Noppoo EC108 Pro?

[aekII]

I'd like to know, has anyone actually tried this board? And if so, what do you think of it? Does anyone have any opinion as to how they compare to Topre RealForce?

Hearing the few examples I can find on Youtube, I like the sound better.

I have RF 55g and RF 45g uniform boards, and I have to say, I love the downstroke sound but the upstroke sound is annoying to me.

Modding a RF board is not something that I am capable of, so I'd like to know, is the 45g similar to its RF equivalent, and is the 35g EC108 a decent (if lighter) alternative? It seems to be more readily available on Amazon. The price didn't seem all that bad, and I really like the sound they offer, and it's PBT with Cherry compatible stems to boot.

Thanks!

[Muirium]

I believe our very own Topre expert 002 got one, and was not impressed. But others have insisted otherwise in their tests. Seems to depend just how much into Topre you are and whether you believe Topre must be punished for selling at the prices they do.

I've not touched a Noppoo of any sort myself. So no primary evidence here. Only relaying hearsay.

[zts]

About 2 weeks ago I put up a wiki page on it: http://deskthority.net/wiki/Noppoo_108EC-Pro
From the external links listed at the bottom you can probably get a sense ... but in short, it's not Topre, but it's not bad on its own either.

[002]

I was pretty damning of it

zts has a bunch of Topre keyboards and he didn't mind it though so YMMV. The caps are PBT but they are white and lasered and that always looks pus. PBT != good, by the way...I'd pick a nice set of ABS caps before the hideous ones on the Noppoo. From memory, the rest of the board was pretty average build quality and yet they still want $150 for it! It's hard to describe the plastic on these Noppoos and other cheap Chinese boards but if I had to pick an adjective I might go with 'clammy'. Also, fuck Noppoo.

[Muirium]

Also, fuck Noppoo.

Heh, that's what I was on about. It's hard to separate your subjective bias when trying this keyboard. People who want to like it will like it more than us guys who already get the oneness…

[zts]

The thing about Noppoo/RoyalKludge capacitive ... it's probably really OK (a decent board) for people who have never tried Topre. Don't have anything to compare with. The subdued anger about it ... well, it's just trying to clone Topre for cheap. NovaTouch on the other side, is more of a collaborative effort; basically making MX mount compatible Topre, using the genuine Topre board inside, etc.

Interestingly, I think Noppoo spent an enormous amount of time trying to mimic Topre feel and sound -- I think that in the release version they were close to it, closer than NovaTouch. But, again, in order to achieve that they had to factory-dampened switches and get a deeper sound with rather thick PBT. In the end it's not Topre, but it's not bad. The key to its "goodness" -- you've never tried the real Topre.

Personally, to me it's more interesting this business with not knowing where one business entity ends and another begins ... yet, all of them use the same stuff not even trying to make it a bit different (Noppoo/RoyalK./Ganss, etc.). I'm suspecting that maybe PLUM is behind all of them

[002]

Back when they were lying about having a capacitive keyboard, they taunted Diatec and Topre with this line on their crappy Choc Pro:

Majestouch and Realforce without just price
They are businessmen from Japan. They make sudden huge
profits by hook or by crook.

High and mighty of them to say that and then turn around and steal Topre's design to flog off in their own keyboard -- which is actually more expensive than genuine Topre depending on where you look. Strange coincidence that this "major breakthrough" in their switch design came very shortly after Topre opened a factory in China to make the Type Heaven

[MAR82]

The Noppoo EC108Pro was the first Topre style keyboard I had tested. At first I thought it felt great; nice smooth switches, that had an awesome feeling when being bottomed out. I think the biggest complaint I had was the fact that the switches were 45g (closer to 40g) and not heavier (I think I need 55g).

Once we had our first Paris keyboard meetup, I was able to test some real 45g Topre. As soon as I laid my fingers on them I knew that I was dealing with a different switch than what I had been using.
The real Topre had a tactile feel to the switch. Nothing like the feel of Cherry MX tactile switches, but it was clearly a tactile feel nonetheless. I guess that the best way to describe the tactile feel of Topre would be; it's like popping a soft bubble. As to the Noppoo has more of a dampened descent feel to it.

The Noppoo and others are no replacement for a real Topre board, but it's a good way of getting your foot in the door