[4:20 Review] The KMAC in 62g Clears

Foreword:  The first time I saw this, I knew I just had to have it.  I’ve been dreaming of this keyboard, hoping that one day it would be mine.  And finally, finally…it’s mine, and it’s exactly the way I wanted it too.  I present to you, the KMAC.

Dun, dun, dun…

[4:20 Review] The KMAC in 62g Clears

First, some unboxing photos to get your excitement levels over 9000!

  

  

And if you’re wondering, yes that’s an awesome Red velvet sleeve…

Specifications:  This is an original KMAC, none of that LE funny business.  Sherryton can keep his, because mine is better!  Anyway, a Korean member helped me pick this up and he custom built it to my specifications.  At the time, I wasn’t even sure what I wanted…there were so many options I wanted to try:  62g Clears? 62g Blues? 45/62g Reds?  65g Blues?  Man, the options were endless.  So what did I pick?  Yeah, I went with 62g Clears.  And thank goodness I did.  It feels great!

In addition, every switch has been individually modified with stickers and lube.  (Stickers and lube?  No, I’m not a pedophile! Get it out of your head you gross gross person)  The stickers are specially designed for dampening the bottom out noise and reducing your throw.  The stickers are designed to reduce wobbliness of the switch, essentially giving you a more stable and sturdy feel.  And the lubricant acts as an agent to decrease friction within the switch.  You can apply it to the stem, spring, sliders…or all three if you really wanted to.  According to my maker, the lubricant is what significantly reduces the bounciness of the spring and sound caused by friction.  Which gets me wondering, what lube is he using?!  I should find this out sometime.

As for the LEDs, this is what I got:  Red Capslock, Control, Esc and Scroll Lock.  Green F1-F12.  White WASD.

Design: Look at it.  Just look at it!  She’s beautiful in every sense of the word.  Any keycap set you put on her and she’d look amazing.  Red Alert, Cherry Doubleshots, Dolch, WYSE, she looks good in them all!  The classy Titanium colored case is extremely well crafted.  Dismantling the case is very easy, as every screw is perfectly slotted.  When taking it apart, the plate underneath is just amazing.  The “KMAC” logo in the bottom right corner just sticks out like a BOSS.  A few images below to complete the drawing.

  

Feel: I was expecting the switch from 45g ergo-Clears keyboards to 62g ergo-Clears to be very different.  But what I’ve heard a lot of people say is that it doesn’t truly feel like a 62g as one would imagine, and for the most part I’d agree.  They don’t feel much heavier than the 45g springs, and it was an easy transition.  The part I needed to get used to was the o-ring like feel I was experiencing.  Sound dampened, throw is shorter, and tactility very frictionless.  This was a nice switch (pun intended, zing!).  I’m liking the way it feels, and it’s so quiet…and so beautiful.  But it just goes to show you the amount of customization Cherry switches really have.  There are a lot of different combinations between stem, spring weight, lube or no lube, sticker or no sticker, etc.  All in all, it’s growing on me…rapidly.

Ripster mentioned that the 62g weight is the force needed to bottom out.  Compared to the standard ergo-Clear (45g spring), the bottom out is 60g.  So it makes sense that there isn’t a huge difference, thought I was going nuts.

Update:  I don’t usually go into technical details, but a friend mentioned that I should correct some things in this post as not to falsely educate someone.  So, to re-iterate*, there was a correction to the effects of the lube and stickers.  The lube applied in this case, both to the sliders and springs is primarily causing the difference in feel and o-ring like effect that I’m experiencing.  This process and lubricant significantly reduces the bouncy sound from the spring and the sound caused by friction.  It also appears to be dampening the throw.  The stickers, on the other hand. act as a stability agent that reduces the the wobbliness of the stem and spring within the housing.  Combined, they make the feel of the switch very different than your normal ergo-Clear.  Sound and video clip to come in the distant future 🙂

*Fun fact about the word “re-iterate.”  To apply ‘re’ as the prefix to iterate, is redundant.  By definition, the word iterate means “to perform or utter repeatedly.”  By adding re- we are still saying the same thing, but silly business minded folk love reiterating the same thing over and over!

Final Thoughts:  I set a very high bar of expectations for the KMAC and it has met and exceeded far beyond that.  The KMAC is truly a keyboard for the collector and enthusiast.  This is the epitome of flawless design.  Masterfully crafted down to the very last detail.  If you can get your hands on one, I would certainly make the recommendation to do so.  It wasn’t easy for me to get it, and the people who do have it, have no intention of sharing that kind of information.

I won’t share who helped me with this (so they don’t get unwanted PM’s), but I will say that it isn’t easy for domestic Korean members to get these keyboards either.  The second they’re posted for sale is the same second they’ve been sold/traded.  You have to grab their attention! For me, I had to let go of some of my CC’s =(  But I can’t have it all (or can I? muahaha).  I’m extremely happy I have this and grateful to the member who helped me customize and finally obtain one.  Full gallery below!  Enjoy and goodnight~

Tags: 420review, aluminum, custom, dolch, kmac, korean, rgb, titanium, TKL

• July 12, 2012
• 4:20 Reviews, Korean Customs
• 13 Comments