deskthority

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 16:35**

A while back I thought it would be nice to document my collection of keyboards and gathered most of the keyboards that I could find in the house and captured a group shot. Since then however, I have brought a couple of keyboards that were in my office home to take their portraits and also acquired more keyboards. Hence, not all keyboards in my collection are present in the group shot. This first post will be continuously updated as I make changes to my collection and I will provide short impression-style reviews of the keyboards when I have the time to do so.

The Khers Story
Wall of text warning.

Spoiler:

After two extended periods of lurking (the first of which resulted in my first mechanical keyboard purchase), I joined DT during the autumn of 2014. What initially got me interested in mechanical keyboards was that I started experiencing numbness in my fingertips after extended typing sessions (on an Apple wireless keyboard and/or my MacBook Air) when I was writing up first my master and later my licentiate thesis. (The latter is an academic title that is sort of a half-way step towards getting your PhD, but one that isn’t used in most part of the academic world. It’s a mini dissertation of sorts where you write up and defend a thesis.) I started looking for a remedy for my numb fingers, which is when I started looking into mechanical keyboards, lured in by the Kinesis Advantage of all. I wasn’t really interested in spending the kind of money one of those would set me back, especially not given the weird layout and their girth (remember I came from an Apple wireless, most keyboards are going to look large, the Advantage looked HUGE). Following the Kinesis Advantage I came into contact with the ErgoDox via AnandTech. I didn’t end up with that one either though, as the whole group buy thing was rather alien to me at the time. Seeing that both the Kinesis and the ErgoDox used Cherry MX switches and realizing that using such switches I wouldn’t have to bottom out the switch to actuate it, I thought that the safe option would be to find out which MX switch I liked the most and get a normal keyboard with those. So I went to a computer store in town and tried the usual suspects and went out of there as the proud owner of a Ducky Shine 2 with MX Browns and Green LEDs, because of course LEDs are awesome and if I got myself a nice keyboard, why not have the full monty and go for one with a numpad.

After learning to type without bottoming out as hard as I’d done previously, the finger numbness disappeared and I was a happy camper. Then I found out that you could change the keycaps and after reading a guide on OCN I knew I had to get myself some PBT keycaps. At the time, I was using ISO-SE so finding a good keycap set was rather difficult, but luckily for me, this was during the time when Ducky Nordic, a.k.a. Kayvee was doing all sorts of things for the Nordic market, so I could find a nice set of blue and grey Ducky keycaps. Unfortunately, they didn’t look very nice with the LEDs but I preferred the feeling compared to the stock keycaps and the solution was simple enough: turn off the bloody LEDs. Around about the same time, I saw the HHKB in a post. Seeing it brought back memories from my childhood when I’d seen the (original) HHKB in a computer magazine. Back then I’d been thinking that that keyboard was the coolest keyboard in the world but also been struck by its sizable sticker price. Now all those memories came back to me and I knew I had to get one. Then Cindy’s crazy shark threads came about, at which point I gave up lurking, registered and made my first few posts on DT and bought a few keyboards from her. What I didn’t know at the time was that while shipping can be rather expensive for large and heavy items such as keyboards, it’s the customs fees that take all the fun out of shopping on the other side of the Atlantic. I got stung badly a few times, but still, all in all I probably paid less than I’d done for similar keyboards in the EU. This is also the point in time when I said goodbye to ISO for good, from here on I was an ANSI user. The HHKB came soon after my first batch of Texan keyboards (I was waiting for a friend’s trip to the US to save a little on shipping) and in the meantime I’d managed to score my first Topre in the Realforce 87u. I was sold. Unfortunately, it meant that I was a lot harder to impress. The Cherry MX Browns, which I’d thought were fine previously, were now deemed too scratchy to use and I was thoroughly unimpressed by the SKCM Creams in my AEK2. The only switches I thought were good enough besides Topre were IBM buckling springs; Model F in particular.

