I recently had a chance to try a few MY switches separately.
They felt heavy and linear, very similar to mx blacks, but much smoother. Suprisingly the keys on the MY switches were much less wobbly compared to the Cherry MX, and I didn't notice any friction inside. They were just as smooth as a Topre, but very springy.
Frankly I don't understand why all this MY hate.

They're stiff (even compared to buckling springs), that's why.

Apart from that, the vintage black MY switches are decent linear switches which will last a lifetime, if you can bear to type on it for longer periods.

They have the same activation force as mx blacks.

I think the worst is the steep force curve. To start a key press requires only 30 cN while MX starts out at around 40 cN. You can't rest your fingers on a MY key without starting to press it. They are stiff to bottom out, though, at 120 cN.
It has less friction than linear Cherry MX when pressed straight down, yes, but it has more friction on off-centre key presses than the Cherry MX.

Still, there are people who like it.

In that case I should RMA all of my MX keyboards , because they must be defective.
I feel a lot more friction on off-center key presses with cherry MX.

Findecanor wrote:I think the worst is the steep force curve. To start a key press requires only 30 cN while MX starts out at around 40 cN. You can't rest your fingers on a MY key without starting to press it. They are stiff to bottom out, though, at 120 cN.

It is not a problem if you depress the keys a little while resting your fingers, it still won't actuate them, though I think my touch is lighter than 30 cN.
I think they bottom out at 100 cN, but it really doesn't matter as I rarely or never bottom out.
Also it is much easier to lube these switches than the MX switches.

They're the definition of mush. I'd much rather use a crapboard with shitty rubber domes. At least they give some form of tactile feedback in between the mushyness. MY is just useless.

* Tactile feedback is not necessary; cherry black and red are just fine, but MY is no good at all.

I don't quite understand your point. Do you think it is hard to tell if it is actuated?

Not anymore than with black or red MX, but where they have a crisp and clear downstroke, MY is indeed akin to prodding a dead octopus or a wet newspaper..

To me it feels more like pushing a spring. I would rather describe the 30g Topre domes as mushy.
Do the old blacks have the same frictionless downstroke as the MY?
Frankly I haven't tried a whole G81 keyboard, just the switches separately between my fingers, but I felt almost no friction, and the whole stroke was super quiet.

No, they are not similar at all MY don't have any friction, but they don't have any definition either.

A switch can have quite the difference in feel between single action and as a member of a whole keyboard. For instance, I thought that 'ergo clear' would be very nice after trying individual switches, but after trying them on a whole board I found them to be too scratchy and sticky.

I haven't tried ergo clears, but since I'm overly picky, I would probably find it sticky as hell and trash them immediately.
Also my fingers are very sensitive, and I can easily feel the tactility in my browns.
Unfortunately browns are terribly scratchy, I can immagine how the clear stem would feel.
Also I would likely dislike the more pronounced bump, just in case my 45g vs 55g Topre.

MY are the easiest switches to avoid bottoming out because of the spring rate, it starts soft but gets stiff very quickly. They are fatiguing though.

Why not just mod the spring?

The reason why the MY has such a steep force is that the coiled spring is so short. It needs to be short because there is very little room for it. The MY switch has also a leaf spring, which uses space directly underneath the coiled spring.

I have experimented with replacing the spring with that of an ALPS CM switch -- that is also quite small, but that did not work: the ALPS spring needed more room. I could not press it down more than ~ 1 mm.

I've used a G81 for a couple months (before I got stupid about keyboards) and as others say, I hate it. It feels like it ought to be OK to type on, but it's really not, it's very fatiguing. Even though I'd never bottom out on it, pushing the keys far enough down to ensure that i'd registered seemed to require more force than any other keyboard I've had, including Model M and Cherry MX Clear, both of which feel great to me. Plus there's no tactility whatsoever with MY - OK if you like linear, but I don't really like linears in the first place.

I got one a while ago just to try it. Feels almost as bad as a fujitsu peerless.

The by now classic quote by Xsphalt on geekhack described MY switches as "like typing on wet newspapers." I personally think that's exactly what it feels like. Though I find the sensation less than pleasant, somebody else might love it.

I whipped out my g81-3000 and would describe typing on it like typing on a worn out rubber dome board.

RiGS wrote:Suprisingly the keys on the MY switches were much less wobbly compared to the Cherry MX

I just tried some OEM keycaps on it. I withdraw this statement.

