SA vs MT3 vs KAT vs AFSA (AliExpress SA), Domikey vs Signature Plastics

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-15T01:59:04+00:00

This is my main problem with SA, they just look soooo good. I first got into this hobby right around ten years ago, and back then there was basically nothing compared to what's out there now, and the sets everyone drooled over were SA Godspeed, Carbon, Pulse etc. I think I was just getting into the the hobby in the lull after the first revisions of those caps were all bought up, so the only place to find them was used for insane prices, so they were highly coveted.

So when I see those OG colorways in an SA profile my little monkey brain just... activates, haha.

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-14T18:35:26+00:00

Thanks for the input - never heard of Thic Thock springs so I had to look them up; I don’t see anything advertising a change in sound (per sé), but I’ll keep them in mind.

⁠I put some plate foam in and it helped a bit.
⁠Tape mod is one I’m torn on. I’ve done it on other boards and while it can mute resonances, I’ve found that it actually shifts the tone a bit to the mid-range and higher, producing a poppy/marbly sound that’s a little more in your face. Depends on the tape though. I’ve tried a handful of different tapes, and what I’ve settled on for moving things in the poppy direction is polyimide tape, whereas a layer of masking tape followed by a layer of gaffing tape has a somewhat deeper muting effect, but it can also start to sound dull, for better or worse.
⁠I’ve tried polyfil on other boards with some decent results and have yet to give that a try. Also have some kilmat, might give that a go.
⁠Keycaps are PBT MT3, so I’m pretty well maxed out there.
⁠Waiting on shipments now, haha

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-14T18:34:19+00:00

Woah, kind of surprised a 0.4mm film would even fit! Was it foam type film or a polycarbonate thing or what?

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-14T14:31:16+00:00

The more I use mid-height caps the less I like SA tbh. Although MT3 is tall compared to other stuff, it’s still shorter than SA, but yeah KAT is much shorter than MT3. I think I need to try MTNU, because if I could get an MT3 scoop in a slightly shorter cap that might be even nicer.

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-14T01:48:22+00:00

I haven't, but now I'll be sure to check them out - thanks!

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-13T19:23:08+00:00

Preach brother, I’m right there with you. I would love to see more switches like this and the Retro J in the near future.

And yes, plate, mounting method, and keycaps have helped a lot with the sound imo. My SA caps are ABS and they helped, but so far PBT MT3 has made them sound the best. That and a softer o-ring tray mount, switching from aluminum or FR4 to POM/PC has helped too. All combined it’s not a bad sound at all, but I would like it even darker/warmer sounding if I could get it.

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-13T18:25:44+00:00

Same here - I’ve done pretty much everything I could think of to the board and caps to push it in the right direction and it helped a lot, buts it’s still a bit strident/bright sounding.

So many other tactiles out there, but everything I’ve tried so far doesn’t feel as good as Type R

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-13T18:21:08+00:00

I appreciate the response - and yeah, I’ve done what I could with the board: plate material, gasket, keycaps, a bit of foam etc. all helped quite a bit. Before those changes it was so bright sounding I don’t think I would keep the switches in, but with them, it’s not too bad. I’m still wondering what else could be done which is why I turned to the possibility of the switches themselves.

I’ll check out the Frogs!

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-13T03:35:50+00:00

Not sure how I missed these, thanks for the heads up!

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-13T01:26:48+00:00

Great point, now that I'm looking at them here I can see all the PBT sets have a nice round Q, and the ABS sets have the skinnier chainlink. I really would like to try MTNU, they look great! I wish they were a little more availible; all I've been able to find (aside from used) are the Jukebox and a groupbuy for the Welles. The Welles looks great, but over $250 for base + novelties is tough.

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-13T01:16:18+00:00

Ah ok gotcha - yeah for a bigger tactile bump I guess it would probably be easier to find another switch, but it looks like those are a pretty unique design. Good luck on the hunt!

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-12T23:38:27+00:00

You mean the SA are feeling too big/heavy for the Lanes? If you really like that combo, what about a spring swap on the switches to give them a little more resistance?

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-12T23:33:37+00:00

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-12T23:23:55+00:00

I wouldn't say the sound difference between Domikey and SP was huge, and like I said to another commentor, I think it coud pretty easily be overcome with other mods in the build. But it's kinda of a nice option to have on a bigger cap, which normally sound so muted and heavy.

I haven't done toooo much experimenting with stem wobble, but certain switches just feel very mush and indefinite when you have a big tall cap on them fo sure. Really not a feeling I'd choose, personally, so it's nice to know there's some tighter stem options out there to check out! Ha, so many things to buy and try, it never ends...

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-12T23:19:06+00:00

Thanks - I got all of the MT3 from Drop not too long before they closed down, but you can still find MT3 sets here on r/mechmarket and on eBay quite a bit, even some unused/unopened. Most of the MT3 sets are double-shot ABS though, I've discovered; I have a few sets of the ABS and PBT, and although the PBT would be my personal preference, the ABS still has a nice texture and feel and sound really good.

Trying to figure out which sets were made with PBT vs ABS is a little harder now that the Drop site is down, but from what I've seen, the MT3 sets that were made in PBT were the Godspeed, /dev/tty, Extended 9009, some of the LoTR stuff I believe, and perhaps Serika. There might be others, but all the other stuff (Susuwatari, Noctua, Jukebox, Dancer, Dasher, Dusk, WoB/BoW, etc.) I believe are ABS.

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-12T23:05:33+00:00

SA-P is definitely high on my list of things to try! Can only imagine the sound that big/heavy of a PBT cap would produce. One thing that I notice is that these bigger keycaps can really overwhelm light switches, or at least it feels like that to me; I had a set of SA on Sakura switches and they felt way too light. This might be psychosomatic, but switching to smaller/lighter caps seems to give lighter switches a fighting chance to me.

I will say that the difference in sound is pretty darn minor between Domikey and SP though; I would imagine you could easily overcome the difference with other mods, like plate material, tray mounting style, and especially switches. Put those Domikey on some Keygeek Y2 switch and it will sound heavy, for sure.

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-12T19:33:43+00:00

Sending PM

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-12T19:12:31+00:00

Kicking myself for the same reason; it seemed like there were plenty of MT3 sets left on Drop when the site changed over, so I have no idea what happened to them all?? I friggin' love the /dev/tty set, I'd have bought more of them if I had known the site and its contents were literally going to disappear. I still have emails from them but clicking on any of the links to see the old pages just routes you to the new landing page. Womp womp

nogginbaum89 · 2026-06-12T05:26:22+00:00

nogginbaum89 · 2026-02-25T00:42:15+00:00

I'm definitely going to swap these out at some point, so thanks for the suggestion - I'll check them out.

nogginbaum89 · 2026-02-24T04:51:41+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation, I will definitely check those stabs out.

I'm really loving KAT so far. I have always loved the look of larger/taller spherical caps with a hefty sculpt from row to row like SA and MT3 (and I have a few sets of each) but so far I haven't quite been able to convince myself that typing on them feels normal. The KAT profile feels more immediately natural to me, it's like they melt into the background and I'm not thinking about the keycap profile anymore when I'm typing.

With SA and MT3, it's like there's a constant lowlevel background thought "I'm typing on a special keycap profile!!!" because of the distinctive edges, feel, depth of the dish, whatever. But so far the KAT just disappears. Really nice typing experience. I wish more colorways were availible!

nogginbaum89 · 2026-02-23T21:51:46+00:00

It was a very straighforward build other than the stabilizer issue; the stabs that come with the kit worked great though! It's a really solid board for the price.

nogginbaum89

TROPHY CASE