Well, I gave them a month. I wanted to be the weirdo that liked the feather light feel of Gateron Clears, but I can’t get used to them. My fingers are too clumsy and the mistakes I make while using them are too numerous to be practical. It’s a real shame too, because I loved the way they felt when I tested them.
I pulled them off this weekend and am forcing myself to use the Blues I picked up to give clickies a try. I’m almost certain I’m not a clicky person, but that’s a post for another month down the line. This whole thing did make me curious: What switches has everyone tried that you really wanted to like, but didn’t?
For my it would be Zilents, I really tried to like them because I loved Zealios, but I just couldn’t get over the scratchy feeling & sound they had. I’ve heard they lose after 6 months, but I’m looking to be using switches I dislike for 6 months just to get them to a point I might like them.
Controversially, I dislike blue alps, buckling springs and capacitive buckling springs. They all sound lovely, but I find the feeling of them far too jarring even after using them for a week or more. I’d rather use a rubberdome or, say, vintage MX blues.
Also, even more controversially, of the 5 beamsprings that’ve passed through my hands, I disliked four of them. This was a long time ago so I can’t describe things further, but they were all missing the magic. They all felt very dull to type on. The one exception, my 3278, is utterly divine though. No switch comes close.
Cherry Silent Blacks. Sandy mush compared to what I was hoping for - but Silent Inks subsequently fit the bill for a smooth, crisp silent.
Outemu Browns. Oh dear… Might be the only mech switch I’ve tried that made me yearn for the smoothness of a rubber dome.
Novelkeys Creams. They’ll break-in eventually…
Second @Rob27shred on the Zeal Zilents; in theory they seemed great but in practice I didn’t enjoy any of the Zeal silents all that much - even the buttery Helios have this weird mis-match between the stems / housings / springs that give them this weird bit of pre-travel that Tealios and Zealios don’t have.
Every frankenswitch I’ve tried so far with Cream or Tangie housings… still haven’t tried PE stems - those are on my list…
Holy panda clones. I haven’t tried the OG, but I assume they’re similar and not my cup of tea.
Creams. The left to right creak I can feel with the switch top sliding past the bottom housing when applying pressure isn’t great. Could probably fix with switch films, but I don’t mod switches anymore because of the time involved.
TC Silent red switches - so scratchy and bad overall
Cherry mx brown stock (non-retooled, donno even if that happened) - scratchy, loud, a joke of tactility, like catching a grain of sand
Heavy switches over 70g weight for alpha typing.
All clicky switches because of sound. As I like the feel of the mx blue click a lot, I hate the sound. I think a smooth mx blue with no sound and no wobble would get close to perfection.
Novelkeys creams. I fell for Creams hype. I wish I knew when I first got them the amount of work needed in order to get them perfect. I ended up pulling them out for alpacas and plan to rebuild with different springs later.
Trash pandas. I got trash pandas thinking they are a cool budget option, they were not. they were cheap and for good reason.
Wait - this is trash pandas stock? Or after converting them to holy trash pandas with halo stem? I’m just curious because I saw your picture of mint yoks being converted to holy mint pandas. Trash and mint pandas are basically the same switch afaik.
Hako True/Clear - they actually made me mad trying them out. I just think they’re very mushy and just very unpleasant to type on. I remember picking these up because they were supposed to mimic 55g Topre, but they don’t even come close.
I’m partial towards linears, but I quite like the traditional tactiles (so Ergo Clears, Zealios V1, etc). However, for the life of me I just cannot stand typing on tactiles where the bump is right at the top of the keypress. I don’t know what it is, but I just find it grating. I’ve used BOX Browns and Kailh Pro Purples and distinctly hated typing on them both.
A close second would be pre-retool MX Blues - awful sound & tactility, and scratchy.
