Should I go with the "best" Topre kb or experiment a bit first?

[ndumdr]

Hey guys, I've been quite interested in Topre keyboards for awhile. I've never tried Topre keyboards before and to spend >$150 on keyboards for me is a hard decision. At first, I was thinking of trying some of the Topre clones like ABKO's since they sound OK to me, but I decided against it since they still cost $100+, so I guess I might as well just buy a Topre keyboard instead. I was thinking of the Novatouch, which is apparently $199.99 on Amazon right now, or to buy the Leopold FC980C, which is $259 on Mechanicalkeyboards com. I've definitely heard good and bad stuff about the Novatouch, and I've read reviews about how you need to do some stuff on your own to make the NT closest to the "ideal" Topre typing experience, while at the same time I mostly trust the quality Leopold will be bringing to the table with its price and reputation, but NGL $259 is still a little too much for me. So I guess I just want some opinions on it?

[kmba]

From everything I've heard the 980C feels just like the fc660c that I'm typing on right now.  I prefer it to the novatouch my a good amount in terms of sound and feel.  Novatouch rattles a bit, it's noisy, and just doesn't feel as nice. You can lube and silence it, but then why not just spend that $$ on a nicer board to begin with.  FC660c is $226, which is a bit easier to stomach.  I also have an hhkb, and I've used variable and 55g realforce boards too.  They're all better than a novatouch unfortunately. 

[zslane]

Given that the NovaTouch has been discontinued for many months now, I'm left to wonder where Amazon is sourcing theirs from.

[tp4tissue]

Best topre is the Mu-Tron split topre board..

So.. YES .. Tp4 totally recommends you get one of those.. Heck get 2..

[Tactile]

I can't see paying that much for the Leopold when the Topre Realforce RGB costs less and has quite a few more features, including MX cap compatibility. Even if you're looking for a smaller-than-fullsize keyboard I think you should consider the Realforce. And, if you should decide it's not for you, the Realforce would undoubtedly be easier than the Leopold to sell.

[cmc]

I was in the same position back in October.  I had a CODE (with clears) that I liked, but didn't love, and it was still "too noisy", so I was still reading about keyboards and hearing all the Topre hype.  Because I'd already gotten hooked on the idea of nice keycaps, I wanted to be able to put fancy keys on anything I bought.  The Novatouch seemed like a nice compromise, but it was no longer available.  While I waited, Topre announced the Realforce RGB, but it was really unclear on whether it would work with Macs, plus it was expensive, plus it wasn't actually available.

But then one day during a troll through Amazon, I found someone selling the Novatouch (sans keycaps), fulfilled by Amazon, for ~$170 or so, and after going back and forth in it for a while, I ordered it.  I also had to order some crappy keycaps just so I had something to put on it.  I got them, added the keys, and decided that I liked it, but maybe didn't love it.  Then I was able to get on the wait list for Nantucket Selectric, got those and swapped them out, and really liked using the Novatouch.

Since then, I gave up on Topre doing a less flashy Realforce and just bought a Realforce RGB (thanks to zslane, who I swear is leading me astray, but in a good way).  This afternoon I finished adding Hypersphere rings and lubing my Novatouch, and it's really, really (really) nice.  I've ordered a fancy case from Ryan Norbauer for it, and I think I'll be very happy with it for a while.

So I'm pretty happy with how things have gone.  I think I'll like the RF RGB more once I've added the rings and lube, and even more once I get some cooler keys (Dasher/Dancer, again courtesy of zslane).

So if you can find a Novatouch, it seems like a reasonable way to get a sense of whether you like the Topre switches.  And it also seems like the resale market in the community is pretty good, so if you hated it you could get rid of it without losing much, if any, money.

