I Promise I'm Not Hoarding Ink V1 - Jelly Epoch Proto with Gat Ink V1s Sound Test No Foam vs. Foam

Описание: My stream schedule on Twitch is Monday 5:30PM PT, Wednesday 5:30PM PT, and Saturday morning around 10am PT.   / andyvnguyen  

Board: OwLab Jelly Epoch in Navy
Board insulation: Provided plate foam, and built with case foam and without case foam. Built with spacebar foam as well.
Plate: Jelly mount polycarbonate plate
Keycaps: GMK Modern Dolch R1
Switches: 205g0 lubed Gateron Ink Black v1, TX 16mm 65g springs, 0.15mm TX Filmed
Stabilizers: Durock V1 stabilizers lubed with 205g0 and XHT BDZ (Yes, it's ticking at the moment)
Mat: randomfrankp x novelkeys deskmat

I was sent this prototype from OwLab to build on stream and review on stream. This is a more premium product than their Voice65 and I believe they made some really good improvements with this one. This 75% layout keyboard has no hollowness in it and there is plenty of foam to give you that "gasket" sound. Yes, the gasket is doing something here.

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The board is EXTREMELY heavy with the weight. It's 5.8 lbs built. The weight itself is about half of that. The mounting system is very interesting, there's a cutout in the bottom and a matching cutout in the top for a little rubber tab to slot in. The tab encloses the entire plate extension so it is fully isolated. The board has a lot of poron so the sound is very round, smooth as a result. The clack is there but you can really "hear" the gasket in this board. Whether or not you like that sound is up to you. For your reference, I am currently using a top mount board with no gasketing and no foam whatsoever, and I like that sound as well.

I was scared to use Gateron Ink V1s in this build, especially with the case foam. To my surprise, it did not sound muted. The last time I did a build like this with case foam, it was Gateron Ink V2 in the KBD8XMKII with case foam. That was surprisingly super muted. This was not. I believe it has to do with the polycarbonate plate bringing back that clack. The build in the KBD8XMKII used FR4 plate which REALLY mutes the sound of a Gateron Ink.

The assembly was a little difficult but I found that the disassembly was harder than putting it back together. A lot of the screws are hidden under layers so you have to take things apart before seeing what the next steps are. The tab to the left IS removable, by the way.

The look is VERY striking. I find it similar to the Matrix boards where there is a lot of flair.

The sound and feel of this board is pretty damn top notch. My spacebar is ticking because I was in a bit of a rush to do a last minute change to 6.25u spacebar. The 7u spacebar in the final production unit will be different from the PCB I have here so we just wanted to showcase a layout you'd see.

The layout itself is pretty nice with two buttons in the top right. Gives you pretty full navigation for a 75% keyboard. The arrows are not staggered, so if you prefer it to line up with the bottom row, you got it here.

Does this board feel cheap? Not at all. This is pushing towards a true "premium" custom mechanical keyboard experience. If you don't like gasket mount and don't like foam in your boards, then this is simply just not the design you would like. If you like the sound of boards such as the Polaris, Vega, Mode Eighty.. then this is right up your alley. I think it's a winner here. I have no real qualms about this board other than the daunting build process. They usually come up with a good build guide, though.

What do you think of this board? I will have a longer term review and perhaps I will do a rebuild to get rid of the spacebar tick.

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Recorded with:
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Sony 55mm F1.8 Zeiss - https://amzn.to/3tcIRWx​
Sound recorded via Deity Vmic D3 Pro - https://amzn.to/3hkEpic