Mechanical Keyboard Sound Isn't That Simple
Figure 1: I couldn't think of a more literal way to represent this article if I tried... Looking back just a few years ago, there’s no doubt that the huge influx of people that joined the hobby at the peak of the COVID pandemic were drawn to keyboards by way of YouTube, TikTok, and other audio-visual content platforms. Even as the output from these content creators has waned in recent months, their collective impact and legacy on the keyboard hobby is rather firmly etched in the history books. As a result of all of their sound tests, build logs, and opinion videos, the message is clear to any new person joining the hobby: mechanical keyboards are all about the sound. Thock this, clack that. Whether it’s keyboards, keycaps, or even singular switches, seemingly everyone new to the hobby meticulously pores over each component of their keyboard not in an attempt to figure out how it will feel in hand, but how it will sound as they’re furiously grinding their way out from...
Mar 27, 2024
I will be selling mine. The lights are fancy and OK but i find it more distracting than anything.
Also I don't know who leads this drop, but the stems I got were not ALPS, but Cherry MX stems. Which is better, since you can customise the keycaps much more easily or cannibalize the board for the nice see-through keycaps.
I bought this same keyboard from Amazon a few months ago and received the ALPS-compatible stems as pictured in the photo. They were hot swappable, but they were also practically stuck in the face plate, and it took a ton of force/cursing/macerated fingertips to get them out. Several did fracture as pictured (see top row) below:
So, it is technically hot swappable, but the tight fit of the factory switches in the face plate (and associated switch fracture), the oddball pin pattern, and the ALPS stems make this the most poorly thought out hot swappable keyboard in history.