Dome swapping NIZ with BKE domes?

[directheatedtriode]

Can anyone that has dome swapped a NIZ keyboard with BKE Redux Light say how it changes the feel and how it changes the sound? My most used kb is a HHKB2 which I love but I need a second kb for another location and want to try something else.

Any comparisons to Realforce 55g if possible?

Thanks.

[swedishpiehole]

Maybe not much help to you, but I swapped the domes on my HHKB for BKE lights and although they felt great, they were noticeably heavier and louder than the stock 45g domes. I have some ultra lights on the way to try out, but from what I hear, even though they are lighter, they are also louder than stock.

[directheatedtriode]

Maybe not much help to you, but I swapped the domes on my HHKB for BKE lights and although they felt great, they were noticeably heavier and louder than the stock 45g domes. I have some ultra lights on the way to try out, but from what I hear, even though they are lighter, they are also louder than stock.

Yeah I'm hesitant to mess with the HHKB, the sound is just perfect to my ears (on a thick desk, it rings a bit too much on a thin desk)... and I have two SKCM blue keyboards.

I'm really just looking to try something else. Dome swapping a Realforce is a bit too pricey for my tastes, and I was not a fan of the stock 55g 87u, it just sounded too dead.

I do appreciate the advice on the weighting. It's only the SKCM blue that I find too heavy for continuous use, the 55g Realforce was fine, I hear the BKE Redux Light is fairly similar to 55g Realforce? I'd certainly look forward to what you think of BKE Redux Ultra Light compared to the 45g HHKB.

[eksuen]

I used to like 55g domes a lot and BKE Redux Lights initially felt too heavy. However, the BKE Lights do break in a bit with usage and after getting used to BKE Lights, I no longer favor 55g domes. I've learned that I like the snappy tactility of BKE domes. I would describe the feeling as the Holy Pandas or Zealio V2's of the Topre world. As a point of reference, I favor tactile MX-style switches that bottom out in the 67-70g range.

[mkkeyboardvigilante]

BKE Ultra Lights are pretty quiet with some Silence X rings to honest. Now my HHKB is even quieter than your average membane rubber dome keyboard for this reason. Before, it was so loud that it could wake up my neighbors downstairs when I would do a lot of typing at night.

Anyway, I tried to add those same domes to my Niz Plum but it didn't work out because the domes kept shifting everywhere. Little did I know that the trick to being able to swap out domes on any electrostatic capactitive board is to make sure that you have two boxes available and have the keyboard laying on the edges of both of them so the domes remain completely flat and still.

[Zuology]

I've dome-swapped BKE Heavies into a Plum84 (75%), and it was ***TEDIOUS*** but works really nicely once properly aligned after the umpteenth time reassembling after finding a single misaligned dome. I will not willingly do it ever again.

[swedishpiehole]

Anyway, I tried to add those same domes to my Niz Plum but it didn't work out because the domes kept shifting everywhere. Little did I know that the trick to being able to swap out domes on any electrostatic capactitive board is to make sure that you have two boxes available and have the keyboard laying on the edges of both of them so the domes remain completely flat and still.

I just invert the board in a case which is more stable.

[directheatedtriode]

BKE Ultra Lights are pretty quiet with some Silence X rings to honest. Now my HHKB is even quieter than your average membane rubber dome keyboard for this reason. Before, it was so loud that it could wake up my neighbors downstairs when I would do a lot of typing at night.

Anyway, I tried to add those same domes to my Niz Plum but it didn't work out because the domes kept shifting everywhere. Little did I know that the trick to being able to swap out domes on any electrostatic capactitive board is to make sure that you have two boxes available and have the keyboard laying on the edges of both of them so the domes remain completely flat and still.

I personally love the deep thock as well as the upstroke sound (this is dampened quite a bit on my thick desk) on the stock HHKB2, just my preference for placing a lot of emphasis on great sound. I have my own office at work so sound is no issue.

So I would hope the BKE Redux's sound good as well, the typing demonstrations on Youtube make them sound good, but I know many of those videos aren't representative of how they sound in real life.

