Thoughts on SMK 2nd gen switches?

[Muirium]

Yeah, those gifted keycaps came in, cheaper PBT, I noticed the sound get a bit quieter, also a bit bassier as well. I might keep these on, they look really tacky but they feel a bit nicer than the ultra smooth keycaps it came with... still unsure if that's how it's supposed to feel or a problem of wear 'n tear. I wanted to go for SA keycaps, but I decided against dropping my money on more than the price of the keyboard itself on keycaps! As for the chassis, I actually suspect that's where a lot of the noise is coming from pure volume wise but I don't exactly view that as an issue, it's got a pretty refined click and while it's sound isn't Alps good it IS still better than any MX type switch I've used including the well regarded box switches I've tried, with the new keycaps it's still clicky, but it's a deeper click than say... a unicomp model M or white alps.

SA (and even more so Matteo’s MT3 profile) really does alter any switch. Sound? Absolutely. But also feel, surprisingly so. Even my Novatouch feels real classy in them. Expensive though. And you thought Topre was bad on the wallet: just try collecting sets!

[LambdaCore]

Yeah, i was thinking about it but man, I've gone back and forth on it and it's probably best I save my money. For a lot of those sets I COULD get a topre board with just 30 more bucks

[Muirium]

Correct!

I’ve an ungodly stash of caps, more so than keyboards. And just as much so in price. I don’t really recommend it! Especially as most my caps are MX mount while all my favourite boards aren’t.

They do make a profound difference, though, right up there with the plate and chassis. Something all too easily ignored when hunting down a certain “switch” without bearing in mind the rest of the keyboard.

[LambdaCore]

Yeah, these SMKs are probably my favorite MX mount switch I've tried thus far, and while it is really nice if I found one nice pair of caps that really brought out the best sound and feel I wouldn't really need anything else

[thefarside]

Does anyone have experience with the white SMK alps mount switches? I’m curious if they are different than the blue Montereys.

[Polecat]

Does anyone have experience with the white SMK alps mount switches? I’m curious if they are different than the blue Montereys.

I can't prove it, but from past discussions it appears that white SMK switches were available in both clicky and tactile versions. From my notes on Monterey keyboards it looks like white SMK came before blue SMK, exactly the opposite of Alps, and that the white SMKs used by Monterey were the clicky version. As far as sound and feel go, sorry, I don't have any experience with that. Yet.

[thefarside]

Does anyone have experience with the white SMK alps mount switches? I’m curious if they are different than the blue Montereys.

I can't prove it, but from past discussions it appears that white SMK switches were available in both clicky and tactile versions. From my notes on Monterey keyboards it looks like white SMK came before blue SMK, exactly the opposite of Alps, and that the white SMKs used by Monterey were the clicky version. As far as sound and feel go, sorry, I don't have any experience with that. Yet.

Thanks I’m curious how the white differs, as the blues are exactly like xxhellfirexx described. Coincidentally I stumbled upon this listing that appears to have them, but my keyboard collection is at max capacity .
Apple Keyboard bus keyboard:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Keyboard ... 3847322242

[Muirium]

Apple never used clicky switches, to my knowledge, so that is very likely tactile. They moved from linear on the early stuff (through to the 1984 Macintosh) to tactile in the mid eighties.

Mind, my knowledge on this is highly fallible! I've only had AEKs, M0110, Apple Ergonomic keyboard and a handful of Apple rubberdomes from this era, myself. But that's my recollection from earlier discussions.

[fohat]

Does anyone have experience with the white SMK alps mount switches? I’m curious if they are different than the blue Montereys.

I have never done a direct side-by-side, but my recollection is that they are extremely close.

Unfortunately both my boards are boxed up in storage at the moment.

[Chyros]

Apple never used clicky switches, to my knowledge, so that is very likely tactile. They moved from linear on the early stuff (through to the 1984 Macintosh) to tactile in the mid eighties.

Mind, my knowledge on this is highly fallible! I've only had AEKs, M0110, Apple Ergonomic keyboard and a handful of Apple rubberdomes from this era, myself. But that's my recollection from earlier discussions.

IIc w/ ambers

[Muirium]

A clicky Apple IIc? What were they thinking!!

[Palatino]

Also, the Arabic version of the M0116 is listed in the wiki as sometimes having white Alps. But perhaps the contributor meant damped white/cream? I’m aware of this as I checked this yesterday having stumbled upon an M0116 on ebay with this blurry photo:

A3D49ED8-5A91-442C-BB78-14E28E89DC0A.jpeg (324.74 KiB) Viewed 1814 times

Definitely not an orange or salmon slider. Annoyingly I lost reception before I could make a bid - maybe someone here nabbed it and can report?

[Palatino]

No reports of anything but Salmon or Orange in this thread: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=92659.0
I’m really intrigued now. But maybe it’s as simple as a previous owner transplanting white switches into the keyboard.

[Polecat]

Thanks I’m curious how the white differs, as the blues are exactly like xxhellfirexx described. Coincidentally I stumbled upon this listing that appears to have them, but my keyboard collection is at max capacity .
Apple Keyboard bus keyboard:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Keyboard ... 3847322242

Took me a while to find this previous thread where we talked about the SMK switches. No real answers on comparing white and blue versions, but I was looking for my previous comment on the apparent contradiction in the wiki (still that way? perhaps it got edited?) about the white version not being clicky, but about being able to tell clicky and non-clicky white versions apart by their upper housings.

viewtopic.php?p=491747#p491747

My long term goal is to find examples of the Monterey K104 with white and blue SMK switches, but when and if that will happen is anybody's guess.

edit: Reading more closely I think the contradiction was that the K104 example in the KBMania link had white sliders but clicky-type upper housings, but the wiki page on the SMK switches identified the white slider version as tactile only. A couple other K104 photos I found also showed the clicky-type upper housings and white sliders.

I should also mention that comparing one example each of white and blue SMK switches may be no more meaningful than comparing one example each of white and blue Alps switches.