Cherry brown questions

[macguy80]

Hi,

While  I do intend to get a Matias QuietPro, I feel the need to get a Cherry board for comparison.

I have never owned a Cherry board, though I have tried Cherry black and Cherry blue in my local store. I am interested in Cherry brown, but can't find one to try locally. Thus, I have a few questions to pose:

1. I have heard that the tactile bump is very light. In listening to recordings, I can barely hear any difference at all between black/brown/red. Is this due to poor recording quality, or do Cherry browns really sound nearly identical to Cherry blacks in person?

2. If I were to get a brown board, what do you recommend?

Please correct me if I am wrong, but my thoughts are as follows:

* Filco is nice, but expensive, and I can't seem to find a brown board on Amazon, or a trusted source elsewhere for them in the US. So it's off my list for the moment.

* I am unsure if Das is still good, considering their OEM-change with their new media keyboards. I'd get one if I can be assured their quality is still as good as the previous non-media models. Thoughts?

* If I go lower cost, which do you recommend between the Leopold and the CoolerMaster series?

* I definitely want a full keyboard (no TKL), and no blank keycaps for me.

* I am a Mac user, but the keys need not be Mac-specific.

* That notwithstanding, I am physically disabled and left-handed. This means I cannot consider any board whose left Windows key (or any other key on the left) has been reassigned for proprietary functions.

Thanks!

[link_tree]

I am kind of a noob to mechanical keyboards as well and I haven't had much chance to try them either but from the information I gathered over time I might be able to offer you some insight.

1. Personally I feel like recording of the sound in general doesn't give you much of a comparison between switches they all can be loud or quite depending on whether you are bottoming the keys to hit to back or not. regarding the browns, from what I heard they are silent and the bump can barely be felt unless you are looking for it.

2.many people recommend the QF rapid so I would say they are a pretty safe bet but I feel like the leopolds offer a better quality just for the fact they are not marketed as a gaming peripheral. (the budget for gaming peripherals tends to go to a lot of advertising and less to the product quality, same for beats though)
the only downside of the leopold from what I have read is a non-standard space stabilizer so it won't fit with older key caps or something like that. I am not sure if it is something you should worry about.

[TheQsanity]

Now that I own Mech boards I don't think recordings are anything to consider at all. Maybe Rip-o-meters and close ups of boards are more informative.

http://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=leopold

CMstorm Triggers are good and commonly come in browns in reasonable prices. If you look you could find some new ones under 100 dollars but might go cheaper used. I know the local fry's has some and some refunded ones for 80-90. CMstorm pros usually can be found cheaper. Not sure about the specifics of browns though.

I prefer reds to browns. They both feel very similar once you get used to them.

[rowdy]

Welcome to Geekhack!

1. Yes.  If anything they are louder, as the weaker spring allows you to bottom out more.

2. Filco is good.  CoolerMaster - not sure about their TK keyboards, but people generally seem happy with them.  What about a Ducky, if you would like backlighting?  I use a Ducky Shine on a Mac with no issues (there is a dipswitch underneath to swap left Alt and left Win to be more Mac-like).  If you are just getting an MX board for comparison, get the cheapest.

Most keyboards I have seen have a Fn key on the right, replacing the menu key (which I actually use, but can't on this Ducky).

[daerid]

[...] replacing the menu key (which I actually use, [...]

:-O I thought I was the only one.