If anyone knows anything about the brand Leptoni, let me know, seems like neat stuff but can find very little on them especially in english. Always neat to see combo estat and regular headphone amps, always makes me curious how well they hold up for both lol
Not audio related, but curious if anyone has a rama thermal+, and if so what was the best switch and ketcaps pairing they found for both feel and sound? Having a hard time really finding the right combo compared to some of my other boards, currently best Iāve found is with gateron baby raccoons and pbtfans caps but it still feels (and sounds) a bit off for my tastes
Switched to KAT profile for this board, really is helping in both looks and feel lol, but sound wise itās still somewhat the same, perhaps a bit deeper and a bit less clean, will give it more time
Edit: ended up going back, the 8deg angle of the board is a bit too much for me with KAT, and while it did deepen sound and make things feel a bit softer, it also just didnāt really do what I was looking for. Iām super mixed on how I feel about it at this point. It really encourages you to bottom out and push hard which gets a bit tiring, but thatās how you get the best bounce out of it at the same time. Sound wise I tried a variety of options, all foam options sucked, I think really this might be best served with tape modding but I donāt really have any painters/electricians tape on me after looking around lol, so stock it is for the time being. Really think I just need to find something thatās long pole but also a bit softer on the bottom out and a bit lighter of a switch and that will really help things on the typing front. If that happens to be a more meaty sounding switch thatād be a nice benefit too lol
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Also happened to find the thermal+ pretty switch picky and went through a lot of good linear switches (Alpaca v2, water king, Gateron speed silver, durock POM linearā¦) but somehow most donāt really sound that good.
Ended up using KTT Strawberry the most, I also have a thermal HKKB using TTC Neptune, that one is ok too. Please do share if you eventually find other switches that works 
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Cool so Iām not alone there lol. So far Iāve tried alpacas, g pro 2.0s, pearlios, lavenders, ice mints, vintage blacks, marshmallows, and star grays, aside from the baby raccoons (at least for linears). And honestly in terms of both feel and sound, I like the baby raccoons the most. Itās likely because it makes the board very bouncy with how quickly and immediately you bottom out (I actually found myself typing way harder than normal since it was fun that way lol), and I think that itās acceptable sound wise
The sound of the baby raccoons being very clacky and higher pitched just further leans into the sound of the board. I feel like other switches just didnāt take advantage of what the board offers sound wise, or tried to make it something it wasnāt. Itās a more high pitched and already a bit more hollow sounding board by design, and most things I tried didnāt really resolve that without compromising feel, so I think just leaning into it was the play. I liked the sound more with some of the heavier SA and KAT caps I have, but really the board isnāt well suited for it by design and I think itās a downside in feel despite slightly improving sound. I think the only really viable mod that doesnāt compromise feel for the sake of improving the sound is tape modding the back of the pcb with some thicker painters or electricianās tape, but I ended up just leaving it stock since even after modding, still not the best sounding board imo lol.
Will upload a clip of the raccoons in the board for reference. I think this is one of those boards that Iāll keep around for itās feel and itās design, since itās sound isnāt as strong there lol
Iāll have to check those out, they seem pretty neat
did fill one set of cheap Caps with silicone as an experiment and it did help to dampen the clacky feel a good bit imo just a bit messy if you dont take your time
Atferwards did mod one full GMK set with silicone from a chaulk gun and a little spatula and now still rockin that set on my tiping board 
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That would be an interesting option lol. I do personally prefer thicker and more dense caps, I guess thatās one way to accomplish that lol.
