Buckling spring has the sharpest tactile feel.
Does this depend on your model? In my experience the tactile point on the Unicomp Spacesaver is smooth and rounded, while "any" clicky ALPS keyboard (Type I and II white, and complicated blue in my experience) has a much sharper tactile point, which on simplifieds is razor sharp and bordering on jarring, which I find uncomfortable and distracting. I can't say for sure that complicated blue is better, simply because my Type I and II boards are both brand new and my complicated blue board is venerable, and I imagine that, new, it could have felt the same. I think my Type I (TP3) is starting to break in a little now, although I rarely use it.
MX blue is a
lot lighter; far lighter than any other clicky keyboard. And the sound when bottomed out is quite charming as the click and clack coincide like a chord, although it's not as nice as the resounding clack of ALPS, nor is it as loud!
Buckling spring feels a lot stiffer than ALPS when pressed slowly – the force curve seems a lot straighter and linear, with the tactile point near the end of the travel, giving you a long, tough push to the bottom, instead of the early release of ALPS. spoila optima's description of Cherry MX as being "like a light buckling spring" has a grain of truth in it, in that, to me, both can be considered "linear with a bump", varying in spring stiffness and the position of the bump. ALPS switches on the other hand have a "top-heavy" force curve the same as dome switches, and a very sharp leading tactile point, which once reached, forces you to bottom out just like a dome switch because of the sheer force required to overcome it. Cherry MX drops the least when you slowly push it past the tactile point, then BS, and finally clicky ALPS.
My dusty paint-spattered "new in box" AT101W though is really awful -- coarse, grindy switches. I don't know if tactile ALPS are really that horrid, or whether they're just dusty. Storing my complicated blue ALPS keyboard in the corner of a damp room exposed to dust for years never did it any harm at all -- it's still as crisp and sharp as a brand new ALPS, wear notwithstanding (it feels as good as new, it's just not as jarring as a Type I or II).
TL;DR – one day my Cherry MX blue feels hopelessly soft, another day it's too stiff … Perception is deception. Key switches: gotta collect them all.
