Alps Appreciation

[mike52787]

SKCM cream has a similar tactility to oranges, and a weighting in between oranges and browns. which I feel are too light and too heavy. SKCM creams just have the perfect weighting and tactility to make a great switch. give them a try.

The hype is kind of from you.

For MX if I prefer MX greens to MX blues, and MX blacks to MX reds, and MX clears to MX browns.
Do you think I'm 'heavy-handed' enough to skip SKCM creams to just use SKCM browns?

haha yeah... its not ENTIRELY on purpose... I mean give both of them a try, and see how you like them. Switch preference is always personal. Both are fantastic switches. I just feel that SKCM cream is not as tiring to type on.

[Mattr567]

Japanese AEKII swapped with aforementioned SKCM Cream

[subcat]

Woo!

[mike52787]

Japanese AEKII swapped with aforementioned SKCM Cream

Looks awesome

[Menuhin]

Hyped!

These PBT caps do look awesome - now they're of the rarer breed we can appreciate more these AEK caps.

[Lynx_Carpathica]

Hi
A guy wants to sell me an AEKII. He sent me theese pictures. What do you think about it, how mutch does it worth, without the cable, and how hard is to get a cable for it, and what's the approx. condition of the switches dirtwise? It has ivory switches.

Thanks!

[//gainsborough]

That board looks pretty clean to me - only minor dust on the mounting plate.

My educated-but-definitely-get-a-second-opinion guess would be $35-$45.

ADB cables are easy to find on ebay, and should be relatively cheap.

[mike52787]

Hi
A guy wants to sell me an AEKII. He sent me theese pictures. What do you think about it, how mutch does it worth, without the cable, and how hard is to get a cable for it, and what's the approx. condition of the switches dirtwise? It has ivory switches.

Thanks!

well, ISO AEKIIs generally aren't worth as much as ansi, and cream dampened switches are underwhelming. so I would say 20-30$.

[fruitalgorithm]

I paid 19€ for an ISO-DE AEKII a couple of months ago. The switches aren't that satisfying. Feel worn out. Some switches aren't dampened properly anymore. They are audibly clicky.

Mine has reliability issues. I have to replug it into the iMate ADB adapter every couple of minutes because it stops working. I'm thinking of taking it apart, cutting the plate up and turning it into a separate TKL and numpad with new Matias Quiet Click.

[fohat]

Hi

A guy wants to sell me an AEKII. He sent me theese pictures. What do you think about it, how mutch does it worth, without the cable,

If you don't have to have a coiled, Apple-branded original cable, any standard S-video cable will work and probably deliver better performance, not that it matters.

$30-$35 would be about average in the US but elsewhere they might go higher. It is extremely difficult to find one that is not yellowed.

[alh84001]

ISO AEK IIs in EU can be had from EUR 20, even less sometimes.

[Menuhin]

ISO AEK IIs in EU can be had from EUR 20, even less sometimes.

I'm one of those not as lucky - I scored it > 30€, almost 40€ I think.
It's easier to catch better deals when one already has a few nice collectible items under his belts - this allows one to wait out more.

[Mattr567]

Any non standard AEK is cool Also typing on my Japanese AEKII! Got my iMate today, love the thing!

cream dampened switches are underwhelming. so I would say 20-30$.

Yea that seems about right. The SKCM White Damp that my AEKII originally came with were actually pretty decent feeling. Uniform and quiet with a decent tactile bump. Out of the boards i've had with Dampened Alps (4) they were best ones i've ever had. Must be down to the spotless condition they were in.

[Chyros]

I actually found white damps to be slightly nicer-feeling than cream ones. Although I can't guarantee the condition was equal, so it's of course an iffy comparison.

[cumwagondeluxe]

I got to try somebody's SKCM Cream damped alps at the Toronto meetup - I honestly found them to be quite pleasant - honestly pretty much on equal footing with Oranges, and I don't really remember his board being NIB or anything. Interestingly, he had some of the switches lubed and they felt just as good, if not better than the unlubed ones.

That being said, I managed to snag a NIB AEK II with White damped alps and they actually are pretty nice. I don't know how much of a difference swapping the bamboo housing for a pine one makes, but I'm honestly half tempted to maybe cannibalize one of the orange alps boards I've got lying around to swap with. SKCM orange is nice, but browns have ruined tactile switches for me completely - I don't feel like there's any point to owning more than like one or two boards with oranges on 'em anymore. On the other hand, if anybody's got some 5140/videowriter boards (or anything else with browns, really) they want to part with I'd buy the absolute shit out of those - don't think I could ever have enough of these damn things.

[Menuhin]

As the photo above tells, SKCM White damps are bamboos (I only had 3 boards with SKCM dampened Alps) as my experience goes. I prefer to use pines only, and Cream damps are all pines in what I've seen.

I think bamboo Alps can be nice if you type in a style that hit every key right at the center; however, if you press them off-center, they tend to lock-up / bind, much more so than the pine Alps do based on my limited experience.