[mkkeyboardvigilante]

BKE Ultra Lights are pretty quiet with some Silence X rings to honest. Now my HHKB is even quieter than your average membane rubber dome keyboard for this reason. Before, it was so loud that it could wake up my neighbors downstairs when I would do a lot of typing at night.

Anyway, I tried to add those same domes to my Niz Plum but it didn't work out because the domes kept shifting everywhere. Little did I know that the trick to being able to swap out domes on any electrostatic capactitive board is to make sure that you have two boxes available and have the keyboard laying on the edges of both of them so the domes remain completely flat and still.

I personally love the deep thock as well as the upstroke sound (this is dampened quite a bit on my thick desk) on the stock HHKB2, just my preference for placing a lot of emphasis on great sound. I have my own office at work so sound is no issue.

So I would hope the BKE Redux's sound good as well, the typing demonstrations on Youtube make them sound good, but I know many of those videos aren't representative of how they sound in real life.

I might make a video of some kind showing how it is. It's really nice.

And I understand. I still love how other Topre boards I've used are stock and are still quiet enough to use, like my Realforce boards. The snappiness of those is quite nice to me.

[directheatedtriode]

BKE Ultra Lights are pretty quiet with some Silence X rings to honest. Now my HHKB is even quieter than your average membane rubber dome keyboard for this reason. Before, it was so loud that it could wake up my neighbors downstairs when I would do a lot of typing at night.

Anyway, I tried to add those same domes to my Niz Plum but it didn't work out because the domes kept shifting everywhere. Little did I know that the trick to being able to swap out domes on any electrostatic capactitive board is to make sure that you have two boxes available and have the keyboard laying on the edges of both of them so the domes remain completely flat and still.

I personally love the deep thock as well as the upstroke sound (this is dampened quite a bit on my thick desk) on the stock HHKB2, just my preference for placing a lot of emphasis on great sound. I have my own office at work so sound is no issue.

So I would hope the BKE Redux's sound good as well, the typing demonstrations on Youtube make them sound good, but I know many of those videos aren't representative of how they sound in real life.

I might make a video of some kind showing how it is. It's really nice.

And I understand. I still love how other Topre boards I've used are stock and are still quiet enough to use, like my Realforce boards. The snappiness of those is quite nice to me.

Did you ever have HHKB2 without silencing rings stock and with BKE Redux's?

That "over damped"/ dead sound of the Realforce 55g is what I was not a fan of. I totally understand why people try to get these as quiet as possible, when I was a med student I'd have to study with earplugs in one of the computer rooms as the keyboards were just too loud for me.

[mkkeyboardvigilante]

BKE Ultra Lights are pretty quiet with some Silence X rings to honest. Now my HHKB is even quieter than your average membane rubber dome keyboard for this reason. Before, it was so loud that it could wake up my neighbors downstairs when I would do a lot of typing at night.

Anyway, I tried to add those same domes to my Niz Plum but it didn't work out because the domes kept shifting everywhere. Little did I know that the trick to being able to swap out domes on any electrostatic capactitive board is to make sure that you have two boxes available and have the keyboard laying on the edges of both of them so the domes remain completely flat and still.

I personally love the deep thock as well as the upstroke sound (this is dampened quite a bit on my thick desk) on the stock HHKB2, just my preference for placing a lot of emphasis on great sound. I have my own office at work so sound is no issue.

So I would hope the BKE Redux's sound good as well, the typing demonstrations on Youtube make them sound good, but I know many of those videos aren't representative of how they sound in real life.

I might make a video of some kind showing how it is. It's really nice.

And I understand. I still love how other Topre boards I've used are stock and are still quiet enough to use, like my Realforce boards. The snappiness of those is quite nice to me.

Did you ever have HHKB2 without silencing rings stock and with BKE Redux's?

That "over damped"/ dead sound of the Realforce 55g is what I was not a fan of. I totally understand why people try to get these as quiet as possible, when I was a med student I'd have to study with earplugs in one of the computer rooms as the keyboards were just too loud for me.

There were two sliders I wasn't able to get the rings to fit, the shift key and another one of the longer keys. They feel the same as the rest of the board except you can hear a louder upstroke.

I lubed the board a few times before, but I remember how it was completely stock. It was pretty scratchy, really loud, and a bit rough on the fingers IMO.