Alrighty! Here we go...
First off, I'd like to thank Jersern for doing this tour, as without this tour I probably wouldn't even invest $300 to try topre switches out and even bother with going through the hassle of having to sell the board if topres weren't for me. Also my whole experience with topre is solely based on my usage with the HHKB, please keep in mind that other topre boards such as the Leopold FC660C and the Realforces can provide different experiences.
To get some context on my experience with mechanical keyboards, I started getting into this around June last year, the first board that I got was the Corsair K65 with Cherry MX red switches. After that I sought to build myself a custom 60% keyboard as I felt that the layout of most 60% keyboards were not for me (this mainly included the Poker 2 and other variants of it such as the V60 KB Paradise or the Leopold FC660M). The board that I built (which I call the DM60) first started off having stock cherry MX clears, then lubed cherry MX clears, I then modified it to 68g lubed cherry MX clears, and switched the stems to have 68g lubed cherry MX blacks and finally went back again to 68g lubed Cherry MX clears.
So in saying that, going into this tour I thought that topres wouldn't be for me as I felt that cherry red switches were faaar too light and the fact that are both measured to be the same weighting made be doubtful that I would enjoy typing on them. However, like with most things, I was wrong, so so wrong about topre switches. These are without a doubt my FAVORITE switch that I have tried (68g clears comes 2nd and 68g blacks are 3rd). Unlike cherry reds the majority of the force required to actuate a topre switch is at the beginning of the keypress this creates a tactile feedback (that is more noticeable than browns but less so than clears) at the beginning and allows for a smooth glide down all the way until you land gently onto the plastic plate of the HHKB due to the rubber dome collapsing into itself and in return, reducing the amount of force required to push it down. In comparison to reds, actuating them requires more of a constant applied force all the way down and provides no tactile feedback. This lack of tactility made typing with reds really annoying as I would constantly have typos and the complete linear of the feel was something I could not get used to in the few months I used it. Gaming wise, I had no preference on either reds or topre as the games I typically play (MMOs, MOBAs) don't really require me spamming a single key so I found gaming on either of them pretty much equally enjoyable.
Stock vs. lubed vs. lubed + dental band modJersern's HHKB, when it arrived, had already been lubed and the dental band mod installed. Although I enjoyed typing on it, it didn't feel as nice to me as a non dental banded one, as to my knowledge they reduce the distance the sliders go up, similar to how o-rings work with cherry keys. When I received my stock, unmodded HHKB I found the semi-high pitch clack on the upstroke pretty annoying. However after lubing it up with some of the spare thin lube I had left over which I bought from CtrlAlt, that was the moment I felt that topre switches were perfect for me. The main difference between lubed HHKBs and lubed + dental band modded HHKBs is that the lubed HHKBs maintain the tactility of the switch where as the ones with the dental band mod did not and left it a more linear switch. I believe this is due to the thickness of the dental bands as they prevent the domes to go back up to their natural position and actually be lower which would make it not require as much force for the rubber dome to collapse into itself as it is already somewhat depressed. Also much to my surprise, my lubed HHKB sounded very similar to Jersern's dental band modded HHKB in both the downstroke and upstroke. The biggest difference in sound for me was in the spacebar, as mine still had a higher pitched clack (but not as high as a stock hhkb) whereas Jersern's one was consistent all across the board. Maybe it was because of me with my poor lubing, but everywhere else on the board sounded pretty much exact to Jersern's dental band modded HHKB.
So that's all my thoughts on topre so far, I'd like to thank Jersern again for doing this tour and if anyone in Australia is curious about trying topre but don't feel like shelling the cash out I highly suggest talking to him