The initial acquisition frenzy cooled down significantly when realizing the true cost of customs fees and the revelation that was Topre in general and the HHKB in particular. I still got the odd keyboard, but not as many and not as fast. I did get an ErgoDox after this; I was still intrigued by it as it was one of the things that got me into this in the first place. At this point however, I wasn’t very keen on Cherry switches, but seeing the hype that surrounded so called ErgoClear-modded switches I thought that was probably as good as Cherry was going to get and spent a good few hours applying lube and changing springs. Though I wasn’t very pleased with the result. I had read that other people compared ErgoClears to Topre saying that this was as close to Topre as Cherry got, but while this may or may not have been true they were about as different as they could be. Sure, both are non-clicky tactile switches, but that’s about it really. What’s more, I could never get used to the layout and so to this day, my ErgoDox is one of my least used keyboards (to be honest, I can’t really remember when I used it last). At this point, Cherry was dead to me.

A few more keyboards got in my possession, but I’m not entirely sure of which one came when. At some point I saw an 1800 in a photo and while I initially thought it was a strange beast I really started liking the look. The problem was that it was only the WKL with its large modifiers that looked good to my eyes and at this point I was strictly only using ANSI. Finding a good looking 1800HAU proved difficult to say the least, but then came a small GB for Leeku’s 1800 PCBs of which I managed to snag one. Now I only had to find any old Cherry board with vintage or old MX Blacks (I’d tried some MX Reds in a shitty Corsair at work (shitty because it broke within a month because of the worst solder job I’ve seen in a production board) and I realized that linear Cherries were actually really rather good) and a nice looking 1800 case and I was good to go. During the time I spent looking for these pieces I also got into chzel’s NTC KB-6851EA mini-GB because it was cheap and I really liked the look of the keyboard. When this one arrived I realized I’d made a terrible mistake saying that Alps switches weren’t for me. Unfortunately, I’d just passed on the Alps Party GB, something I regretted wholeheartedly at this point.

Fast forward a couple of months and I’ve gotten my Alps Party built with SKCM Blue (after trying different Alps switches, the conclusion I came to was that clicky > tactile > damped and SKCM > the rest (the older the better, really)), I’ve built my dream 1800 with old lubed and spring swapped MX Blacks that are smooth as a baby’s bottom, I’ve ordered an Ellipsesaver and got the pieces required for an FSSK and the notion that I’m rather satisfied with what I’ve got is starting to solidify, just as it had started to before I dipped my feet in the Alps vortex.

Fast forward another couple of months (years rather) and the collection has stopped expanding at quite the same rate, but the acquisitions seem to be getting more expensive. I’ve stopped caring about Alps; sure they’re nice switches and what not, with a stand out feature in that all types of switches are nice, regardless of whether they’re linear, clicky or tactile. Ultimately, however, I’ve come to the conclusion that neither is my favourite in its respective class, which brings me onto the next point.

Keyboard preferences

Spoiler:

After roughly one and a half year on the forum and closing in on the first thousand posts, I’m getting to the point where I have a rather clear picture of what I like in a keyboard. In my opinion the most striking thing is that I don’t really have a preference for clicky, tactile, linear, loud or silent switches but that I rather enjoy different characteristics of different switches and switch families. Where I do have a strong preference is size and layout. Since getting my first HHKB, I’ve loved the 60% form factor, and specifically certain elements of the HHKB layout such as the position of the Fn, Control and Backspace keys and the arrow diamond (my favourite arrow configuration with Vim’s in second). I can just about stand a TKL, but anything larger than that just feels awkward. The mouse is far away and it feels very strange to have the alphas centered in front of my screen. I can use a numpad, but I don’t like them. I think they are ugly and destroy the look of what could otherwise be a nice keyboard, making them look ungainly.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, I care for different characteristics in different switches. For instance, as described in the previous section, I prefer clicky Alps switches, but despise clicky Cherries (I like neither the sound nor the feeling). Among Cherry MX, I really only care for linear, but I rather enjoy those as they are my linear switch of choice. If I were to make a list of my switch preferences, it would look like this (only switches I could stand to use on a daily basis are included):

