After seeing several people talking about removing the screws in the center of tray mounted cases for more consistent flex I wanted to test myself.
Just made a dirty quick video recording the difference in sound when you screw or unscrew the center stand.
Sensitive hearing people advice: this is an extreme video featuring SA caps matched with Holy GSUS and a wooden case. Please don’t click the link if you think your ears will be offended
Oh, and it’s the first video I ever upload, so forgive the crappy quality in general!
PD: Wanted to say in my defense that I have zilents v2 in that other keyboard, and this one is usually dressed with GMK sets, but there was no better way to accentuate the difference in sound…
Wow, I’m honestly shocked at how much of a difference just removing the screw made in the sound profile! How much does it change the feel when it’s just unscrewed at that position? This something I’ll be investigating myself soon, but I went a different direction with it. I got in on the ADK64 case GB & am having mine printed without a center stem in the case. It’s gonna house my ALPS64 build, but I plan on throwing some of my other tray mounted builds on it to see how it affects sound/feel with different switches & plate materials. I’ll be sure to post here what I find whenever I get it!
The difference in feel is nowhere as noticeable.
However find a lot more difficult to notice subtle differences in feeling when using SA caps.
Maybe I’ll try the same with GMKs and see if I notice a change in feeling.
Pretty crazy how much the screw changes the sound.
Also, I’ve started trying cushioned tape (medical stuff that looks like a thicker band-aid) on the top of all of my tray mounted standoffs. Just poke a hole before you pass a screw through. Makes quite a difference.
On one of my boards that already has the switches exposed a bit (lowe-ish profile case), I have 1-2mm craft foam that I add to the bottom and just let the PCB rest on the foam. Feels and sounds awesome.
For my wood case board that has practically no space between the bottom of the pcb and the bottom of the case, i just slapped some O-Rings on and let those get squished - it allowed for a teesny bit more resonance and a more bouncy feeling. An interesting experience to say the least!
Personally I’ve not been removing the screws, but the standoffs entirely, and not just central, the one under space too. Glad to see a comparison though, I’ve been remiss in not doing that, love it.