Someone stop me before I go broke

[cheesy_jones]

Greetings from Washington, DC. New here, although not necessarily new to mechanical keyboards (had an AEK II years ago). But this, and DeskThority are the first exposure to the enthusiast community I've had.

Bought an Azio MK Mac keyboard and loved it so much I started down the rabbit hole. Pretty sure I've seen all of chyros' keyboard reviews twice now, so of course it prompted me to invest in a Matias Tactile Pro to see what the Alps fuss was about. Pretty good! So after I bought that I thought I'd get a Matias Quiet Pro for the office (assuming I ever return). Four hundred dollars later I am poorer in treasure, but holy crap! so much richer in sheer tactile pleasure (sorry, will try to keep it clean from now on).

These are all great keyboards—although I don't think chyros would agree that the Kaihl Browns in the Azios are so great. I love that board, though. It almost types for me. Which is weird. But dang it, it's true.

So now I've got my sights set on a Unicomp, which has a Mac  key configuration and I need to stop. But holy heck, that keyboard looks fine. But I need to stop.

Help.

[Maledicted]

Welcome to Geekhack cheesy_jones.

If you like Matias, you should try some Alps SKCM clickies some time, especially blues. All indications are that they are much better. I have never tried Matias before myself though.

I think most people think that Cherry MX browns, in particular, are unpleasant (I agree). The equivalents by other manufacturers seem to at least not feel scratchy, even if their tactility can leave something to be desired for a lot of people.

Have you ever felt a Model M before? The switches are heavier than you might be used to, just food for thought on that.

[cheesy_jones]

I have heard that a lot of folks don't like the Cherry browns (or the Kaihls) but I don't have terrible problem with them. Would love them to be more tactile, but they actually do feel pretty good overall, and I do type better with them, which I can't ignore. It's weird.

Way back when I had an AEK II (salmon Alps, right?), which if course I didn't appreciate at the time. I'd agree that any vintage complicated Alps switch is probably better than a Matias switch, which I understand are basically modified clones of the Alps simple switches. Still, the Matias switches sound pretty good and really, really annoy my boss (over Slack, no less). Which, aside from being great, also tells me that to the extent that it makes me cheerful, I clearly still haven't grown up.

Can't ever remember using a Model M. Would love to try one one day.

[Maledicted]

I have heard that a lot of folks don't like the Cherry browns (or the Kaihls) but I don't have terrible problem with them. Would love them to be more tactile, but they actually do feel pretty good overall, and I do type better with them, which I can't ignore. It's weird.

Way back when I had an AEK II (salmon Alps, right?), which if course I didn't appreciate at the time. I'd agree that any vintage complicated Alps switch is probably better than a Matias switch, which I understand are basically modified clones of the Alps simple switches. Still, the Matias switches sound pretty good and really, really annoy my boss (over Slack, no less). Which, aside from being great, also tells me that to the extent that it makes me cheerful, I clearly still haven't grown up.

Can't ever remember using a Model M. Would love to try one one day.

Have you thought about getting a switch tester of any kind? I haven't tried the regular Kailh browns, but their box browns have noticeable tactility, and are very smooth. Much better in both regards than MX browns. People seem to be veering towards Zealios for tactiles though. Many people, even if they don't like browns, do seem to feel like they have some intrinsic efficiency to them. Many people report that they type fastest on them vs other switches. I'm not sure how that could always accurately be quantified though. Someone that's used to heavy linears, like MX blacks, is going to type a lot differently on MX browns for the sake of a short test, and so will people who use membrane buckling spring, etc.

AEKIIs can have Alps SKCM salmon, cream damped, white damped, or Mitsumi standard. Deskthority's wiki is a great resource for such things if you haven't stumbled upon it yet. The likelihood is high that yours did have some kind of tactile Alps. Yes, Matias is kind of the modern Alps torchbearer. they annoy your boss and you still use them? lol Is that why you're getting a Unicomp? For the pingy, clacky music?

I don't even know what cool old boards I may have had and gotten rid of before I even knew what a mechanical keyboard was. It bothers me to wonder about. I know I had piles of old beige keyboards since I have always had, and worked on, a lot of computers.

The reason I asked about a Model M is that Unicomps are basically to the Model M what Matias is to Alps. They're modern membrane buckling spring keyboards. I have never typed on a Unicomp, but the original Ms have relatively stiff springs. Stiff enough that I initially did not like how much they fatigued my fingers. I would imagine this would be even more jarring coming from MX browns, etc, as I was coming from MX blues.

[cheesy_jones]

My understanding is that the Unicomps are even more authentic than Matias. Where Matias apparently has painstakingly recreated simplified Alps switches with a few modifications, Unicomp is the old IBM manufacturing facility in Lexington, KY, with all the old machine tooling they used decades ago. That is amazingly cool. So if you want a vintage IBM buckling springs keyboard, you can buy one new for about $100. And they have Mac key layouts, which is why it's my next keyboard.

As for my boss, everyone should have the relationship with theirs that I have with mine. My job can be quite stressful at times (particularly these days), but the people with whom I work are a delight.

[Maledicted]

My understanding is that the Unicomps are even more authentic than Matias. Where Matias apparently has painstakingly recreated simplified Alps switches with a few modifications, Unicomp is the old IBM manufacturing facility in Lexington, KY, with all the old machine tooling they used decades ago. That is amazingly cool. So if you want a vintage IBM buckling springs keyboard, you can buy one new for about $100. And they have Mac key layouts, which is why it's my next keyboard.

As for my boss, everyone should have the relationship with theirs that I have with mine. My job can be quite stressful at times (particularly these days), but the people with whom I work are a delight.

You're correct, although Unicomp does seem to be replacing, or at least supplanting, that original tooling for new bucking spring products. People have complained about the quality of the products being made by the original tooling for years, as things like that unfortunately do not last forever. I believe they've also used alternative controllers, which have had their own occasional issues (Unicomp's customer service is fantastic though).

I'm, thus far, not a fan of membrane buckling spring myself. My Model Ms are inconsistent, not very smooth, and were at least originally too stiff for me to type on comfortably for any period of time. I do need to at least tear one down and do a bolt mod to it though to give it a fair chance. Speaking of which, if you look hard, you can often find an original M, even ones from the 80s, for $50 or less if you don't mind a little cleaning and/or repair.