Clicky: IBM Model F > Alps SKCM Blue ≫ IBM Model M
Tactile: 45g Topre > 45g Topre Type-S ≫ Alps SKCM Salmon
Linear: ~60cN Nixdorf Black = Vintage ~60cN Cherry MX Black ≥ Old ~60cN Cherry MX Black

When it comes to keycaps, a lot of, quite vocal, people seem to enjoy spherical, specifically double-shot sphericals. I’ve tried two such sets. The first was Nuclear Data. While beautiful it was, in my opinion horrible to use as I don’t like non-profiled keycap sets. The second was Pulse. While better (and uglier) I didn’t like it either. No, my preference is for cylindrical keycaps, in a profile as close to the Cherry profile as possible. I prefer dyesub PBT to double-shot ABS and everything else can, frankly, go the way of the dodo.

End Game

Spoiler:

Photos
Enough of that, let’s have some photos! I’ve photographed almost all keyboards of my collection, but as it has happened over time, note that while I’ve tried to keep the white balance as accurate as possible the light conditions may vary. Also, during the course of acquiring these photos, I’ve realised that re-saving jpegs as jpegs is a crappy way to do this and gone full raw. Kudos to those who can spot which keyboards were photographed in raw.

Group shot:

What you are looking at is: NB: This shot is getting a littlevery out of date as I continue to accumulate keyboards while I've managed to off a few.

Code: Select all

IBM 1391411 (Swedish M)          IBM 1390131 (M)                Apple Extended Keyboard II (SKCM Cream)
IBM 5291 (F "Bigfoot")           RealForce 87UB Low Noise       Ducky Shine 2 (MX Brown)
IBM 1391472 (M SSK)              RealForce 23U                  Raptor Gaming K1 (MX Black)
IBM 1392934 (M SSK)              Leopold FC 210TK (MX Blue)     Cherry G80-1800HAD (MX Black)
                                 2x HHKB Pro 2                  NTC KB-6851EA (SKCM White)
                                 HHKB Pro 2 Type-S

The Topres:
PFU Fujitsu Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2
My first HHKB! Fell in love with the look, stayed for the layout.

Spoiler:

PFU Fujitsu Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2
My latest HHKB, and current daily. While I got the black one first, I prefer the look of the white one today.

Spoiler:

PFU Fujitsu Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2 Type-S
Type-S: perfect work keyboard when you don't have your own office. The lack of legends is a constant source for discussion... Almost makes me want to put some printed caps on it so that people leave it alone. It’s always fun to watch others try to use my workstation though.

Spoiler:

PFU Fujitsu Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional BT
Bluetooth is always nice, I guess. Honestly, I don't really know why I bought this, but I like it none the less. Also, I guess any HHKB collection needs one. Having said that, if this was a true collection of HHKBs, I'd want it to include a Pro 1 Rev. A0 (my preference would be towards blank black, but they are hella rare) and a HHKB HG (dream on, baby, dream on).

Spoiler:

RealForce 87UB Low Noise
My first taste of Topre. I got hooked, but I ultimately prefer the feel of the less rigid HHKB to this.

Spoiler:

RealForce 23U
For when I need to write a lot of numbers, like when the tax assessment is due. Spends most of its time in a drawer. The difference in colour between this and white HHKBs triggers my OCD.

Spoiler:

CM Storm Novatouch TKL
Wife’s board. Hypersphere’d and lubed (the photo was acquired before this was done, as you can see by the intact label), wearing Granite as it was the only keycap set I had on hand with Swedish legends. Hypersphere's rings and lube did wonders for the feel adding some much needed finesse to the Nova.

Spoiler:

The Buckling Springs:
IBM Beamspring 5251 Terminal Keyboard
Nothing special in terms of Beamers, but it’s mine and I adore it. WIP: currently disassembled, waiting for renewal of the surface treatment of the metal parts. Find out more here

Spoiler:

IBM Model F 5291 Terminal Keyboard
My one and only Model F. Will be joined by an FSSK, an Ellipsesaver and another Bigfoot

soon though. (Update: No Bigfoot, fuck you berserkfan) I actually rather like the look of the Bigfoot in all its absurdity. It’s way too large for a permanent place on my desk and the XT-layout is a bit unfortunate (i.e. completely unusable). But the feel is absolutely sublime.

