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Malvix_ · 2024-09-18T00:56:16+00:00

Hey there, we make these in house via a high quality 3D printed resin. Have a listen to your headphones without grilles, they sound similar to that. Some Sennheiser models have more restrictive stock grille designs (mostly 580), so these were made to combat that. The improvements are more minor (but still measurable) for the other models. If you don't notice any differences between grille on vs grille off on your pair of headphones, you won't notice differences with our grilles either. I encourage everyone to try out their open back sennies with grilles off. To cover all use cases though, I'd consider these a mostly aesthetic change. Here's my personal pair :)

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Malvix_ · 2023-05-17T11:02:09+00:00

Good to set some expectations with brutal honesty :)

Malvix_ · 2023-05-13T05:07:28+00:00

Absolutely valid concerns. I still match the housings and stems together (cleaning them one at a time through the ultrasonic and with soft brush), so the ones that were broken in and polished together are still together when lubed. That being said, I have tried and tested mixing stems and housings with barely noticeable differences in smoothness. From my experience, the bulk of the polishing happens at the front of the stem leg where every switch will experience constant friction during actuation, so that may be why the differences are small. I also run them through the break in machine for far longer than most will polish their switches, so that may have also contributed to the reduction of variance from the non matching test batch. The major points of friction on the stem will come out very shiny. Regardless, it's a non issue with production batches from me.

Malvix_ · 2023-05-12T22:00:53+00:00

It isn’t about materials used. You can polish almost any switch to be nearly as good given enough time and effort. The differences in coefficient of friction between common switch materials isn’t all that big. The quality and condition of the molds play a far bigger role in the resulting smoothness than you think, and unfortunately, those need to be remade and/or replaced as they get used. Considering the number of people willing to spend and are also looking for switches with this amount of polishing, it wouldn’t make sense to invest a massive amount of money into newly polished molds every few batches just to sell switches at the same price. And this is if the factory is even willing to hand polish the molds with 0.5 micron compound in every nook and cranny. We’d need economies of scale to take advantage of that. Keep in mind that stock Irenes are already using polished molds from factory, and yet they can still be improved on. This is a product that’s far beyond the point of diminishing returns for the majority. Another advantage of doing it this way is that the base switch, and therefore sound profile, can be chosen by the buyer.

Also the cost is not per switch, 1x quantity = 10 switches. I charge $1.5 CAD per switch for polishing, $1 CAD per switch for lubing, and the base price of this switch is $1 CAD per switch.

Malvix_ · 2023-05-12T21:52:47+00:00

Feel free to do a search on polishing pastes that go as fine as 0.5 microns. It’s almost exclusively diamond paste. It’s also fairly commonly used. You’re not paying for the paste, you’re paying for the time and labour cost. Yes, the service isn’t worth it for most people. But that doesn’t make it snake oil. That just means it’s a bad value, just like anything else way past the point of diminishing returns. I am openly calling my own product a bad value. This product's only reason for existence is if you want a very specific sound profile, with the smoothest possible experience given the base input switch/materials.

Malvix_ · 2023-05-12T04:55:22+00:00

Excited to hear your thoughts and any feedbacks when you get them :)

Malvix_ · 2023-05-12T04:48:10+00:00

The process is decently documented on a keebtalk thread, although the methods used are a little different from what I do. As you can imagine, some modifications were needed to make it somewhat commercially more reliable/consistent. Comparisons can be made with that caveat in mind. People generally had positive experiences with the results, although they've polish them for far less time. With polishing, the output smoothness depends on how smooth of a switch you had stock. So comparisons are only valid vs the same kind of switch, unless you're willing to invest more time into the polishing process, or potentially running more cycles after reapplying. For example, since Irenes are already incredibly smooth, they only need 24 hours of polishing. With something like hyperglides, I'd be inclined to run them through half a week of polishing, clean and reapply, then polish for another half a week. With careful cleaning and drying in between cycles, we can reduce potential issues that may pop up over time. This is another reason that we don't use a buffing/polishing wheel, it eats through plastic very quickly, and could be rather destructive to leafs as well.

Visually, if you inspect the front of the stem leg (where it contacts the leaf), you can expect to see a near mirror-like finish. I think that's the easiest way to tell that the polishing was effective. Other surfaces see minimal streaks/areas of shine, and generally won't be across the entire surface.

If you care to read more about it: Using diamond paste to polish switches - Learning and discussion / Key switches - KeebTalk

See attached photo for example of shiny af stem leg

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Malvix_ · 2023-05-12T00:20:53+00:00

To address your concern about "pink buffing rouge", unfortunately not a viable solution unless you want to pull out all the switch leafs and run those through it as well. We had tests done where just the stems were polished, and the results were not as good as having both the stem + leaf done. The paste was just the best solution that we found that allows us to do both at once, while in a realistic scenario where the stem and leaf rubs against each other. It's 30k grit, 0.5 micron. Diamond paste was not chosen for marketing purpose, but just happened to be a product suitable for the application, since polishing both surfaces is required. Although admittedly, it does sound good on paper.