[Polymer]

Hey guys, I've been quite interested in Topre keyboards for awhile. I've never tried Topre keyboards before and to spend >$150 on keyboards for me is a hard decision. At first, I was thinking of trying some of the Topre clones like ABKO's since they sound OK to me, but I decided against it since they still cost $100+, so I guess I might as well just buy a Topre keyboard instead. I was thinking of the Novatouch, which is apparently $199.99 on Amazon right now, or to buy the Leopold FC980C, which is $259 on Mechanicalkeyboards com. I've definitely heard good and bad stuff about the Novatouch, and I've read reviews about how you need to do some stuff on your own to make the NT closest to the "ideal" Topre typing experience, while at the same time I mostly trust the quality Leopold will be bringing to the table with its price and reputation, but NGL $259 is still a little too much for me. So I guess I just want some opinions on it?

You're going to spend 199 on a NT that requires you to spend another $100 for good keycaps for it to be worthwhile...plus you pretty much have to silence it for it to be decent..

The 980C will come with good Dye Subbed PBT....and you won't have to do anything to it if you don't want to...

The advantage the Novatouch has is you can use other MX Keycaps....

[meiosis]

Topre is like going back to rubber domes and wondering why you are on a mechanical keyboard forum to begin with

[losing_ctrl]

If you are willing to wait a month or so, EliteKeyboards may have the RealForce 87U 55g in stock. That keyboard has been argued on these boards by some as being the "best" Topre experience with a stock board. And it's "only" $205.

[Polymer]

Topre is like going back to rubber domes and wondering why you are on a mechanical keyboard forum to begin with

Because they're great?

[ndumdr]

Thanks guys for your input. I'm crossing NT out of my wishlist now. I would so consider the Realforce RGB if I were a full-size KB person, and unfortunately as a person with narrow shoulders, I realize that TKL keyboards are just more ergonomic to me to begin with. The FC660C layout is quite compact, so I will consider buying it even though I am a person that uses pg up/pg down/etc button a lot and I'm not accustomed to using Fn keys most of the time despite the kb I'm using rn having multi-media keys. I also want the Realforce 87U 45 so BAD, EK said it on their website that it's going to be restocked around April/May so I guess I can wait... 

[meiosis]

Just get a used hhkb or fc660c, they appear quite often now

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[cmc]

I can't say I'm a fan of the HHKB approach—the nice thing about the Novatouch is that it's a normal keyboard layout, and if what you want is to know what the switches feel like, a nonstandard layout is going to bury that question beneath the various mental and physical gymnastics necessary to use a compact keyboard.  Obviously you can stick to it and get used to the layout enough that the feel becomes something you can enjoy as its own thing, but in my limited experience with the KBParadise V60 I bought as a possible travel board, it seems like the keys that have been "optimized away" into other layers are the ones that I use all the time as a LaTeX-loving sysadmin running Mac OS X, which means I spend more time being annoyed by that than I do getting a feel for the board.

[ndumdr]

I can't say I'm a fan of the HHKB approach—the nice thing about the Novatouch is that it's a normal keyboard layout, and if what you want is to know what the switches feel like, a nonstandard layout is going to bury that question beneath the various mental and physical gymnastics necessary to use a compact keyboard.  Obviously you can stick to it and get used to the layout enough that the feel becomes something you can enjoy as its own thing, but in my limited experience with the KBParadise V60 I bought as a possible travel board, it seems like the keys that have been "optimized away" into other layers are the ones that I use all the time as a LaTeX-loving sysadmin running Mac OS X, which means I spend more time being annoyed by that than I do getting a feel for the board.

I agree. I actually think that HHKB has an adorable layout (lol) but as a person who frequently uses home/pg up/etc and occasionally the arrow keys, I would find it really frustrating to need to use the Fn keys to use those functions, which is why I think TKL keyboards are the most compact keyboard I can use... Plus I do FPS gaming, so for the control key to be above the Shift would be a hard for me to crouch in game. But I've never really tried anything below a TKL, honestly.

But yea, Definitely going to try to go to mechmarket to see if anyone wants to sell their NT/RF/Leopold keyboards.