Spoiler:

IBM Silver Label Model M Enhanced Keyboard 1390131
While there is very little in it, square labels really are superior to their pill-label counterparts. I got this one NIB from Cindy. The cable (not pictured) is porn.

Spoiler:

IBM White Label Model M Enhanced Keyboard 1391411
Swedish layout M. Barely sees any use as I can't use ISO any more. However, a Swedish IBM keyboard fan should have a ISO-SE IBM! Has some weird rubber things attached to the bottom by the previous owner that I haven’t bothered removing.

Spoiler:

IBM White Label Model M Space Saving Keyboard 1391472
This was my first Model M

and also the oldest one I have. Look at those legends! Marvelous. Almost as good as the Bigfoots, but in a useable layout. Bolt-modded but I've been about to screw-mod it for what seems like an eternity. The one who did the bolt-mod was not very good at it, as can be seen below.

Unfortunately I find Model M a bit on the stiff side (puny fingers, I guess), but this is my prime FSSK candidate.

Spoiler:

IBM White Label Model M Space Saving Keyboard 1392934
Got this NIB from Cindy’s NIB SSK haul. Pampered garage queen.

Spoiler:

The Cherries:
LZ CLS s x h, 60g Nixdorf Black
The latest addition to the stable (Dec 2018). Sat on a shelf for half a year before I found the time to do the preparatory work and build it. In a single word, it is amazing. Due to it’s configuration, I call this the DanielT homage edition. You’d have to ask him for the specifics (did anyone say Ivan?), but he’s got a soft spot for LZ, GON, TMK, Nixies, light springs, GMK and Miami Nights. This keyboard has it all. It’s just not got his exact preferred layout. The switches are Nixdorf Blacks with 60g gold plated SpriT springs, polycarbonate switch films and tribosys lube. The keycaps, as hinted above, are GMK Miami Nights.

Spoiler:

TX60, 60g Nixdorf Black
Kin’s a master, what more is there to say? 2.3kgs of amazing keyboard, but the finger l3 is a little bit of a let down. Has been my daily driver from when I built it to when I built the LZ above, and a very good answer to the question no one was asking, namely why it took so long between receiving the CLS s x h and building it. This keyboard is just so good. Built with Nixdorf Blacks, 60g gold plated SpriT springs, polycarbonate switch films and Krytox lube. The keycaps are a mix and match between a couple of old and recent WoB GBs, because icon mods are what I crave.

Spoiler:

Noxary X60, 60g Nixdorf Black
Founders Edition 20/30. It's not often that I'm as hyped as I was for this keyboard when the GB launched. A bumpy ride and endless delays later, most of the hype was gone when this puppy was delivered. I was in for a surprise, it's a beautiful little board. CNC'd custom 60 that takes any and every Poker-compatible PCB. Mine uses a GON NerD 60 Mekanisk edition in mint green, running TMK by virtue of DanielT's excellent guide. Switches are Nixdorf Blacks with 60g gold plated SpriT springs, polycarbonate switch films from Kin25 and Krytox lube. The keycaps on the pic are SAU, but they’ve since been changed to GMK 9009. The SAUs are destined for something rather special.

Spoiler:

Cherry G80-5000
More to follow later…

Spoiler:

KBDFans Tofu, 57g Silent Blacks
A keyboard I built for work. Coloured case, because why not. Really rather silent, much more so than the generic rubber domes that my colleagues are using. The Silent Blacks are from the infamous GB that produced black Silent Reds with shitty springs. Fortunately, I swap springs anyway, so... 57g Kin-springs in this one, together with polycarbonate films and some lube. One distinct area of improvement on this keyboard is the mounting, tray-mount just isn't as nice. Brass plate improves the sound slightly, at least in my experience, which is good as, while silent, the tone produced by this case is not the nicest - probably solvable by filling the oddly shaped resonance chamber with some high density foam. The keycaps are ePBT BoB. They're nice in isolation, but something like PBT from the likes of Cherry and Topre just blows it out of the water.

