My journey has led me to 40% split keyboards. I have a Corne v4 and I absolutely love its form factor. However (the most used words in the constantly unsatisfied keyboard community), its sound and feel is below par.
Any ideas on a prebuilt Corne v4 case that can achieve the deep thocky sound/feel? I’d consider both prebuilts and maybe even customs from a vendor.
I have a basic Keychron Q2 that I’ve tape+foam modded, paired with Cerakeys + Oil Kings v2. Man! I love the sound + feel of this thing. It has a satisfying feel, with deep resonating thock that brings me joy with every keystroke. But the form factor… I definitely prefer the 40% split. Even when I put the same switches and keycaps on the Corne, it doesn’t sound + feel the same.
So the quest continues.
This reminds me of the quote:
“Happy membrane typists are all alike; every unhappy mech hobbyist is unhappy in their own way.”
Hoping someone has already gone down this route and found a solution.
40% and ergo boards are not really my area of expertise, but there have been aluminum cases made for the Corne. IMK x Corne (imkulio.com) I think this would get you closer to the sound profile you are looking for. You are likely going to have get it on the second hand market.
Also, I don’t have a link but the Ergo and 40% community is very active in Discord servers. If you can track those down, and ask your questions there, I know you will get better results.
I will state that I recently watched a meetup video where they had a panel of keyboard streamers. They talked about how to make boards sound good, and one thing they mentioned was full-sized keyboards are really tough to make sound good. There is too much resonance in the case.
Now TKLs and 75% those have just the right about of space to allow for resonance and the deep sound you’re looking for. A Corne by nature of its size, it is going to be tough to get the same sound as your Keychron Q2 cause it won’t have the space.
Altair-X will be my first ortho and first split. I’m currently dailying my Malicious Ergo (Arisu unibody) but often type on other rectangles, usually 60%. My only 40 is my Mercutio.
@mwb was close, Boardsource has the Unicorne as their aluminum case for the the Corne – the Unicorne case can take v3 Corne PCBs or Boardsource’s own Unicorne PCBs
Tape Mod helps the most imho with most of my Splits, in the lack of plate foam I tried 3D printing a „plate foam“ from TPU which also helped greatly. I don’t have any soundtest at Hand right now but can create one maybe tonight.
Can’t compare to the Keychron, but a Tape Mod would be the first thing I’d give a shot.
