Well, I got one today – Type Heaven is installed and operational.
Sorry but I can’t compare to a RealForce since I’ve never owned one… but perhaps soon I will.
My prior keyboards for the past couple years have been Browns 104 – a Leopold from EK and a WASD.
My only use is “typing”, for my business.
I love the Browns. I have been wanting to try a Topre for some time but really wanted 45g-uniform, preferably in a 104 layout, and preferably in black – but not with black lettering on black keys since I need to see the lettering.
I thought this was my dream-come-true keyboard when I saw the specs.
Out of the box, I like the feel enough to say this is probably going to be a keeper for me -- at least, the change from Browns to Topres is probably a permanent one -- though I do realize of course that I have to use it for some time before I can really tell how much I do or don't like it.
Right off the bat, though, the sound of the spacebar on the return or upstroke is annoyingly loud to me. So, I came to the forum to ask if there's a way to make it quieter. What I did on the Leopold and WASD was pop off the spacebar and put some foam inside of it that I cut to shape, which seemed to help. I’ve also installed o-rings under all my Browns, including the spacebars.
Now, after reading this thread, I have to ask not only about any possible mods for dampening the sound of the spacebar on this new Type Heaven, but also if the lettering on these keycaps is going to start to wear off quickly -- like it did on my WASD with “laser-etched” lettering. The keys and lettering look virtually identical to my new Type Heaven, including the brownish coloring. I have replaced the keycaps on that WASD keyboard twice now due to the lettering wearing off -- the first time Weyman sent the replacement as a gift, telling me the lettering style was “a poor choice that he made”, and the second time it cost me about $50.00 for the set.
Maybe the “textured” tops of the keycaps will slow down that process a bit. It was pretty quick and pretty extreme on my WASD board – and the time I spent changing keys on it was enough for me to decide to never again get a keyboard with that kind of lettering. If I knew that’s what I was doing, I might not have gotten this.
Besides the lettering, I also don’t have the best keycap material – as compared to a RealForce?
I'm really totally willing to go to EK and buy a RealForce 45g-uniform white TKL and separate numpad if that's likely to give me a little improvement in my build quality, or lettering that lasts... or a quieter spacebar (which I don't expect).
Thanks for any help or suggestions!
EDIT/UPDATE: I got no responses here, which is probably because of it being a bit off-topic, so I started a new thread in the Reviews section:
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=45957.msg964991#msg964991
