That Topre switch sound

One of the key reasons that people love Topre switch based keyboard because of its switch sounds.  Topre switch has an unique “thock” sound signature that is pretty universal on all the Topre switch based keyboards I have tried out.  The volume might vary based on the weights.   Honestly tho, there’s not much difference that I can detect.  The only one that I believe has a slightly different bottoming out sound is HHKB because of the different mounting method it deploys.

However, these various Realforce keyboards still sound different when I do type on them.  What gives?  Turns out that like any keyboards, there’s at least 2 sound events, on for bottoming out and topping out after the key bounces back to neutral.  There are others as well such as the finger tap on the key caps.  So, the material of the key cap can make a difference as well as the keyboard construction itself.  The key cap and surrounding build can influence the upstroke sounds.  So, the 104UG sounds different from the 87UW and Leopold’s FC660C sounds even more so all together.  Which one is better depends on the listener.  I really like them all.  Then again, I really like the buckling spring keyboard sounds too.  So, check out Youtube as many folks have posted videos and audio of various different keyboard sound recordings.  Pretty cool.