deskthority

Alright, Chuckdee, I'm gonna level with you. SP divides their profiles into three groups: High Profile, Medium Profile, and Low Profile. High profile is of course SA and their returning DSS profile, Medium Profile is DCS, and low profile is DSA and G20 (and the novelty flat keys I guess). That's all there is to it. The sets are SA, they've already announced their upcoming DSS set and sculpted PBT SA, but they didn't mention anything else. I HIGHLY doubt that even if Originative wanted to pay the absurd price to create all new molds for a never before mentioned profile, SP wouldn't do it.

Chuckdee - as others have said, the caps for sale on Originative (whether marked as HiPro or not) are Signature Plastics SA keycaps in a full sculpted profile.

HiPro itself refers to Topre High profile keycaps as others have alluded to.

Now where I think the distinction lies, is in your previous use of SA keycaps. They tend to come in three flavours. Fully sculpted, as are these sets. All Row 3, such as sets like Dangerzone, Nuclear Data - where all keycaps are made from the 3rd row of the sculted set and are high profile but flat. And finally 'Filco' SA which basically uses Row 2 for the F-row and num row, then Row 3 for the alpha rows and bottom row. ( I dub it 'Filco' as its used on a lot of filco boards in this profile)

The difference between what you have tried (either all R3 or 'Filco' ) and these Originative re-runs of Sculpted SA sets is one of preference, not quality. Same tooling, same plastics and same processes are used to manufacture. Personally, I really enjoy the flat all R3 sets, but the sculpted sets are nice as well.

Additionally, there are SA sets made by Maxkeys - which Mirror the same sculpt as Signature Plastics - however these offer less compatibility and no ISO keys. Finally as Myoth suggested thee is the new profile from Matt3o which is named /dev/tty. this is a new profile and has only been released a month or two after the first Group Buy last year.

if you are an ANSI 104 guy then $260 are a rip off, SA Max Ashen was $75 (Round 2 of SA Max Ashen was $90 ?).

this oco-dude doesn't even get his www, fb, etc. correct and consistent.
- SA vs HiPro vs High Profile
- copy 'n paste w/o replacing product name
- none working none clickable links

the 'Hi-Pro' nonsense is all over reddit these days.. do some searches...

either Originative is the source of this, Reddit is, a combination of both, or maybe some folks are just realizing 'wow people really respond to this marketing term' and are causing it to spread beyond the Topre brand boards.. to things like cases, and elsewhere..

as for the keycaps, they look nice (even if we can whine about whether they should be named what theyre named), SA caps from signature plastics are good..... the price though, way beyond reasonable...

lemur wrote:the 'Hi-Pro' nonsense is all over reddit these days.. do some searches...

either Originative is the source of this, Reddit is, a combination of both, or maybe some folks are just realizing 'wow people really respond to this marketing term' and are causing it to spread beyond the Topre brand boards.. to things like cases, and elsewhere..

as for the keycaps, they look nice (even if we can whine about whether they should be named what theyre named), SA caps from signature plastics are good..... the price though, way beyond reasonable...

Availability is the issue with SA. It could be cheaper but on the other hand look into aftermarket prices for SA sets + the hunt for what one wants.

I'm late to this thread, a lot has already been said. Glad to read that others are also shocked at the prices being sought for these sets, as pretty as they are. I have the 104Hi-Pro has my work keyboard and can confirm its lovely to type on.

The best value SA set I can find is that offered by Filco, it only comes in one colour, a lovely and retro brown. The quality is superb and its only £58 + shipping: http://www.keyboardco.com/product/doubl ... keyset.asp

I don't have any affiliation with this company but can vouch for their pretty good customer service.

Here's a U.S. source for that Filco SA white-on-black set. It is less than the Maxkey and SP offerings, although they look a bit odd with the offset legends. I think spherical caps look much better with centered legends.

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/in ... list&c=407

I wouldn't bother with the Filco SA set (if I was in the market for SA caps) personally, I'd just buy a MaxKeys SA set from China. The prices are similar but the Filco SA set is unprofiled, has Costar stabilisers glued in, and I've seen a few threads around about the poor QC on them.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/MAXKEY- ... 65728.html

Also here: https://kbdfans.cn/collections/maxkey

scottc wrote:I wouldn't bother with the Filco SA set (if I was in the market for SA caps) personally, I'd just buy a MaxKeys SA set from China. The prices are similar but the Filco SA set is unprofiled, has Costar stabilisers glued in, and I've seen a few threads around about the poor QC on them.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/MAXKEY- ... 65728.html

If I want SA with ISO-DE support I have to join a massdrop (or a Round which takes even longer).

BTW I’m hyped right now as SA Carbon arrived at the MD warehouse..