kriminal's first mechanical kb Filco tenkeyless with brown cherries.

[kriminal]

Good Day geekhackers!!! just decided to post my thoughts on my first mechanical keyboard purchase...
here goes... dom dom dom!

intial thoughts:
the keyboard itself is quite heavier than any typical full sized rubber dome keyboard. which i found a plus it was harder for the keyboard to be pushed around.

Distinct blackish\grey? matte colour which every geekhacker seems to like {me too! =D} hate shiney {well atleast on my filco}

As elservo stated the difference in typing {coming from a rubber dome} was truely night and day! it was so satisfying to hear the sound when keys bottom out and the smoothness in the keypresses, i ended up firing up wordpad and actually typed for the fun of it....!

some conclusions:

the keys were actually louder than i expected, i had listened to the sound clips posted for brown cherries and i thought that was loud also but wasn't totally convinced until i got my product.
now when i say "loud" i meant my coworkers can hear the sound from thier surrounding cubicles {however the office is usually rather quiet}.
and i dont mind the sound at all but it makes me wonder about the blue cherries.

I couldnt help but wonder, i felt i typed on something like this before.. then i remembered; pressing the keys felt like using a typewriter or similiar to it.

loving the small form factor, doubt i will ever go full sized again. i now treat this thing like my baby i always make sure to put the plastic casing on top when not in use even put it back in its boxing a couple time so nobody else can use it... lol
damn i typed more than i expected to... those damned cherries... =S

unlike exia i have my cake and eat it too =)

[itlnstln]

The Filcos tend to be loud due to their keycaps.*  The Cherry-made keycaps are a little thicker and made of a different plastic and are much quieter.  My G80-3000 with brown Cherrys is almost silent; it is quieter than most rubber domes around the office.  Putting Cherry caps on a Filco will change the sound in a similar manner.
 
*They may or may not be louder, per se, but the sound is higher-pitched which may increase the perception of being louder.

[itlnstln]

BTW, congratulations on the new keyboard.  Enjoy!

[kriminal]

 
*They may or may not be louder, per se, but the sound is higher-pitched which may increase the perception of being louder.

yeah i think this is the case exactly!

thanks dude!

[elservo]

Yeah, the difference is quite dramatic.  The blue cherries on a Filco are really loud.  I am occasionally still surprised by the volume of my keyboard!  

Haven't tried out a brown switch Filco and I probably never will, but from what I hear the action is pleasant and light, and makes typing a joy, just like with the blue switches.  

I want to try out Topre switches, but beyond that I'm pretty much done with buying new keyboards since the Filco Blues really are what I was looking for in a mechanical keyboard.

[itlnstln]

Once I got Cherry browns, I pretty much stopped buying keyboards en masse.  I bought a couple of new Cherry brown-based 'boards in the past year, or so, but I'm done trying new stuff out.  I would like to try a Topre 'board, but I am not going to buy one until I try someone else's first.

[kriminal]

interested in trying out a blue cherry and a topre, but thats as far as i go. however i am interested in coloured and double shot keycaps for my browns.

no alps or buckling springs for me unless somebody lets me test one..

[itlnstln]

You can't go wrong with bucking springs.  Of the easy-to-get switches, they are probably the smoothest you will experience.  That, and the IBM, Lexmark, and Unicomp 'boards they come in are some of the best made ever (both my '91s look brand new, not even a shiny key).  If they weren't so heavy, I would be using them right now, and who knows, maybe I'll just man up one day and start using them again.

[nanu]

the keys were actually louder than i expected

Yep, truly quiet keyboards are the exception, not the norm.  There's hardly any tech. progress with silencing keyboards because to do that at the noise source usually implies something inferior to mechanical switches, and no aging human who gets deafer by the year would want that lack of feedback, anyhow.

This urges me now to try a silencing idea, which would involve isolating input devices in a box with soundproofing.  This could be very hit or miss because the tricky part is the entry curtain for hands.

However, it could be thermally-isolated, too. Imagine piping hot (and dusty) air from the PC's PSU into there on wintry days.  Would need an AC when it's hot, though.  Surely some nut has patented this idea already.