Spoiler:

Raptor Gaming K1, MX Black
This was supposed to donate the case to the 1800-project, but I realized that beige is prettier at least when combined with the right (beige) keycaps (Hyperfuse on Beige looks like vomit).

Spoiler:

Cherry G80-1800HAU, 62g MX Black
My perfect 1800-layout keyboard. It’s got a fully programmable Leeku PCB with some PCB-mounted, really smooth, Krytoxed, vintage blacks with 62g springs. The case and caps were harvested from a G81.

Spoiler:

Winkeyless.kr b.face, 60g MX Black
Got most of this one off of DanielT (ace guy, btw), I only added the caps (harvested from a G80-1800HAU) and the case. Purple plate (well, honestly it looks rather pink in many light conditions), Nixie escape and gold plated stabs add some understated bling. Really very smooth MX Blacks made in ’98. The case is a tray style iQnix Lambo. Full on HHKB-layout is the way to go.

Spoiler:

Commodore Cherry G80-0559, MX Black
Really quite cool banana; the stand out feature is the DK/US-hybrid legend keycaps. If I decipher the date codes in the board correctly, this is from ’85 (most of the ICs I understand the date code on claim to have been made during ’84, bar one that says ’85).

Spoiler:

Cherry G81-3100SDU, white slider MY
Woefully uninspiring switches. Ruined looks due to the unwanted extra girth from the magnetic card reader.

But the keycaps, oh, the keycaps.

Spoiler:

The Alps:
Nan Tan Computer KB-6851EA, SKCM White
Second ever Alps keyboard. This was NIB without a box and the old SKCM whites feel considerably better than worn creams.

Spoiler:

Blue Alps Party (TMK Alps64 PCB with SKCM Blue Alps)
Eventually got hold of the perfect Alps Party after having missed out on the GB. Originally it came with Matias Clicks, but they were soon swapped for some SKCM blue. The keycaps are from an SGI board and the keyboard is in a Hammer replica.

Spoiler:

Plastic Fantastic (TMK Alps64 PCB with Linearized SKCM Cream Alps)
I liked my first 60% Alps board so much I decided to get another one. This one, in contrast to the one above uses a plastic plate (thanks, scottc) and a plastic TEX case for some plastic on plastic goodness. Keycaps harvested from an AEK2, some of the nicest one around if you ask me. Except for the annoyance that Apple put homing bumps on D and K.

Spoiler:

Blue is the new Blue (TMK Alps64 PCB with SKCM Blue Alps)
I figured I didn't use the Blue Alps Party enough, mostly due to me liking the HHKB layout too much. So I built another one. Got a plate (thanks for the design, emdude!) cut and media blasted with Lasergist, PCB once again from master hasu and the case had to be the blue Hammer clone from the Blue Alps Party above, while that one is in search of a new one. SKCM Blues, because I happen to like them. They don't sound particularly nice in this implementation, however. Almost as bad as the supposedly SKCM Blues in Chyros' intros. Keycaps are from an AEK and an ASK. Spacebar's got jaundice.

Spoiler:

No longer in my collection:

Spoiler:

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 16:39**

2ssk
2hhkb

ninja edit, didn't see the 3rd hhkb in black

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 16:39**

Very nice Khers! Two HHKB's?

Is that really necessary?

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 16:41**

Nice Khers! I was thinking of making one of these collection shootouts myself. But as with you I have children and don't have the opportunity to make it in one sweep.
Nice collection!

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 16:44**

No. I guess not.

I have use for about two HHKBs; one at home and one at work. The third one, I got from Zensuji just the other day and I thought that it was rather fitting to have one of each (white, black and type-s). Luckily I don't care for the JP

One of the SSKs is about to be transformed into an FSSK and the other is NIB – maybe I need another one?

@Beltet kids are a nuisance when doing this sort of thing. They always wake up at the wrong moment. These shots were actually captured with my baby girl in a baby carrier. Was a struggle and I hope to be able to reshoot sometime...

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 16:48**

I'm joking Khers! Come on.

: success-kid-meme-generator-dig-in-cereal-box-two-prizes-0c29f6.jpg (17.78 KiB) Viewed 15193 times

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 16:51**

...but you are bringing up a valid point and one my wife likes quite a lot.