[moh18one]

Leopold FC980C

[Polymer]

Thanks guys for your input. I'm crossing NT out of my wishlist now. I would so consider the Realforce RGB if I were a full-size KB person, and unfortunately as a person with narrow shoulders, I realize that TKL keyboards are just more ergonomic to me to begin with. The FC660C layout is quite compact, so I will consider buying it even though I am a person that uses pg up/pg down/etc button a lot and I'm not accustomed to using Fn keys most of the time despite the kb I'm using rn having multi-media keys. I also want the Realforce 87U 45 so BAD, EK said it on their website that it's going to be restocked around April/May so I guess I can wait... 

RF RGB has the same problem as the Novatouch IMO...it sounds terrible unless you mod it. 

I think ideally they make the same type of slider but slightly longer like the silent RF....that and TKL would be nice . 

[kmba]

Thanks guys for your input. I'm crossing NT out of my wishlist now. I would so consider the Realforce RGB if I were a full-size KB person, and unfortunately as a person with narrow shoulders, I realize that TKL keyboards are just more ergonomic to me to begin with. The FC660C layout is quite compact, so I will consider buying it even though I am a person that uses pg up/pg down/etc button a lot and I'm not accustomed to using Fn keys most of the time despite the kb I'm using rn having multi-media keys. I also want the Realforce 87U 45 so BAD, EK said it on their website that it's going to be restocked around April/May so I guess I can wait... 

FN+arrow keys give page up, down, home, end on the 660c. It's very easy to get accustomed to and quite intuitive. You don't have to use the alpha keys.

[DRAZAH]

Similar scenario myself before I got my HHKB.

I tried a lot of different MX switches and hated most of them, wanted to try out Topre but didn't have many options to go after. Went with the HHKB because there was a specific sound that I was after and the HHKB is the only keyboard I can achieve it on. I don't see myself ever straying away from Topre, especially because I also hate MX switches for how they feel.

MechMarket or the classified here are probably your best option for finding anything Topre. I also recommend lubing and hyperspheres, together they bring out the thock of any Topre and eliminate any plastic-y rattling.

[Entropia]

I own a Leopold 980M with black switches and I love it. The blacks on this model are really smooth and its layout is amazing, with no sacrifice at all from a 100% keyboard (60% is completely unacceptable for me and tenkeyless doesn't make sense, because I don't use the central block but the numpad for browsing texts, etc.). My only experience with Topres is with the Cooler Master switch tester. Topre is smooth, yes, but that's all. It feels like a lubed and improved rubber dome and with more travel. The way it works doesn't make much sense to me, because the initial opposition of the mechanism is similar to what I have been using for years in rubber dome keyboards. Also, there are some things to consider that don't help choosing Topre: twice the price (although this may be the reason for so many fans), an ABS spacebar that will get shiny after some months of use and, after all, a rubber membrane that will not last years until it degrades and makes your keyboard feel quite unpleasant to type on.

[zslane]

Well, rubber dome is just a design/mechanism. And like all designs/mechanisms there are both good and bad examples out there. Cheap membrane keyboards are a bad example. Topre keyboards are a very good example. A very good rubber dome mechanism is every bit as good, and in some ways superior, to a very good contact-switch mechanism. The rubber domes in my Topre boards will probably outlive me, and even if they don't outlive me they will no doubt outlive my use of computers keyboards.

If you can afford a Topre board, the only reason not to buy one and keep it is that you don't like the way it feels to type on. I used to be a devoted MX red user, but now I find I prefer Topre switches much much more. I don't keep stock keycaps on any keyboard, so for me that aspect of a Topre board is irrelevant. I love the sound and feel of (silenced) Topre switches and so that's what I have been investing in over the last six months.

[Puddsy]

get a 55g RF or an RF RGB and then never buy another topre board unless it's something weird

[Entropia]

The rubber domes in my Topre boards will probably outlive me, and even if they don't outlive me they will no doubt outlive my use of computers keyboards.

There are some reports of users who say that they Topre mechanisms feel different, heavier and definitelly worse than new after just one year of normal use. On the contrary, MX switches, especially linear switches, tend to feel smoother and better after being used for some time.