Personally I tend to avoid dampening when I can, most of my boards are undampened in any way which is generally my preference, but there are some boards which I prefer dampened/silenced/foamed (like topre or most recently owlab/neo boards). I like my boards loud and unrestrained lol
How does filling the caps with silicone effect feel? Would assume it would change the overall weight and the keypress a decent bit. Sort of similar to like how orings on the caps feel or something different? Might try it out with a cheap set if I have one lying around, although Iām not brave enough to use a gmk set lol
ill only fill it to the top of the reinfocement ribs on the underside so you dont get the mushy feeling when bottening out with o-rings
the weight doesnt really chance except the space bar und my german enter key so puny 55g springs in those 
Did do the filling mostly cause i had problem with some ratting of the space bar and no aount of diffent kind of lubing of those duroc did get it just right, so after a few to many shot of whiskey one evenig got me going 
end of the story got rid of the slight rattling spce bar and also got it more in the thock direction of sound instead of the more hollow kind of clang from cheaper sets 
otherwise ill rock my boars mostly barebone but ill often tape mod the board of my tacktile boards to get that sweet thock in them 
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and yeah would defenitly practise with some cheapo set to get the feel for it so you dont ruin a good set
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Shifted some ranks a bit, specifically in holy shit amps, added more clarification on the spec and suggestions of some options, updated personal setups, added a few new things as well (no removals this time either)
I still need to finish the speaker section, refresh the shortlist, finish some of the blurbs at the bottom, and go over things again just to check if I still like where I have them, but really I think a lot of it is sort of solidified for now (I say this but I know Iām going to go back and find something to mess with lol)
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Sorry M0N for disturbing you but after exploring abit(mostly the chifi stuff that I have easy excess to) I am kind of digging R2R as a sidegrade to a DS system with R2R being 2D but highy layered and DS being 3D and more diffuse.
That being said does R2R have a issue with protraying relative volume across the varous instruments? I feel that while the Hifiman stuff is better in that regard the holo cyan 2 on the other hand feels brickwalled where the trainsient peaks of everything is at the same volume which sounds really strange.
Also is it that upsampling is needed for R2R to sound decent?
I think thatās really more a characteristic of holo than it is r2r imo, thatās not an issue at all on a lot of r2r dacs Iāve tried, in fact some of them itās standout, but there are those like the holo which just sort of normalize/homogenize things more (which is one of the reasons Iām not the biggest holo fan)
No, really depends on the dac and the digital source if upsampling is worthwhile or not. Personally for the dacs Iāve liked the most, upsampling sounded worse, or it was mostly already done internally inside the dac and there wasnāt a reason to upsample externally any further
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Absolutely, your request makes perfect sense.
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I donāt really want to spam other threads aside from this one, but Iāve tried to make of note of anything that got dropped and why. Honestly thereās not many that I put on there for awhile and removed, things havenāt really changed that much since the last time I was updating it. Iāve sort of taken a break with a lot of audio stuff, so there really havenāt been any real updates to it for either additions or subtractions, maybe there would be if I was still actively trying a ton of stuff. Iāll get to finishing the rest of the non list at some point though lol
Really the only cases Iāll remove something is if thereās a literal direct replacement direct upgrade that I try that removes any desire for the previous, which is very rare but sometimes the case. Other reason would be if I either have a very drastic immediate shift in opinion on a piece of gear (uncommon, since I wait to list things to prevent that from happening), or over time my opinion shifts after revisiting it (more common).
Looking it over again, the only things I really might consider removing in the future would be the um mest mk2 (I like it, but at the same time I donāt really know if it stands with the rest of what I mention in the same range, continually have been back and forth on it), the final d8000 pro LE (love hate, I do really like the regular pro more and considering itās my list I should get rid of the LE from sharing the spot), and some others. But for now letting it sit since Iām still mixed. Really the section thatās had the most move around has been the more entry level iems since they tend to progress faster than other aspects of this hobby, but even then itās not as fast as Iād have personally predicted as well (at least based on what Iāve tried)
Thereās things that likely need to be replaced but I havenāt tried the replacement yet (like some of the new lampizators, new antipodes oladra, new l&p w4, etc), but Iām not going to do that until I actually hear them, and confirm theyāre in most cases a direct upgrade that warrant the removal of the old (sometimes they arenāt).
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Ultimately, finding the right DAC and setup involves a combination of experimentation, listening tests, and personal preference.
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