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 16:53**

Oh I'm sure there was more than one discussion about this.

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 16:54**

I have two HHKBs and three SSKs...

But soon to be getting rid of all but one SSK!

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 16:56**

Ah yes of course the scottc sale, looking foreward to that. I need to do a group shot like this sometime. I think it might end up being more than one picture though.

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 17:01**

I've been trying to downsize. I have. I promise.

But I've only managed to off the odd keycap set. I need to buy more keyboards so that I can sell them to make my wife happy!

When's the Scottsale to be expected?

@seebart it's the best discussion! I think.

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 17:10**

Unfortunately most of my stuff is away in storage at my family's place in Ireland and hard to get to so I'm not going to be selling stuff off as soon as I'd hoped...

I've arranged to privately sell two SSKs though (hopefully to fund an F62 which I'm so enthusiastic about after coming home and using my SSK for the first time in a year!), and will likely sell my letter black HHKB Pro 1 with the slightly broken case, a G80-3000SAD, G80-1501HAD, G81-3000SAT (NIB Czech ISO dyesubs!) and some other bits at some point soon. I've been meaning to put up an ad to trade the SAT board for a Korean custom for a while but have been away from it for a while. I'm desperately trying to downsize too but it's just too hard!

If any of those things happen to tickle anyone's fancy, let me know and maybe we can organise something. I don't have the time for a full-fledged sale any time soon though, unfortunately!

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 19:56**

I'll trade a candy corn clack for the whole collection.

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 20:01**

Nice collection. Especially love the ssks and the square label model m. And of course the hhkb with the og clack... the clack I always wanted, but never got the chance to get my hands on.

Posted: **25 Mar 2016, 23:30**

vivalarevolución wrote: I'll trade a candy corn clack for the whole collection.

Deal!

snoopy wrote: Nice collection. Especially love the ssks and the square label model m. And of course the hhkb with the og clack... the clack I always wanted, but never got the chance to get my hands on.

Lucky for you, you have some other clacks to comfort you, I only have the two in the pic (though the night owl is basically invisible). From the numbers, I guess you can deduce that the SSKs and HHKBs are my favourites as well (though I don't have quite as many SSKs as you, snoppy, and no industrials...). A square label SSK, now that would have been quite something.

Posted: **26 Mar 2016, 02:26**

very nice collection

Just curious, which one is your favorite? Or are they all your precious children?

Posted: **26 Mar 2016, 16:34**

Shot some portraits of the keyboards and put them in the first post. Wall of picture warning.

jerue wrote: very nice collection

Just curious, which one is your favorite? Or are they all your precious children?

I like the HHKBs and the SSKs best. Out of them I gravitate to the regular white HHKB and my '87 SSK (due to the keycap legends). I prefer Fs to Ms, but my one and only F is in the quite terrible XT-layout. Will make myself an FSSK and get an Ellipsesaver soonish though.

Posted: **26 Mar 2016, 19:36**

Lovely little collection! Hope to see it grow in the future

Posted: **26 Mar 2016, 22:10**

Type-S looks great. I could only do blanks myself...and your Realforce 23u! Now I want one :/

Posted: **27 Mar 2016, 01:05**

Really nice collection, good to see my G80 1800 in the right hands. I had to downsize my collection from 20+ keyboards

Spoiler:

to 3 (GH60, IBM model F "bigfoot", IBM SSK), but it will grow again

.

Posted: **27 Mar 2016, 17:39**

photekq wrote: Lovely little collection! Hope to see it grow in the future

My wife doesn't (I'm already overflowing my designated storage area)! But it will. It's inevitable!

jerue wrote: Type-S looks great. I could only do blanks myself...and your Realforce 23u! Now I want one :/

Thanks! The 23u is a little beauty. Pity it works so bad on the mac (I can enter numbers, but there are many dead keys).

hypkx wrote: Really nice collection, good to see my G80 1800 in the right hands. I had to downsize my collection from 20+ keyboards
Spoiler:
to 3 (GH60, IBM model F "bigfoot", IBM SSK), but it will grow again .

