Hello

[Anonymous Coward]

I have lurked here on and off for around two years and finally decided to make an account. I hope to learn even more from the many knowledgeable people here. My mechanical keyboard experience is limited to a keyboard that was gifted to me which had Cherry MX blues. I ended up not really liking that keyboard and now I am currently searching for a new keyboard. I have decided that my next board will be a HHKB Pro, RF 55G, or TKL with MX clears (hoping to find a KUL ES-87) to see if they fill my needs before moving on to custom stuff. Currently typing on an old ThinkPad. Thanks for reading 

[clacktalk]

welcome! i've found that there are a lot of reasons to dislike a keyboard, and the more you are aware of what you specifically like/dislike, the closer you'll reach keyboard nirvana.

from personal preference, besides switches, the keycaps could also play a big role in your typing enjoyment. most stock keyboards have not-so-good caps, so swapping them could up your feels. i would recommend thick abs, cherry profile caps.

in terms of the new switches you're eyeing, Topre is great, but not for everyone (including me), and MX clears are more enjoyable lubed and spring-swapped to a lighter weight. but of course, this is all inexact since personal preference rules all.

the best route would be to try as many boards/switches as you can in as many variations to really find what you like. good luck

[rowdy]

Welcome to Geekhack!

Seems like you are leaning towards tactile non-clicky switches.  The HHKB will be a lot lighter than the other two.  55g Topre will be a bit heavier, but has a different force curve.  MX clears will probable be the heaviest of those you have listed.

One consideration is swapping keycaps - a keyboard with MX (or MX-compatible) switches will be considerably easier to find replacement keycaps for, unless you want to go to the extent of replacing the Topre sliders with MX compatible ones.  Not too expensive, but a task that can be time-consuming and fiddly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for the advice. Yes, unfortunately I think that I will end up trying a lot of different boards to find my preference. Clears with swapped springs that are lubed and broken in sound very appealing to me. I also think that the reason I did not like that keyboard probably did have something to do with the cheap ABS keycaps.

Tactile non-clicky is what I am looking for. I have read about the force curve and it only makes the decisions more difficult. I am not too concerned about swapping keycaps. Artisanal and color coded caps look very interesting but I'm not sure they are for me. I will have to try some eventually though. Too bad there is no store near me which carry all these boards. Maybe there will be a meetup in my area where I can try them which I will keep an eye out for.

[rowdy]

Broken in clears - you might end up doing that yourself!

Force curves are all very well, but the feel of a keyboard says more to your fingers than a force curve.  Plus the keycaps can make a huge difference to the feel of a keyboard - thin ABS compared to, say, thick PBT can make one keyboard feel completely different.

I have a few keycap sets lying around, and swapping them on my keyboards sometimes seems like I have more keyboards than I actually have.