The JER-A06 was said to be a PCB-mount board.
“PCB is fixed to inside of top housing, suspended in middle to avoid contacting with metal bottom housing, which offer more resilience when typing.”
I know what PCB-mount feels like, thanks to NCR-80. Is the JER-A06 more even in sound-profile? Is there any advantage? I feel as though it would be nice to have a “luxury” NCR-80, but I don’t know what that means in practice.
Typing wise it’s nothing crazy - it’s a bit bouncier and softer than other keyboards, but it is still not too far from other top-mounted keyboards because there’s numerous, stiff mounting points close to the PCB and the PCB does not have relief cuts to let it bounce further.
However, I would say that the cooler aspect of the keyboard is how it sounds – it has a much thockier sound than many other keyboards I’ve tried. Here’s a typing test to demonstrate it.
So it seems pretty close to a top-mount of 2018-2020. So the typing experience is not far-off from a KBD8X? The sound-profile suggests it has some similarities with the NCR-80.
Never got to try a JER-A06, but I’d imagine this is pretty close to what it would feel like. I do have KBD8X MKII & it is pretty in line with most top mount boards of the period feel wise. I’d expect the JER to be slightly softer & have deeper sound since my MKII has plate in it. I’d also imagine the JER would have overall better sound since the MKII has a lot of internal space that makes it a more hollow sounding board too.
I can definitely relate to you on this though I passed on a couple of JER GBs early on in my days in the hobby before I really knew what I truly liked. Looking back I could kick myself since they are so in line with my tastes LOL! But like I always say, you can’t have them all unfortunately…
Yes, the (limited) reports are that the JER series are like a softer top-mount. Which would be great!
I almost purchased one, but it was during a time when I was very dissatisfied with stock MX Browns, and hadn’t figured out how to build them.
So I would probably have used Ergo Clears, likely 65 G 14mm, which is heavier than is necessary. So it would have been a sub-optimal build. Today, if I were building one, I would build it with MX Browns (3203) with nice springs. It would be great.
NCR-80 bottom-out is a little harsh. You’re just smacking the PCB, basically. People say that plateless is fine with linears, but I think it’s more controversial with tactiles. I wish someone would mass-produce a ‘luxury’ Cherry-style board with the characteristics of the JER-A06.
I’ve got one, personally I quite like it. It’s a top mount plateless board, and I do think it feels sorta like what you’d imagine that might be. It’s firmer than other plateless builds I have, and I also ended up putting a bit of stiffer foam underneath (typically don’t like foaming boards, but this was a nice thing to do on the og g80s as well imo for more firmness yet also making bottoming out a bit less harsh and a more unique sound profile (test here)). I would say it doesn’t really feel and sound like a g80 as much just aside from being plateless, it’s more even in sound and feel, it’s stiffer, the sound is different from both the mount and the case. To me it feels like a different step but improvement from the g80, but I could absolutely also see people keeping around the g80 as well since it’s not really a full replacement. Prefer it over some plateless builds which focus on the most flex or most bounce when imo too much of that isn’t desirable (at least to me), would say one of the better plateless boards I’ve tried for sure
I would disagree, it still very much still feels and sounds plateless, but it’s a stiffer plateless than a lot of other boards imo, wouldn’t make the comparison to most top mounted boards like a kbd 8x (that’s much stiffer, more typical top mount feeling and sounding to me)
IMO I found the ncr to be harsher than an older g80 or the jer, but it’s not super far off either, I would say the ncr is closer to the g80 than it is the jer.
I actually might even prefer tactiles like well tuned browns plateless over linears like blacks but depends on the board really. Right now I have mine built with ink bottoms black tops with pbt caps, quite nice of a build but I might have over time liked my vint black build better on it
If you can find one, I’d say grab it, not really anything else like it from what I’ve tried, and it’s a really solid board, only gripe is that the pcb sucks to program (I don’t like bootmapper)
