Welcome back to nearlucid.
Today we’ll be taking a look at the Mod 007, a budget oriented 75% by Akko.
This board was provided by epomaker for review, but as always that will not affect our opinion
or statements in any way.
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Epomaker sent us all the parts we’ll need for an entire build today, so let’s start
by unboxing our keycaps.
Akko ASA Black on White comes in this nice hard magnetic case, and it looks like they
did add a small piece of foam to prevent the included keycap puller from moving around
inside the box this time.
Next are our switches, the akko radiant reds.
These, of course, also come in akkos standard high quality packaging, in a hard box with
a plastic mold for each switch.
Finally, our board itself.
The box is pretty thick, and inside we have an instruction manual,
A coiled USBA to USBC cable, Our board in some PE foam wrap,
Our extra FR4 plate, and some gaskets.
Let’s take a look at the specs.
The Akko Mod 007 is an aluminum gasket mounted exploded 75% with an encoder, offering only
a fixed layout hotswap PCB.
Unfortunately, this is north facing, but the board is compatible with screw in and clip
in stabilizers.
Case options are black, blue, gray, and pink.
An aluminum and FR4 plate are included.
Akko also has their own software called AKKO cloud to configure key maps and RGB settings,
and we’ll go more in depth on all of this later.
Finally, the unbuilt price is a modest $179 for all color options.
Today we have a black unit to build.
For the first configuration, I’ll try everything stock, just to get a baseline for how the
board will sound.
All we need to do is put in all the switches, and then install the keycaps.
Let’s take a listen.
So it’s not up there yet, but it definitely has potential.
Behind the scratchiness, I can hear quite a bit of decent tone, so I have no doubt that
lubing the switches and modding the board can really bring out the sound of these radiant
reds.
Now we can get to modding.
For the sake of time, I’ve already removed the switches and stabilizers.
Let’s get the case disassembled. 6 screws on the bottom and we’re in.
Next, we need to separate the PCB and plate which are connected by some standoffs.
I really don’t like this, as it absolutely destroys the flex the board could have.
Between this is already a bit of plate foam, but I’m going to ditch this.
Now, I'm going to lube the stabilizers.
Despite the PCB supporting screw ins, the included stabilizers are still clip ins, which
is a bit disappointing.
There’s also quite a bit of lube in them already.
I’m going to clean and reapply lube on the wires, and add a bit more to the housings
and stems.
Time for PE foam.
Of course, the obligatory PE foam video plug comes here.
I’m going to cut out rather large holes for the stabilizer slots so there’s no chance
of interference.
And now we can swap our aluminum plate with the FR4 plate.
It doesn’t come with the gaskets installed, so you will have to get some tweezers and
do this yourself.
With that done, we can mount some switches and finalize the inner assembly.
Since the switches connect the plate and PCB well enough, I’m going to leave all the
standoffs out.
I’m going to do the tape mod on the bottom of the PCB.
This will hopefully counteract some of the hollowness heard in the sound test.
I’m also going to add the included foam back in the bottom because nothing else seems
to fit really well.
Now we can put the bottom screws back in And mount our ASA set.
Let’s take another listen and compare it to how it originally sounded.
It kinda do be thockin.
Yes, there is that PE foam sound.
totally up to you if you want to use it with your modding, but there isn’t exactly a
whole plethora of mods to choose from.
I would still PE foam mod cheaper plastic boards though.
I am glad that the other mods helped counteract the hollowness because I wasn't able to add
any extra foam.
ASA also does have that scuffed pingy spacebar sound, and I really wish they would redesign
this bottom row to help with it or something because for me, it’s a deal breaker in terms
of buying ASA keycap sets.
The design of the board is pretty simple.
On the top, we have our rotary encoder right next to an F13.
The edges of the board have pretty large chamfers.
Moving to the side, we can see there’s a pretty noticeable seam between the top and
bottom case, and also a little bit of an embedded cut on the bottom case adding a tiny bit of
dimension to the side profile.
The back is very plain, with nothing breaking the top or bottom case except our right aligned
recessed USBC port.
The bottom of the board has this OEM looking label.
I really dislike this, it makes the board look like it’s price, but it's really not
an issue because you’ll never see it.
And of course, you can rest easy with the material quality.
Smooth anno all throughout, no scuffs on the exterior and maybe just a few on the interior.
It is akko after all.
Akko’s cloud software really isn’t that bad, although I would definitely have preferred
VIA.
While there isn’t as much direct customization of the keys as in VIA, it’s by no means
a deal breaker.
A simple workaround is making a macro of just that key, then assigning the key you want
to that macro.
And yes, this board does have RGB, but it’s really difficult to see behind the non shine
through keycaps.
And of course, I would keep it off.
For the price tag, this board is incredibly enticing.
While I wouldn’t run it stock at all, most of the mods aren’t that much work.
Things like lubing switches do take quite a bit of time, but this is something that
you’re basically going to have to do with every keyboard.
Ultimately, with just a little bit of handiwork, the Mod 007 can sound absolutely incredible
for the price.
And that's all I have for you today.
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