The majority of mechanical keyboards you can buy (in the UK at least) appear to use Cherry MX Red switches. Here's the thing, I don't know why? Just about every one I know who cares about this prefers blues or browns. I can't think I anyone I know that prefers reds. I'm curious to know what people here prefer and see if any one knows why the use of reds is so prolific. I've used reds, browns and blues. I easily prefer blues, followed by browns and reds trail a long way behind.
I've used clears, browns, blacks, blues, reds, topre, BS, one or two Alps and still always come back to browns. They're my end game I think.
Browns (with dampers). Blues would be fine, but are simply too unsociably loud for use at home. Haven't had a chance to try the new Omron switches Logitech are using, though.
Clears, all day long. Just wish the manufacturers would use them more. Also like Topre, are you counting them?
Reds with o-rings. I don't like the actuation bump on browns as it makes playing FPS games etc. irritating.
Newbie to Mechanical keyboards. So guess Reds as that is what I've ordered. Reds seem to be the preferred choice when gaming.
Clears, browns or blues for typing, reds or custom light springs and linear sliders for gaming. I can live with most switches to be honest (I used greens for a while), I find keycaps make as much of a difference to the overall experience as switches. I've never really gotten into Topre though. They're lovely and smooth, but I've used some really nice rubber-domes over the years which get very close. To the extent that I just can't stomach the premium pricing - and that's coming from a man who has spent well in excess of £1000 on keyboards in the last couple of years. Buckling springs are epic but far too noisy to be practical in a shared environment
I've used Reds, Blacks, Blues, Clears, Blears, Clues (think about it), Ghost Blacks and Panda Clears. I like many of them, but my daily drivers at work and home both sport Browns. Even my numpad has Browns.
Reds are popular because of marketing - you'll find that many people who use reds have nevery used anything else; conversely, people who have used blues or browns usually prefer them to reds, especially for typing. For me, it's blues all the way... best typing experience ever, even better than buckling spring, and certainly better than ALPS. My daily driver is a Quickfire XT with browns, but somewhere along the line I want to get myself a smaller board with blues.
I don't regret going mechanical, I regret being impatient and going for blues over browns. Though I love the blues, and don't mind the noise, others in the house / on skype have mentioned it is a bit loud. I've tried my friends that uses browns and they felt good, and were marginally quieter. If I had the income, I'd probably go get myself a new board with backlight and browns. I didn't like the feel of reds, and blacks were brutal.
I've only used blacks, and happy with those. Maybe I need to get a sampling board to see if I prefer any others (already know the blues won't be a favourite on basis of noise)
I know mechanical keyboard people can be elitist and really snobby about things but I think you're taking it a bit far there. Reds are very good for gaming, arguably the best choice with browns being another strong choice. However, people don't pick reds just because they're stupid and listen to marketing.
I've been looking for a board with browns and have been stumped by the lack of availability of 'reasonably priced' ones. But further searching it seems that a lot of them were available with browns but have now sold out. So maybe the popularity of browns is the reason for lack of availability?
Exactly, I made my choice by doing my research. Not under marketing hype. This site is what I used to make my choice due to the animation of how the switches worked as well as a few YouTube clips of the noise of them. Clicky
I've only used MX blues and browns and I like them both but my fave is the browns. I just love them. I'd love to try reds though as they've always intrigued me
Even for gaming I prefer blues. The sound doesn't bother me at all, in fact I quite like it. I don't stream games or anything like that so I guess I don't need a quieter keyboard. Interesting results so far. I feel bad for putter rubber down in the same category as Topre and buckled spring.
Current favourite is vintage black stems with 65g korean springs Also like reds, blues, browns and buckling springs a great deal. I find clears, blacks and greens a bit too heavy, and ergo-clears annoyingly sticky. Haven't tried Topre yet. EDIT: In response to the reds debate, I use them on my main pc and at work now too. They're really nice as an all-rounder, in my opinion.