[Mattr567]

As the photo above tells, SKCM White damps are bamboos (I only had 3 boards with SKCM dampened Alps) as my experience goes. I prefer to use pines only, and Cream damps are all pines in what I've seen.

I think bamboo Alps can be nice if you type in a style that hit every key right at the center; however, if you press them off-center, they tend to lock-up / bind, much more so than the pine Alps do based on my limited experience.

Yea all my Whites have been Bamboo. I didn't see any binding problems with my White Damp's, that might be down to condition.

Speculation here but I think that Dampened switches suffer more from dust and grime than normal switches b/c of the cutout for the rubber dampener. The cut out allows grime to be trapped more easily and dust sticks to the rubber. I've seen this with many switches I've opened. As a result they feel worse than normal switches like Salmon or Orange in similar conditions. I did keep one of the super clean SKCM White Dampended's from my AEKII btw so we can make comparisons.

[//gainsborough]

if anybody's got some 5140/videowriter boards (or anything else with browns, really) they want to part with I'd buy the absolute shit out of those - don't think I could ever have enough of these damn things.

Is there a way to tell if the 250 has brown alps or mitsumi hybrid switches at a glance?

[Mattr567]

if anybody's got some 5140/videowriter boards (or anything else with browns, really) they want to part with I'd buy the absolute shit out of those - don't think I could ever have enough of these damn things.

Is there a way to tell if the 250 has brown alps or mitsumi hybrid switches at a glance?

Not that I know of, caps look the same and everything.

[//gainsborough]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-Magnavo ... SwCU1YyvwA

Well then, I rolled the dice with this one. I couldn't pass it up because of it's price. The number on the back of the case though is 8625, which I presume is a serial number (though I guess it could also be a date). The 250 that cumwagondeluxe (holy shit I can't type name that without smirking like an idiot) bought, which for sure has brown alps (http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-MAGNAVO ... 7675.l2557) has a number on the back that reads 8628, so I figured I was safe. Guess I'll find out in a week or so.

This month has absolutely destroyed my wallet.

[alh84001]

fingers crossed

was it the same seller? those are two pretty close serial numbers, even for such low volume boards

[//gainsborough]

not the same seller. I was surprised by how close the numbers were as well!

[cumwagondeluxe]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-Magnavo ... SwCU1YyvwA

Well then, I rolled the dice with this one. I couldn't pass it up because of it's price. The number on the back of the case though is 8625, which I presume is a serial number (though I guess it could also be a date). The 250 that cumwagondeluxe (holy shit I can't type name that without smirking like an idiot) bought, which for sure has brown alps (http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-MAGNAVO ... 7675.l2557) has a number on the back that reads 8628, so I figured I was safe. Guess I'll find out in a week or so.

This month has absolutely destroyed my wallet.

Glad people like the name lmao

Unless they were really inconsistent with their construction of these boards, I'd say yours definitely has brown alps. Enjoy dude, you got em at a great price and they are a seriously nice switch. Wish I'd seen the listing first to be honest :p

[Lynx_Carpathica]

Thanks for your oppinions, guys!
How do undamped cream alps compare to Blue alps?

[arkanoid]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-Magnavo ... SwCU1YyvwA

Well then, I rolled the dice with this one. I couldn't pass it up because of it's price. The number on the back of the case though is 8625, which I presume is a serial number (though I guess it could also be a date). The 250 that cumwagondeluxe (holy shit I can't type name that without smirking like an idiot) bought, which for sure has brown alps (http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-MAGNAVO ... 7675.l2557) has a number on the back that reads 8628, so I figured I was safe. Guess I'll find out in a week or so.

This month has absolutely destroyed my wallet.

I think it has brown switches. I also would buy it if I saw the listing.

[arkanoid]

Thanks for your oppinions, guys!
How do undamped cream alps compare to Blue alps?

They are different switches. Damped cream is tactile, and blue is clicky.
Undamped cream? You just need to swap the slider with regular ones. By the way, some people say putting damped slider in blue alps switch makes nicer click.

[seebart]

Thanks for your oppinions, guys!
How do undamped cream alps compare to Blue alps?

Get your basic Alps SKCL/SKCM series overview here:

wiki/Alps_SKCL/SKCM_series

[alh84001]

Thanks for your oppinions, guys!
How do undamped cream alps compare to Blue alps?

There's a member here whose favorite switches are undamped creams. He doesn't like clicky switches so YMMV.

[mike52787]

Thanks for your oppinions, guys!
How do undamped cream alps compare to Blue alps?

There's a member here whose favorite switches are undamped creams. He doesn't like clicky switches so YMMV.

hi

[mike52787]

Thanks for your oppinions, guys!
How do undamped cream alps compare to Blue alps?

They are different switches. Damped cream is tactile, and blue is clicky.
Undamped cream? You just need to swap the slider with regular ones. By the way, some people say putting damped slider in blue alps switch makes nicer click.

Undampened cream and dampened cream are COMPLETELY different. Undamp cream is a first gen tactile switch, with a weighting between orange and brown, and nice snappy tactility. Dampened cream is a 2nd gen switch, which is a mushfest and has tactility like riding down a country road.