Have you ever bought a keyboard before trying the switch?

[noisyturtle]

Yes, all of em...

This.

literally this

[nuclearsandwich]

I bought MX Greens after just imagining stiffer blues. I was not disappointed and a week after trying the greens bought a 60% board with them.

[Moosecraft]

Every time I bought a new switch

[Macsmasher]

Yes, every one. I'm the only keyboard aficionado (i.e. keyboard nut) that I personally know.

But I know what I like. And reading forums like GH, etc. tells me everything I need to know in order to make a purchase. When I bought my first mech board years ago, mainstream techies didn't even know what they were. If I went into Best Buy, Office Depot, Fry's, whatever, and asked a salesman about them, they gave me the deer-in-the-headlight look.

When I moved to Topre, same thing. Except with RF and HHKB, there's no sending/taking them back if you don't like them. Add to that their cost, and it becomes a leap of faith. But for me, it's been a good move. I'll take Topre over Cherry any day of the week.

With that said, there isn't a board I've purchased that I regret buying. It's been an adventure. If I could do it all over again, I would buy all the same boards.

[ch_123]

I can only think of one switches that I did try before buying - namely Beam Springs. I might at some point buy a Cherry Clear based on a set of Clear switches that I bought. All the others I bought based on either the recommendations of others or blind faith.

[terran5992]

I went for topre and cherry reds before trying them.

I fell in love with topre

I threw away cherry red

[SpAmRaY]

I've purchased every keyboard blindly. So far I've tried keyboards with every normal cherry type (except grey variants).

[atlas3686]

Bought a Filco (brown) all the way into South Africa without trying browns, there just aren't any available here.

[dgreekstallion]

Yeah, I bought an IBM Model F.

[Hyde]

I think only my first keyboard that I bought by faith (Das Keyboard MX Brown).  All the ones after I was lucky enough to either try it in store display or try them at group meet.

[Austin Powers]

Tested rosewill blue switch keyboard on physical store. Seems nice then I go for other mech keyboard manufacturer.

[The_Beast]

The only one I tried before I bought was my model F AT due to the amazing tour Akimbo put hosted

[oaklandishh]

I have bought  blue and black switch keyboards without trying them first, I also ordered 100 browns switches  without trying them. I regret nothing.

[jonathanyu]

I have bought a shine 2 78version berfore...so I tried almost every kind of mx switch

[Excaliborg]

I bought my Das with blues and my Filco with browns without trying either switch. My other Filco was bought after the purchase of a WASD sampler kit and the discovery that I like how smooth and light mx reds are.

[czarek]

I'm pretty much doing it all the time Recently got myself a super old Cherry Terminal to try Vintage Blacks

[Computer-Lab in Basement]

I bought all my mechanical boards before trying the switch, with the exception of my Model Ms.  Linear switches were the biggest disappointment...

[JonasDK]

Well, i've bought a GH60 as my first board. I haven't chosen switches yet, does this count?

[terrpn]

bought all without trying the switch

however did so after reading reviews here which for the most part are pretty darn accurate

would not have purchased otherwise, so kudo's to GH

[Phedran]

I feel perilously close to buying a Topre board without testing before. Made the clerk take a keyboard out of box for me to test Browns, he didn't understand why I was baffled that none of their mechanical boards were out to try!

[rowdy]

I wonder if those who buy a Topre board and then absolutely love it would have bought it if they tried it before buying.

Like, you get accustomed to Topre over a few hours or days, then feel you cannot switch back to MX.  But if you could try a Topre board for a few minutes - would you bother buying one?

[morpheus]

Browns and Topre. But they both happened to be my favorites. For some reason I tried the blue and red before I bought them via the WASD Sampler Kit, but they have been disappointments to me.

[gameaholic]

I bought my first buckling spring before trying it and I liked it.  I bought a board with reds before trying it and liked it.  I paid to have the a board modded to ergo clears before trying it and I like it the best so far.   

[Sniping]

I feel perilously close to buying a Topre board without testing before. Made the clerk take a keyboard out of box for me to test Browns, he didn't understand why I was baffled that none of their mechanical boards were out to try!

Just buy it, if you don't like it you'll be able to sell it in Classified for so close to the original price that it wouldn't even matter. Even closer to the original buying price if you buy a used board to start with.

[tribade]

Like most people in this thread I haven't tried any of the keyboard switches I've bought before hand.  But I like them all so far!  The only one I've gotten rid of was my BWU.  I liked the click of the blues (which is why I have greens right in front of me), but the quality of the board was really, really poor.  I gave it to my roommate to try out mechanical keyboards.  So far I like greens, topre, 55g blacks, and that's it!  blues were nice, but greens are better!  I figure that most of the switches I really want to try are in high demand, so if I don't like them I can sell them without taking too much of a hit.

