Space65: Cybervoyager w/ MT3 Serkia x MT3 Susuwatari (2020)

Space 65: Cybervoyager by AirPotter, Oldcat, and Demos from Graystudio

Space 65: Cybervoyager from Graystudio

Durock Screw-in Strabilisers (Lubed and Band-aid modded) from SwitchKeys

Space 65: Cybervoyager Carbon Fibre Plate from Graystudio

Gateron Silent Black Inks - 70g (Lubed with Krytox GPL 206g2 and Flimed with Deskkeys films) from KBDFans, and Discord user (Switches), Daily Clack (Lube), KBDFans (Films)

Vibration Reduction Pad

Noise Reduction Pad

 

 

MT3 Serkia x MT3 Susuwatari by Zambumon (Serika) and Matt3o (Susuwatari) from Drop

No Man Left Behind by NZ Caps

Alien II - Mutant by B'Gnu-Thun

Alien II - Mutant by B'Gnu-Thun

SA R1 EMP Novelty from 00Keys

 

Detachable USB-C cable Black w/ Gold Tracer Carbon Techflex and Black Heatshrink from Zap Cables

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“Slave to the new black gold, there's a heartbeat under my skin

Search my electric soul for the hidden man within” - Miracle of Sound

 

I have a problem, and I think anyone that's played through Deus Ex: Human Revolution can understand. I just can't get enough of that sweet, sweet black and gold. This board is a bit of a mash-up of both cyberpunk and retro tech and I couldn't love it any more.

 

The Space65: Cybervoyager; what can I say? I had seen the original Space65 doing the rounds, and found it wasn't doing too much for me, but I saw the Cybervoyager drop earlier this year, I knew what I was treating my self for my birthday. I didn't quite know what I wanted to do with the board theme wise, so I went black for the case colour, and got a couple of varieties for the badge and accent colours; the gold was a shoe in, and the grey and e-white were just come options to go with whatever I needed them to. I'm not much of a fan of RGB, but the shine-through on the badge, and the diffuser really add a nice bit of spice to the board, this is about as tasteful as I could ever want RGB to be.

 

These switches were a long time coming. I had come to love the Gateron Black Inks from a previous build, and with the silencing options offered with the Cybervoyager, I really wanted to make the quietest board that I could; enter the Gateron Silent Black Inks. To further build on the quiet nature of the switches, I added some lube, and switch films to shore up the tightness of the switches, and sound profile. I opted for the stock springs in these as I already have a number of boards with heavy (80g-180g) springs so going for the slightly lighter 70g weight is already quite a novelty. I really dig how light they feel, as you glide across the board, even the bottom-out is pretty subdued (as it should be), and sounds almost like a pitter-patter of rain on an insulated tin roof.

 

As for the plate, I really love the look of the carbon fibre plate, and with it being one of the firmer options in the market for plate materials, it really helps keep the smooth linear action of the switches consistent, and sharp; that and the carbon fibre pattern looks super slick The smokey coloured Durock stabs are an absolute treat also. Not only do the housings match the look of the Black Inks, but the gold stab wire adds a nice bit of colour to the inside of the case. Nothing new as far as lubing them went, but I was curious to try out the 'Band-aid' mods. Basically, there's a small pad of fabric (more often or not a plaster, hence the name) placed under the stabiliser, helping to cushion the sound and feel ever so slightly. I hadn't been keen to try it prior because I really like the feel and sound of the plastic on PCB, but I am pleasantly surprised by the final result here. During the group buy, the kit had noise and vibration foam pads in it. The noise pad is designed to sit between the circuit board and plate and help trap the noise inside of the case, and the vibration pad sits in the bottom of the case to reduce any vibration between the circuit board and the inside of the case. All in all, both pads do a fantastic job, and the board has a really solid feel and sound to it which can be attributed by all the different aspects of the build.

 

As I said earlier, the board was sort of supposed to be a one colour fits all, with a primary focus on the black and gold theme. I have already used the MT3 Serkia set and fell in love with the shape of the profile, and look of the keycaps, and mashing it up with the grey/off-white alphas from MT3 Susuwatari as a thought that I had only briefly entertained. Now, having seen them side by side, I couldn't see anything matching it better; unless I get my hands on a more gold-than-yellow and on black keyset. The Suswatari set was supposed to by my first MT3 set, but it took more that 18 months to go through the process of making the moulds, and matching the colours from the designer. In some ways the massive delays that the set saw were a blessing in disguise, as my expectations of the set had dropped so much. But when I saw it in person for the first time, I couldn't have been more pleased with the final result. The Susuwatari colourway was inspired by Studio Ghibli, and while I'm not well versed in their movies, the warm tones, and retro colours really sung out to me; that's where red accents come from along with the cat novelty. The artisans were from my collection that I felt help add some more depth and matched the overall theme pretty well, and the EMP is just there for fun.

 

The cable was what I got when I first branched into the world of detachable USB cables, and it was only supposed to be a colour that went well with anything. After a while, I realised just how much I dig the black and gold combo. So in a way it was the cable the sort of sparked the whole build

 

Well I think that's another one chalked up for the 'endgame', and I can't wait to see what changes might happen with it in the future, just don't go looking for the “/?” key...

 

 

 

Done