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A very complete list. Maybe the article is missing Cherry Vintage Blacks. I once participated in a machanical keyboard meetup. There were a lot of Keyboards on

A very complete list. Maybe the article is missing Cherry Vintage Blacks. I once participated in a machanical keyboard meetup. There were a lot of Keyboards on display - mostly homemade. The one that for me really stood out was one built using vintage blacks.

Findecanor 4y ago
Cherry MX switches were indeed smoother in the older days. Not just Black, but Brown and Blue as well. Switches could get smoother as the plastic wears down, but that is not the whole story as evidenced by New-Old-Stock vintage keyboards also having smoother switches. I think Cherry wasn't really ready for the demand when the mechanical keyboard craze began, and therefore their quality suffered for several years. They have supposedly improved their manufacturing in more recent years, but the risk is that when you buy a new keyboard you'll still get switches from an old batch and not the new improved ones.
- adornKey 4y ago
  Ah, I missed that Cherry did some retooling again in 2018. https://www.reddit.com/r/MechSwitchReview/comments/hlc6wt/cherry_mx_vintage_black_review_a_modders_dream/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MechSwitchReview/comments/hlc6wt/ch... In the keyboard meetup back then I talked to the people from Cherry a lot. I told them that they have a lot of choices, but none of them is as great as that old vintage black over there... They were owned by ZF and very into big industrial customers. In 2018 they talked about getting more independent again and about starting to care more about small customers. Also they were hiring all sorts of positions - to me it almost looked like a start from scratch - they listed positions from sales to firmware development... It was way too difficult back then to buy from Cherry. So I chose Alps from Matias for my builds. Other then that I use an old indestructible Keytronic ErgoForce and a Topre.

Findecanor 4y ago

Cherry MX switches were indeed smoother in the older days. Not just Black, but Brown and Blue as well. Switches could get smoother as the plastic wears down, but that is not the whole story as evidenced by New-Old-Stock vintage keyboards also having smoother switches. I think Cherry wasn't really ready for the demand when the mechanical keyboard craze began, and therefore their quality suffered for several years. They have supposedly improved their manufacturing in more recent years, but the risk is that when you buy a new keyboard you'll still get switches from an old batch and not the new improved ones.

adornKey 4y ago
Ah, I missed that Cherry did some retooling again in 2018. https://www.reddit.com/r/MechSwitchReview/comments/hlc6wt/cherry_mx_vintage_black_review_a_modders_dream/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MechSwitchReview/comments/hlc6wt/ch... In the keyboard meetup back then I talked to the people from Cherry a lot. I told them that they have a lot of choices, but none of them is as great as that old vintage black over there... They were owned by ZF and very into big industrial customers. In 2018 they talked about getting more independent again and about starting to care more about small customers. Also they were hiring all sorts of positions - to me it almost looked like a start from scratch - they listed positions from sales to firmware development... It was way too difficult back then to buy from Cherry. So I chose Alps from Matias for my builds. Other then that I use an old indestructible Keytronic ErgoForce and a Topre.