Hey,
What's going on guys so I like blue switches I love the clicky sound I am looking to build a mechanical keyboard, hotswappable ofcourse what I don't know is are cherry mx blue's really the best? clickly and tactile I have tried the mx cherry but not much of the other brands. Is Cherry mx just good marketing but not the actual best? Are they even considered good among the community?
Hey!
Cherry MX is just the most well-known at this point, and many argue they are nowhere near the best, to be honest. Simply, they have been around since the '80s and were the only major switch manufacturer the survive the '90s without majorly revising their switches (Alps simplified from SKCL/SKCM to SKBL/SKBM) or giving up entirely (Lexmark gave up producing Model Ms after their 5-year contract with IBM ran out in 1996, after which Unicomp was formed out of the "ashes" in the US and IBM only continued making Model Ms in the UK until 1999/2000). So, as mechs regained popularity during the last decade or so, MX Blues were the choice readily available clicky switch for big-brand OEMs for a long time.
In terms of the switches themselves disregarding history, they're good enough for some (which is perfectly fine), but often serve a purpose as a "gateway drug" into mechs for some people or a reason to strive for something much better for others. Like all MX switches, Blues have since been cloned to "death" (figuratively, not literally of course) by others at this point and those clones are usually as good as the originals, in most cases louder (for better or for worse),
and cost less provided they're a simple clone without any other 'enhancements'. Some companies like Kailh have tried to innovate past them by using click bars instead of Blue's click jackets for the click on the clicky versions of their BOX switches, as yui stated. Despite being a usually hard-to-impress vintage Alps/IBM fan (in terms of clickies, I think Alps SKCM Blue sound the best and capacitive buckling springs have the nicest tactility), I quite like all of the clicky BOX switches (white, pale blue, navy and jade) and would highly recommend picking up a switch tester to see for yourself without committing a huge cost! If you still prefer MX Blues, maybe explore Gateron Blues (which are more straight clones of MX Blues) to see if you like those are similar enough and thus enable you to save money when buying all the switches for your project.
But at the end of the day, if you still like MX Blues, don't let anyone tell you they're the wrong choice!
Whilst technical reasons exist for all choices, your subjective opinion and experience should matter the most to you when choosing a switch since you're the one who has to live with the result.