MY are linear, stiff and mushy.

Normal rubber-dome feel better than MY

I just got my vintage mx blacks. Hell these are smoother than the Cherry MY and comparable to the Topre.
Also these don't wobble nearly as much as the recent blacks.

i think they feel ok IF you just tab them lightly while typing BUT that makes them unusable since you have to concentrate too much on failed keypresses.. (talking of MYs)

I have a Cherry MY-3000 and I enjoy it very much. Recently I've been looking for a mechanical keyboard with US localization because my current nordic layout is crap for shortcuts with the design applications I use.

I would continue using my current keyboard though, if that wasn't a consideration. I don't feel like it's typing on "mush" at all. It's linear, so if that's "mush" then so are other linear keys.
I type and tend to bottom out fairly often if speed picks up. The keyboard requires a certain amount of force, but I don't feel it's fatiguing at all. I hear MX Blacks are supposed to be fatiguing for typing, but maybe it's a matter of conditioning? Real piano keys have more resistance than keys on most electric keyboards, but pianists simply develop the required strength through regular practice. Why would using a PC keyboard be any different?

At first I was holding off on buying a black MX keyboard for typing, having been given the impression it was too hard to actuate, but now it seems that's what I need if the Cherry MY keys really are as stiff or more.

Anyway, back on topic. This keyboard has seen a lot of use and is *quite* old. The keys themselves still look as they did on the day I bought it and there has been no "sticking" of any sort. Everything is smooth. I guess I don't get the hate either, what little of it I have seen.

In my opinion, this keyboard is vastly superior to any rubber dome.

It's hard to describe, but easy to feel if you're on a full keyboard. In my opinion, the most annoying feature is the steepness of the force curve -- that you need almost no force at the beginning, and then it becomes steeply more and more during the few milimeters that you press down. If you're typing, you normally don't press all keys in the same way, because you are using different fingers etc. And with MY keys, this becomes very fatiguing because the force that you need for each keypress is so dependent on how far you press down.

Halvar

Reading these messages has made me very interested to buy a Cherry MY keyboard!

But I have a few questions first:

How much travel does it have?
Is there a force graph somewhere?

I know a lot about Cherry MX and Topre switches. A little about various other switches and just about nothing of Cherry MY.

Is there anywhere I could buy a new Cherry MY keyboard?

Can I install O-rings or Crashpads to prevent crashing into a piece of steel with each keystroke?

Findecanor wrote:I think the worst is the steep force curve. To start a key press requires only 30 cN while MX starts out at around 40 cN.

According to everything I have read, Cherry MX Red starts out at 30cN.

You can't rest your fingers on a MY key without starting to press it.

My Cherry MX Reds don't move when I rest my fingers on them. They are only pushing up at me with 30g of force.

They are stiff to bottom out, though, at 120 cN.

The stiffness is there to prevent you from bottoming out. It is called "Tactile Feedback". When your finger feels the spring get stiff, you know you can stop pressing before you smash into a steel plate and jar your tendons and nerves.

If you like MX Red, Cherry MY might not be for you. While the initial force is quite low, the force rises quickly and the action is not smooth at all - the switches feel like they're scraping something on the inside.

You might want to look at a used one or try one somewhere. You didn't set the location field in your profile, so I don't know what the easiest way for you would be.

JBert wrote:If you like MX Red, Cherry MY might not be for you. While the initial force is quite low, the force rises quickly and the action is not smooth at all - the switches feel like they're scraping something on the inside.

Can't the springs and whatever be lubed for a buttery smooth motion?

Krytox FTW!

The other guys said it feels like poking an Octopus. The whole point of poking an Octopus is that it is totally completely smooth and there are never any impacts. Super healthy++

You might want to look at a used one or try one somewhere. You didn't set the location field in your profile, so I don't know what the easiest way for you would be.

I'm such a newb
Houston, Texas, USA

They don't make new ones?

"Used Cherry Keyboard" is usually secret code for "Gigantic Keyboard that wastes 36+ square inches of plastic that sticks out for no reason and is too big to fit in my ergonomic situation."

I am interested in a normal-sized keyboard.

Any Cherry keyboard named G81 will have MY switches.
Here's a cheap one, new, small footprint.
Price: 15$ + (US) shipping