Meridian Review

It’s been a while since I’ve actually built a keyboard. The last one that I did with soldering was the old HHKB style keyboard that I wrote about here that I built back in August.

But now, I got a new board to build, and it’s actually my first keyboard that I would call high end. Enter the Meridian.

Introduction to the Meridian

The Meridian is a 60%, top-mount, ergonomic keyboard, designed by famed keyboard designer Ai03 in collaboration with a keyboard vendor, Prime Keyboards. It’s primarily based on the Prime E, a 40% ergonomic keyboard layout that was designed by Prime Keyboards, but in a 60% format. The design is basically a keyboard that is split in the middle for each hand, with the keys slightly angled for a more comfortable typing experience. The angle for the Meridian is a less aggressive 8 degrees, compared to the 12 degree angle bend that is common with other ergonomic boards, such as the Alice layout.

With this layout of keys, the Meridian is an aluminium enclosure with a brass weight inside, and comes with an aluminium plate and a PCB. I got my Meridian in the first round, with a dark gray color option. The Meridian is going to be continuously offered in in-stock drops, but I was lucky enough to get it in the first drop. Getting it shipped here was somewhat of a nightmare, as the keyboard conveniently got caught in the middle of a blizzard. But I was able to thankfully get it here in one place without too many issues outside of little shipping delays.

The building experience

The building experience was mostly great and straightforward, except for a few issues that I ran into that was probably only in my unit. The main issue I found was the screws. The screws that came with the keyboard were Allen key screws, which was somewhat of an issue as my screwdriver didn’t work very well with the screws. I did have the right Allen screw bit, but the screws were screwed in quite tight by default. One screw in particular was stripped quite badly. So bad in fact, that the threads were stripped and in trying to remove it, I also stripped the head of the screw in the process. With the screw hole being recessed and inaccessible with pliers, and without other equipment to get the screw out, I had to uncomfortably use some elbow grease to… Let’s not get into the violent details, shall we? The point is, I had a very hard time with that one screw, and ended up with a very scuffed case at the end. Thankfully, it isn’t visible during normal use, and that’s good enough for me.

Another issue came with my choice to do something called “mill-maxing” my keyboard PCB. This job is to solder on something called Mill-Max sockets into the holes of the PCBs to convert the PCB for hotswapping. There are many reasons why one would want to do this, the largest reason being the flexibility that a hotswappable keyboard gives. The actual job of soldering a Mill-Max socket isn’t too hard. Just insert the sockets on the right side, secure the sockets with a piece of Kapton tape or a keyboard switch, flip the PCB over, and carefully solder the socket. However, one can easily mess up the soldering job and have solder get in the socket, rendering it useless. When this happens, one has to desolder the socket, which can be a challenge. I had quite the difficulty trying to desolder a socket, as the socket kept on getting stuck while I tried to push it out, as the solder cooled before I could push it out. Resoldering a new one also proved a challenge, as the hole still had remnants of solder left in the hole. I ended up heating up the socket with my iron while trying to push the socket in the hole, which barely worked at the end.

Aside from these issues though, the build went without a hitch, and at the end, I had a perfectly functioning hotswappable Meridian ready to go.

Modifications

There wasn’t too much to modify with this keyboard, but I did add a bit of sound dampening material and replaced the default aluminium plate with a FR4 plate. I added the sound dampener as I thought that the Meridian sounded a bit too hollow stock. With the white felt material that I added, the Meridian sounded a lot better and the hollowness was greatly alleviated. I changed to a FR4 plate as well, as I prefer a bit of flex with my typing experience, and the FR4 material allows for just a bit of said flex. However, I did find that the aluminum plate was still a great typing experience. For reference, FR4 is a type of material that is mainly used as the primary material of PCBs.

I also used O-rings in between the keyboard and the plate as a modification. Such a modification is known as a “burger-mount”, and is quite prevalent across many types of mounting types of boards, but especially in top mount boards. The intention is for the O-rings to act as a sort of gasket to lessen the harshness of the typing experience as opposed to the keyboard plate directly screwed into the board. In my experience, I think that the O-rings did make a noticeable difference in typing. I felt that the typing experience was a bit more bouncier as opposed to without it, especially with linear switches in the keyboard.

Design/Build Quality

As expected from a such a famed designer in the keyboard community as Ai03, I found the design of the keyboard (almost) impeccable and the build quality superb. This was an A stock keyboard, and it met that expectation perfectly (aside from the stripped screw issues…). The anodization of the color seemed as good as it could be, with it being a very dark gray, but not black. As for the design, I think Ai03 did a great job of everything. The keyboard looks especially clean with the symmetric design for both the left and right side, and it looks great with any keycap set I throw at it. But I would have preferred for an exterior brass weight as opposed to an inner one. Quite the nitpicking, but that’s just my preference. Otherwise, this board is quite the professional looking keyboard, and I think it looks great.

The typing experience/Sound

I started talking about the typing experience when I talked about O-rings, and to build up on that, I feel like the Meridian is an extremely solid typing experience. Aside from what I’ve already said, the ergonomic layout, while may look daunting to try to type on at first, comes naturally if you’re used to a normal QWERTY keyboard. It took me very little time to figure out how to type in this new layout. In fact, it felt very natural to switch to the Meridian, with little to no time needed to get used to it. I also found the bending angle and the split of the keyboard layout to be quite effective. I found that I was moving my hands less in long typing sessions (like the one I’m in this moment), and the angle very accommodating and comfortable to type on. I didn’t really miss the arrow keys either, as I am quite used to an arrowless 60% layout, and am quite accustomed to using separate layers for the arrows.

As for the sound of the board, I found it surprisingly hollow stock, and I thought there could be some improvement. With the modifications I did above, the board sounded much fuller. Aside from the hollowness issues, I think the board sounds as good as a top mount board would. Obviously the switches would make the difference here on how they sound, but I do think that the Meridian lets the switches take center stage. For my tactile switches, it allows for quite the loud clacky typing sound that tactiles are known for, and for the linears, a very deep sound is achievable, depending on what switches you are using. Overall, I have no qualms with the sound signature of the Meridian. Here are some sound tests.

Conclusion

At the price of $365 for the first round, I think that the keyboard is well worth the money that I paid for it. Is it expensive for a keyboard? Yes. Is it expensive for a custom mechanical keyboard of this quality? I’d say not really. There are a lot of other boards that are similar to this price or even more expensive for a 60% ergonomic. With the board not being a group buy, being sold in-stock, and continuously restocked for the foreseeable future, I think the Meridian is a great option if someone is looking for a custom ergonomic keyboard, especially if you don’t mind losing dedicated arrow keys in your workflow. I think I will be using the Meridian for any type of long form typing, as it feels great and less fatiguing to type when the hands aren’t moving as much around the keyboard.