Impressive to off such a large percentage of a collection. I could never do that. I do have some keycap sets that I've barely or never used that I should probably sell (probably opening up a FS thread in the not too distant future). But keyboards!? Nooo. If I did, my keepers would be something rather similar to what you kept, but with HHKBs. Probably multiple

.

Posted: **29 Mar 2016, 21:27**

Nice collection!

"Me gusta mucho Topre amore"

Posted: **29 Mar 2016, 21:37**

This whole thread is well timed. I'm thinking hard about what boards I want to keep in my permanent collection, and what I want to sell. Do you have any sort of over-arching philosophy or goal in your collection? What are some things that you've had in the past, that you no longer have?

Khers wrote: Square label hype! They really are superior to their pill-label counterparts. I got this one NIB from Cindy.

So that was you who bought this! I saw this keyboard maybe a couple of days before it was shipped to you. What a great find, I hope you enjoy it!

Posted: **29 Mar 2016, 22:32**

cookie wrote: Nice collection!

"Me gusta mucho Topre amore"

Thanks! Topre 4 life. Or something like that.

XMIT wrote: This whole thread is well timed. I'm thinking hard about what boards I want to keep in my permanent collection, and what I want to sell. Do you have any sort of over-arching philosophy or goal in your collection? What are some things that you've had in the past, that you no longer have?

I don't really have a goal with my collection as a goal implies that when reaching this I would be done. Sure, there are a couple of boards that I would like to have but don't (M15, F62, MX5000, µTron – all rather unobtainable), but I wouldn't consider myself done if I had them.

My philosophy is something fussy along the lines of "I buy what I find attractive or that I know I will like". I started my time at DT with an SSK and ErgoDox in my sights. The ErgoDox may be my worst keyboard related investment since it was expensive but I've never come to grips with the layout.

What you see above is just about every keyboard I've acquired since joining DT; I suck at letting things go. The only notable exception is a Corsair K65 I got for work that was the worst piece of crap I've experienced. Was; because it went to trash after I'd desoldered the switches. Atrocious.

Posted: **03 Apr 2016, 13:28**

Added one of the last missing pieces in the current collection; an ErgoDox. Probably the keyboard with the worst money:time ratio in my collection. Was expensive; isn't used.

Posted: **03 Apr 2016, 13:57**

Khers wrote: Added one of the last missing pieces in the current collection; an ErgoDox. Probably the keyboard with the worst money:time ratio in my collection. Was expensive; isn't used.

I can full understand you, even if my Ergodox isnt finished I am not really impressed. My ergodox missing only the teensy to work, but I have done the same things as you, lubed every switch (mx clears), soldered everything by myself, I have even built a own cable with golden trrs connectors and sleved cable. But even now in unfinished condition and with granite keycaps, I start to dislike it. Maybe I will trade it in the future for another keyboard

Posted: **03 Apr 2016, 14:52**

To me it seems like the ErgoDox is a love/hate affair. I guess that's natural though, since there is quite a threshold to overcome before you've adapted to the layout, at which point some argue they could never go back to another type of layout whereas others (myself included) prefer the row-staggered layout of conventional keyboards. I was, like you, using the ErgoDox with Granite at first, but I didn't like that one bit. Got better, but still not quite good enough with some SA on it, however, I generally prefer cylindrical keycaps to spherical. It was fun trying it out though, but I ultimately prefer other switches, keycaps and layouts

Edit: Added my latest purchase; an Alps Party kit with Matias Click and SGI Iris keycaps. Alps have started growing on me! Now, I need to stay out of the Alps Vortex or else all hope is lost.

Posted: **22 Apr 2016, 21:42**

Updated a little.

Posted: **22 Apr 2016, 22:11**

Oh wow really nice update!

I like the blue alps pictures and the SSK's! I don't have NIB though...

I will be fine with my blue label however

Posted: **22 Apr 2016, 22:14**

Khers wrote: Updated a little.

Nice thanks, the Alps Party is cool.

deskthority

Khers' collection

Khers' collection