[Cottonsox]

I did not try before I bought both my current keyboards. Did a fair bit of reading before diving in tho. Have a browny ducky abd red poker II. Looking for a bkue switch next, probably tkl.

[Gunni]

Yes. The only mechanical keyboard I own (look in my signature) was picked before trying it. I absolutely love it.

[xandr]

Both Matias keyboards were bought without having tried them out. So far I've been lucky with my blind buys as I haven't really bought anything lately that I didn't like using.

[McWilloughby]

Bought a G80-3000 with clears without having tried them before. I was going to get a board with browns at some point but got this one instead. Was a good decision in the end.

[Phedran]

I feel perilously close to buying a Topre board without testing before. Made the clerk take a keyboard out of box for me to test Browns, he didn't understand why I was baffled that none of their mechanical boards were out to try!

Just buy it, if you don't like it you'll be able to sell it in Classified for so close to the original price that it wouldn't even matter. Even closer to the original buying price if you buy a used board to start with.

Nnf. I'm super close, but now I'm looking at QWERTY KBT Pure backlit with Browns because it might be better for night gaming but still has the nice form factor and dedicated arrow keys. Honestly I just want a compact Topre board with dedicated arrow keys, and from what I've seen trying to find reviews for the QWERTY KBT Pure, I'm not alone.

[tricheboars]

i bought everything without trying it.

the only switch i do not like is browns. so guess which board i learned to solder on?

overall? resounding success. i regret nothing.

[nullstring]

As indicative of this thread, my guess is that it's pretty rare that an individual gets the opportunity to try a switch before he buys it.

[C5Allroad]

I bought reds before trying them, I really like it. But I will buy browns next and I haven't tries them but I suspect I like them.

[CPTBadAss]

As indicative of this thread, my guess is that it's pretty rare that an individual gets the opportunity to try a switch before he buys it.

I did. I went to every meet I could though and got lucky that Chicagoland has been active there. Im definitely very lucky.

Edit: So judging from this thread, most people don't get to try before they buy. Is there any interest for an MX tester? I have a tour setup in my signature but there has been no interest in CONUS.

[Rayne]

Every keyboard I own I bought without trying except my WASD with blues. I tryed blues at bestbuy on a razer keyboard.

[AKIMbO]

Damn near everyone of my boards were purchased before trying that type of switch.  The only boards I was able to try before purchase were capacitive buckling spring and buckling spring over membrane.

[missalaire]

Yep. I pretty much bought to try most of the switches

[astrimbu]

Yup, just bought a Pure Pro with Cherry MX Browns without ever using a mechanical keyboard. Love it.

[V1ral]

All of my keyboards were blind-purchases. When I bought my first Filco (MX blues), no stores even stocked mechanicals. When I bought my Ducky (MX reds), some MX blue keyboards were just starting to show up in places like Best Buy and Microcenter. I did technically get to try out some MX browns before buying my own in a Poker 2, but that was because I bought them for a friend guessing it would be a good match for what they wanted. My newest keyboard, a QFR with MX greens, also came around as a result of "throwing money at the screen."

I've tried switch testers before and the problem is that it's really hard to judge a keyboard-full of the same switch using only one switch. At least now my friends, who I am starting to get into mechanicals, will have somewhere to go to try out switches. 

[Seize]

my first mechanical, was a Razer black widow, tried out the tester it has on the box loved it, then.....it got FLIPPING annoying at night

steel series 7G mx blacks...... didn't try it out and bought it straight away, andddddddddddddddd wasn't so bad haha BUT i didn't like the numberpad after a while i think its because i just kept looking at it and it got on my nerves so thats not so much of a regret,

and then finally the ducky shine 2 TKL i slapped some sense into me and went to try it out before i bought it in Taiwan and yes i loved it

[rowie]

Yes, but I had those horrible dome type keyboards, a wireless Apple keyboard (thin sleek kind) next to an IBM model M2 keyboard. I used the IBM a lot more then the rest and now I have completely converted to just mechanical keyboards exclusively.

[Phedran]

my first mechanical, was a Razer black widow, tried out the tester it has on the box loved it, then.....it got FLIPPING annoying at night

The one thing I knew getting into this is that the Razer Blackwidow--and from what I could tell from youtube videos Blue switches in general--annoy the heck out of me. Something about the pitch of the click just drives me nuts.. I'm more of a sultry, deep, thock kind of person.