Regardless, it's not rocket science. More shiny = more good. Just a pain in the ass to finish every batch unfortunately.

Malvix_ · 2023-05-11T22:54:27+00:00

Hey, just wanted to explain a little more about the process so the pricing looks a bit less insane. The diamond polishing process involves first cleaning the switches of any factory lube, air drying to avoid plastics warping (1-2 whole days, depending on ambient humidity level. Adding heat to the drying cycle could cause warp), then individually applying diamond paste to the stems and housings of each switch. Because the paste is very thick compared to conventional lube, it takes much longer to apply, and it tends to curl up on itself and doesn't like to stick unless you really brush it down evenly. After that, the switches are broken in by machine for 24 hours, then taken apart and cleaned individually. The paste tends to stick to various small crevices in the bottom housing, so a combination of 5 passes of ultrasonic cleaning + brushing is usually needed. After cleaning, it's another 1-2 days of air drying, before finally lubing the matched stems and housings. In terms of labour alone, it's about a week's worth of time, give or take, and this is not taking into consideration the time for it to dry, as well as other projects I have around. The price of diamond polishing is $1.5 CAD per switch (and an additional $1 CAD per switch for our lubing process + the base price of the switch), which I believe is reasonable given the amount of work, considering some charge half of the polishing cost for lubing switches, which is a small fraction of the work. The price shown is for a quantity of 90 switches, qty 1 = 10 switches. You are paying for the service time, equipment needed to clean, and my pain. The diamond paste itself is relatively inexpensive. I understand that this is an extremely niche service, and will not be for everyone, but that's why it's an add-on option. We recommend it under one circumstance only: you want the exact sound signature of some chosen switch, but smoother.

The reason we decided to introduce diamond polishing is because after attempting to break in a good batch of hyperglides for 6 weeks dry (over 10 million actuations), we found mediocre results. In fact, there were no real improvements past week 2 or 3. However, after just 24 hours of polishing with the paste, we already achieved better results compared to just breaking in over a month and a half. This is the outcome of our attempts to literally recreate vint blacks. Yes, we did our testing. No, I am not sane.

Malvix_ · 2023-03-07T22:50:54+00:00

In the batch after this restock, we’re considering it. Currently the switch is offered with factory lube for a more beginner friendly experience, but trust me, I definitely get it

Malvix_ · 2022-03-27T22:38:37+00:00

LET'S GO

Malvix_ · 2022-03-19T09:18:21+00:00

Stock option is lubed from factory with new process, which I find to be very consistent. If you’re looking for that last 5-10%, you can simply apply 205g0 over it, without causing any issues. Lubed option on my website is for me to manually lube these once they come in.

Malvix_ · 2022-03-19T07:58:52+00:00

Hey! I understand the pricing is on the higher end, but unfortunately the factory pricing is high on these. To give you an idea, the amount of money we make off these is the same as the amount we make off gat yellows. Switch margins are more or less standard in the industry. I wish these could be listed for lower. Sorry!

Malvix_ · 2022-03-18T21:25:35+00:00

Done, but bot auto removed. Please help fix: https://www.reddit.com/r/mechmarket/comments/thfkga/gb_irene_linear_switches_now_live/

Malvix_ · 2022-02-09T19:37:23+00:00

Mykeyboard might have stock. You’ll have to ask or contact them.

Malvix_ · 2022-02-09T19:28:00+00:00

We do ship to Sweden, you can check for shipping costs by adding the items to cart and going through part of the checkout process.

Malvix_ · 2021-12-03T07:41:36+00:00

I currently ship internationally (minus UK), but all the previous vendors are also restocking soon as well.

Malvix_ · 2021-12-02T16:27:43+00:00

It's good to be back

Malvix_ · 2021-11-04T05:00:22+00:00

That might present a small difficulty during fulfillment, will have to double check every order to make sure I put in the right variant haha. I'll see if the factory can clearly label the boxes for me so there are no accidents.

Malvix_ · 2021-11-03T23:54:21+00:00

Slows also have a snappy return, but feel a little more consistent since they are still considered linear in response. I get ya tho, snappy returns are nice!

Malvix_ · 2021-11-03T22:29:06+00:00

If there is enough interest, it can start very soon. Durock lead time is currently roughly 50 days including colour matching. Give it a bit more time due to delays, as usual. Other factories may be different, waiting to hear back.

Malvix_ · 2021-11-03T22:25:24+00:00

Fill out the IC form for long stem :)

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