What's up with Cherry Nixie switches?

[AnnoyedWalrus]

After I saw a post on Instagram where Cherry (not very subtly) hinted that they are planning to release a reproduction of "Nixies" I have been trying to figure out what they are and why people likes them.

So far it seems like the only reason is the rarity, please correct me if I'm wrong but aren't they just Cherry MX Blacks with a clear top and wouldn't that make this reproduction pretty pointless?

Edit
I should probably link to their post.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ7IgqSMejG/

[Muirium]

So far it seems like the only reason is the rarity, please correct me if I'm wrong

Will do.

That’s pure shite. They’re smooth as sin. Really, really nice. And this is coming from me, a Topre snob who looks down his nose at Cherry as some lesser thing entirely. Regular linear MX is bad: scuffy, scruffy, scratchy, even noisy in the stroke. Yet, like some miracle completely out of place: Nixies honestly impress me. They are nice. Authentic, proper nice.

I’ll pull mine out and compare it with the Honeywell Micro Switch keyboard. They’re close as I recall.

(Initiating countdown sequence to getting told all MX blacks are this good if you just lube, sticker, bind, gag and drug them right… Even if that’s true, which I doubt, Nixies are existence proof Cherry could spare you, and me, all the hassle.)

[AnnoyedWalrus]

Thank you Muirium for yet another very entertaining post, I sometimes miss the upvote button on Reddit.

Has someone dissassebled a Nixie switch to see what the difference is between it and regular blacks? It seems strange to me that Cherry would stop making a superior switch if it wasnt for a significantly higher manufacturing cost or perhaps some IP-issue with Nixdorf.

I do hope that their attempt to recreate it isnt just some cashgrab since I would love to try one some day.

[Muirium]

Upvoting isn’t how real life works. Replies are much better.

Good question, btw. I wrote essentially the exact same words just yesterday. It’s a mystery to me. My best guess is they cost noticeably more to make and Cherry didn’t like the margin. Fine when Nixdorf was paying, but not so great when Cherry had to bite it.

Incidentally, that instagram link throws me a page full of threats about sacrificing newborn cookies to some omnipotent, multinational god, with no alternative way to pass. So feel free to screenshot them for posterity’s sake, assuming that sweet content is destined for the same cosmic shitter everything else is on the platform.

[xxhellfirexx]

Has someone dissassebled a Nixie switch to see what the difference is between it and regular blacks? It seems strange to me that Cherry would stop making a superior switch if it wasnt for a significantly higher manufacturing cost or perhaps some IP-issue with Nixdorf.

Here is a review on the switches which describes the parts and construction.

https://www.theremingoat.com/blog/from- ... xie-review

[xxhellfirexx]

That’s pure shite. They’re smooth as sin. Really, really nice. And this is coming from me, a Topre snob who looks down his nose at Cherry as some lesser thing entirely. Regular linear MX is bad: scuffy, scruffy, scratchy, even noisy in the stroke. Yet, like some miracle completely out of place: Nixies honestly impress me. They are nice. Authentic, proper nice.

Now how does it compare to retooled Cherry MX blacks and Cherry MX Hyperglides?

[zrrion]

From goat's review of them I feel that my theory regarding the source of vintage cherry smoothness is likely accurate. That being cherry's old plastic formula combined with fresh molds results in a very smooth switch. The variability in vint blacks is caused by the tooling wearing over time and being replaced periodically.

Assuming my theory is correct then the "legendary smoothness" that mu is going on about isn't unique to nixies. Nice vint blacks, Olympia clears, and MX-M8 adapter switches are all likely to be fairly comparable to nixies in that department. Vint blacks were made in much greater number than these other MX flavors and as such you would expect to see more variance in the tooling quality over the life of the switch.
Nixies, Olympia clears, and MX-M8 adapters were made in much smaller number compared to vint blacks and so any random sample is more likely to be from tooling that is still relatively fresh when compared to a random vint black sample. From my experience with vint blacks I have found *some* VBs that are ultra smooth but not all of them are. On the other hand though every MX-M8 adapter switch I've had has been ultra smooth.

This is making one large assumption though that every switch line is made with unique tooling for the housing. Olympia clears for sure did since they have different housing from the other switches. The others using unique tooling is an assumption I am basing off of how Cherry retooled their switches. Namely that they didn't retool clears. If they were using the same housing then you would expect cherry to have said "clears will use the new retooled housing but the stem is not getting retooled" but they didn't do that. The entire switch, housing and stem, remains pre-tool. This would indicate that the housing is molded separately for each switch and if true supports my theory for the other vint linears being smoother more often due to tooling wear differences.

tldr: nixies are smooth because Cherry (probably) used fresher tooling than other switches of the same vintage

[davkol]

derp

[Muirium]

That last sentence is true of all opinions, full stop, of course. We are guided by experience, subjective as it may be.

[davkol]

derp