On Black Friday I ordered a second hot-swap PCB for my Mode Envoy; mostly for peace of mind. I want to use the keyboard a long time and it would be a shame if I broke my one and only PCB when testing switches. As an added benefit, I now have two PCBs and two plates (aluminum and POM). Since I have more switches and keycaps than keyboards, I could easily have two configurations of the board and quickly switch between them. I wanted to do some testing.

The Mode Envoy is a great keyboard for tinkering with different configurations. With its unibody construction you can insert or remove the PCB assembly in seconds. For testing switches you don’t need any screws and you don’t need to plug the cable into the PCB. Ideal for testing different switches.

The Test Setup

• Mode Envoy
• Aluminum plate
• XMI PBT keycaps
• No plate foam or PE foam
• With and without case foam
• Same sentence for all switches
• Recorded with Sennheiser MKE 600 about 20cm above the keyboard; same gain, no post-processing

The sentence

When comparing switches, it’s hard to judge the end result from only a handful of switches. Ideally, you want to be able to write a full sentence with each switch. I picked a sentence that uses 19 keys on the keyboard; part of a popular vocal warmup exercise:

what a todo to die today at a minute or two to two a thing distinctly hard to say but harder still to do – From “Merrie England” Edward German & Basil Hood

Using the Colemak layout, you need all but one key on the home row (67 characters), five keys on the top row (11 characters), three keys on the bottom row (3 characters), and the spacebar (23 characters).

To test different switches, I only had to replace the 19 switches used in the sentence. I could do that pretty quickly. Then: one quick test with case foam and one quick test without case foam.

Limitations

• For some test runs I forgot to replace a single switch and didn’t notice
• The microphone placement was not perfectly identical for every test
• I only tested with the POM plate
• I only tested with XMI Cherry profile keycaps made from PBT
• I did not test with plate foam – that requires changing all switches
• I did not test with switches where I have fewer than 19 switches in my drawer (like my great Keygeek Y3s with 87 out of 90 switches in my Tiger80 Lite)

The difference with and without case foam is generally not that big. Without case foam the Envoy shows some hollowness, so I typically preferred the version with case foam.

The Switches

Roughly ordered by pitch from low to high.

The result

Sounds like a keyboard.

In the recordings the differences appear pretty subtle at times. You probably won’t hear much of a difference on regular laptop or phone speakers if you go through the list from top to bottom.

Some thoughts:

I still prefer my current Envoy configuration with the Cream Sodas on a POM plate with plate foam and case foam. It’s one of my favorite keyboards.

I still like the U4Ts a lot. I like the relatively low volume and low pitch; and how they feel. My Keychron Q65 with the U4Ts is one of my favorite boards to type on.

I like the V1s a lot – also because of their low volume and pitch. I’m almost tempted to rotate the V1s and Cream Sodas between the Envoy and the Cycle7. Assuming the Cycle7 with PC plate, plate foam, case foam, and the Cream Sodas sounds and feels a lot like on the Envoy, that might be a great match for the MTNU keycaps.

Initially, I did not like the Cream Sodas. I figured I’d never find a board where I liked their sound. Once I lubed them with Krytox 205g0 they became one of my favorite switches. Now they are always among my favorites when I try different configurations.

The Strawberry Wines are good but a bit on the loud side and with some imperfections. Maybe that’s also a case where I’d like them a lot more, if I lubed them.

I like the MP Tactiles a lot. They sound really clean; especially the spacebar.

The Princess Tactiles may be the loudest, noisiest switches I have; also the most tactile switches. They are pretty fun; but I’m afraid if I put them in a board, I would not use the keyboard all that often.

The Trash switches are still great. In my recent tests with three switches per type they were never among the front-runners, but they still sounded and felt great in this test.

Overall, I might prefer…
… plastic plates over aluminum plates
… lower volume switches over higher volume switches
… lower pitch switches over higher pitch switches