AEBoards Raeds HE

Quick Summary

The AEBoards Raeds HE is an unusual hybrid: a rubber-dome electrostatic-capacitive (EC) style switch rebuilt for Hall Effect boards, so you get that soft, cushioned EC keystroke alongside the analog actuation and rapid-trigger features of an HE setup. It rates at 45g with 3.9mm of total travel, and while it carries a faint dome-derived tactility, AEBoards has tuned it to sit much closer to a linear feel. It’s a niche pick aimed squarely at HE owners who miss the plush, deadened response of an EC switch like Topre.

Specs and Feel

The downstroke is the headline. Where most HE switches are conventional pole-and-spring linears, the Raeds leans on a custom rubber dome for a smooth, slightly bouncy travel that softens the keypress and rounds off the bottom-out. Tactility is present but deliberately muted, far gentler than a true EC dome, enough that day-to-day it reads as a heavier, more damped linear rather than a bump you have to push through. Total travel lands at 3.9mm (±0.2), a touch shorter than a standard MX switch, with an initial magnetic flux of roughly 100Gs rising to about 900Gs at the bottom. The dome construction keeps the keystroke quiet and removes the metallic spring ping common to lighter linears, and there’s no scratch to speak of given the contactless magnetic actuation.

Tuning

There is little to tune here, and that’s the point. The dome and housing are a matched, sealed system (the rubber domes are custom-fit and cannot be swapped onto other dome sheets), so this is a stock-and-go switch rather than a lube-and-film project. Mount it, calibrate your HE board’s actuation point, and let the magnetic travel do the work.

Verdict

Buy the Raeds HE if you already run a Wooting or Venom HE board and have been chasing that plush, thocky EC feel without giving up rapid trigger and analog input. It’s a smart bridge between two worlds that rarely meet. Skip it if you’re on a Cherry MX hotswap board, want a crisp defined tactile bump, or expect a heavily moddable switch. Its closed dome system and HE-only compatibility make it a deliberate, single-purpose choice.