from what I'd expect (like a flipped spacebar).

[klennkellon]

Normally I think clicky switches sound and feel best with shorter/thinner caps (this is especially true with clicky Alps imo) but with MX Blues you definitely want tall and thick caps to help muffle the awful rattly plasticy click they make.

OP I ought you try to make some Cherristotles or Gatistotles, they feel and sound way better than stock MX blues!

[zslane]

The profile being so tall its almost impossible to type properly with.

SA does take a little bit of getting used to. It is my favorite profile. However, I do think it would be good to have a medium-height, fully sculptured, spherical profile out in the marketplace too. For instance, imagine if XDA were expanded to included full sculptured rows.

[ander]

I'm sure it'd be my favourite profile too. It's certainly my favourite look.

It's just too bad SAs always cost 2–3 times as much. Unlike you young guys with oodles of disposable dough, I'm afraid my wife won't let me buy a key set that costs as much as an entire pretty decent keyboard, no matter how cool they look or good they sound.  :?(

BTW, I don't think you're actually referring to "caps"—they'd be "switch caps" then, not "key caps".

"Caps" are actually the printed, removable parts that go on two-part IBM keys. Unicomp—the direct descendant of Lexmark, and therefore IBM—still calls them "buttons", which is what keyboard-makers have always called them. That may sound too strange, though, if you haven't grown up with the computer industry.

I'm not sure why people started calling these "caps". "Keys" seems more accurate... You press a key, it activates a switch, right? There's nothing to put a "cap" on, really—unless it's an IBM.

[zslane]

I kind of look at a mech keyboard as two major components: the keycaps, and everything else. Skimping on one half does disservice to the other half. After all, the keycaps are the interface between your fingers and the switches. Having high quality keycaps is important.

It's a little bit like electric guitars. Too many hobbyist players spend $1000 on the guitar and then go cheap on the amp. They don't understand or appreciate the fact that an electric guitar is only half an instrument; the amplifier is the other half, and just as important. The rule of thumb should be to spend equal amounts on both if you want to sound your best.

Now, if you treat keycaps as little more than a fashion accessory for the board, then yeah, you do have to have boatloads of disposable income to chase that dragon. But if you are trying to build your main daily driver into that end-game board you've always dreamed of, then splurging on a top-of-the-line keycap set is a necessary investment, and luckily one you only really have to make once. Just tell your wife that it could be worse: you could be into restoring vintage cars... 

[Kavik]

I'm sure it'd be my favourite profile too. It's certainly my favourite look.

It's just too bad SAs always cost 2–3 times as much. Unlike you young guys with oodles of disposable dough, I'm afraid my wife won't let me buy a key set that costs as much as an entire pretty decent keyboard, no matter how cool they look or good they sound.  :?(

BTW, I don't think you're actually referring to "caps"—they'd be "switch caps" then, not "key caps".

"Caps" are actually the printed, removable parts that go on two-part IBM keys. Unicomp—the direct descendant of Lexmark, and therefore IBM—still calls them "buttons", which is what keyboard-makers have always called them. That may sound too strange, though, if you haven't grown up with the computer industry.

I'm not sure why people started calling these "caps". "Keys" seems more accurate... You press a key, it activates a switch, right? There's nothing to put a "cap" on, really—unless it's an IBM.

You're fighting a losing battle on that one, even if you're correct. I don't think I'll ever win the battle on membrane vs rubber dome; almost everyone thinks they're interchangeable terms.

That said, I put these SA switch covering devices on a board with Cherry MX Reds, and I really like them on that too (I've generally been pretty "meh" about linears)! I think thick ABS switch covering devices must just make everything better.