KTT Purple Sauce Switch Review

Like most other content creators out there, people like to occasionally ask me what other kinds of keyboard content I consume, if any, when I’m not busy working on my own. While I do occasionally bounce around through Twitch streams and highlights of builds or long form discussions on YouTube, by and large I mostly stick to reading old forum threads on places like Geekhack, Deskthority, or Keebtalk. I’m sure that its shocking to hear that the goat who writes more often than not in his free time opts to read about keyboards and switches rather than consume hyper shortened and condensed (and equally as questionable) takes on the TikTok side of the hobby. Interestingly, though, this taste expands to quite a bit more of my personal media consumption outside of keyboards as well. Even though I do consume a fair amount of YouTube for cooking recipes, documentaries, and the occasional true crime binge, I genuinely can’t recall the last time I’ve sat and watched any television shows, movies, or anything people would broadly consider commonplace. I don’t even own a Spotify account, for that matter. But, for all of that lack of media I do consume, I am too excited about this upcoming season of Black Mirror to not mention it somewhere in this review.

Figure 1: One of the single best decisions Netflix ever made, and I'll fight anyone who thinks otherwise.

Having stumbled across the original Channel 4 British Black Mirror series prior to its adoption by Netflix’s production team in 2016, I’ve absolutely fallen in love with the mind-bending dystopian settings and concepts splayed out in each of the episodes. Pair this love for the show which has brought me back around to it many times with the seemingly much grittier, horror-themed series trailer released a week or two ago and I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for a show in my life before. For those of you who have not yet seen Black Mirror, I can’t recommend it enough. The writers, both original and new, do an impeccable job of pushing thoughts into your head about mindless technology consumerism and really do leave you wondering if the ease of use of technology, its mass adoption, and the technological overload in all areas of our life is worth all of the creature comforts it does provide. Does all this easy to use, intuitive to understand, but reality shaping technology really serve to benefit us or is it just making us complacent to the world at large? At least in the realm of switches I surely don’t think that the technology does, mostly because complacency doesn’t get these reviews written and force curves measured. Technology at large also doesn’t help keep me in a narrow, focused train of thought about switches so I should probably get back to that here soon…

Switch Background

Look, part of the reason for the long and winding internal monologue of an introduction to this review is because there is quite literally no history to these switches whatsoever. I know that I’ve previously made this claim about a switch having little to no history before, but these switches absolutely take the crown as having the least amount of information known about them by the time I sat down to write a review for them. Save for a pair of Aliexpress and TaoBao listings and a vague heads up that a proxy of mine was shipping them to me, there is not a single bit of background about these switches out there that I could find. In fact, prior to just a few nights ago, these didn’t even have a properly translated, semi-coherent English name yet. That’s right – this article will very likely be the only page on the internet to link to ‘KTT Purple Sauce switches’ unless some vendor chooses to hunt them down and supply them to the rest of the world.

**Figure 2:** Image from TaoBao sales page for KTT Purple Sauce switches.

So, Goat, why are you even reviewing these switches in the first place then? While being the first to write at length about a switch is hardly a new thing for me to find my way around, what is a first for me is coming across a switch in a review-sized quantity that doesn’t have an easily translatable or understandable name. Through help sourced across various Discord servers earlier this week, several translated names from the lone sales images I had at the time above were able to be amassed, though all caveated with beliefs that the original Chinese character name was borderline incoherent. ‘Purple Sauce Ring Switch’, ‘Keiko Outer Setting’, and ‘Colleague Bettering Switch’ were all names tossed out there from the translations, though ultimately I settled on a common through line through most translations, picking KTT “Purple Sauce” switches as their English name. Surely now that I’ve put my decision and decision making process down into writing, someone will come around to inform me of just how stupid and ill-translated that name is on my end. To those who do send those messages, though, know that I’m not going to be editing this entire review over again because I hardly proof read them over the first time and I certainly won’t be doing it again.

**Figure 3:** "Purple Sauce" also reminded me of this childhood nightmare inducing food monstrosity.

The other large reason for me wanting to review this switch has to do with the fact that it is effectively the first KTT-made clicky switch to be made available at any sense of scale. While a pair of eastern facing sales pages might not strike most people as “available” in the slightest, the fact that I was able to even acquire an entire bag’s worth is certainly something I can’t say about the true first clicky switch from KTT – KTT Golds. With only one being sold to me years ago by a Vietnamese switch collector and long-time supporter of the website and collection, KTT Gold switches are more or less just a legend at this point, with virtually no information available about them and even other switch collectors unable to find them anywhere in the world. So, while I am now finally able to discuss KTT clickies by way of these Purple Sauce switches, this direct link to a seemingly one off, random mysterious release from years ago did jog up some fond memories of a few other strange and singular releases from my collection. While I doubt any of these will see Purple Sauce switch-style homages paid to them in the near future, sharing their existence with my audience is always a fun way to drum up fun speculative ‘what if’ style questions in all of our minds. As well, sometimes these small snippets of tangential information stand to be some of the only information about the switches present anywhere on the internet.

Outemu Alps Mount Blue

Having recently been rediscovered by a switch enthusiast on Geekhack in early January of 2023, these one-off oddities have had a few more eyes on them than most, but ultimately hardly any information is known. Apparently made closer to the start of the modern mechanical switch era around 2015, these Outemu-made blue clicky switches feature a click jacket mechanism in a standard, MX-style housing but with a keycap mounting post specifically for Alps-compatible keycaps. To the best of my knowledge, no other large manufacturers of MX-style switches have produced something similar, though it is speculated that Cherry made have at one point based on an unsubstantiated photo from an old Cherry switch collection from many years ago.

**Figure 5:** Image of the questionably authentic Cherry MX-made Alps mount switch.

Fosen Aquamarine

The favorite of one of the original large switch collectors in the world, Fosen Aquamarines are a blue and aquamarine green colored clicky switch that is not all that unique in design but made by Fosen Electronics Technology Co. While these are certainly more available than most ‘rare’ MX-style switches out there, the sheer lack of information surrounding them is what keeps their aura of mystery more than half a decade down the road from when they were first discovered. The only interesting piece of modern context that I can provide to these, though, is that some of the only extensive photographing of these was done by Mech27 – one of the original designers of the original Invyr Holy Pandas.

**Figure 7:** Image of Mech27's lot of Fosen Aquamarine switches. (While I do not have the bag, I am currently in possession of a few of these exact switches.)

Teton Cream

An absolute classic switch to any switch collector who has spent some time in and around the hobby, Teton Creams are seemingly a Cherry MX Black clone branded with the nameplate ‘Teton’ and come in a beige and off-grey colorway. There is absolutely nothing known about them, and only one small lot of them which has been available on Aliexpress for between $50-60 per lot of 5 for at least as long as I have been collecting switches. The pink bubble mailer backdrop to this sales page alongside this ludicrous price has haunted wanting collectors for years and hence why these ring true to me as ‘absolute classics’ even with nothing known about them or who even made them in the first place.

**Figure 9:** Image from the classic Teton Cream Aliexpress listing featuring pink bubble mailer backdrop.

With that quick trip down switch memory lane, I’m really not left with much to close out this historical switch background on the KTT Purple Sauces. Made and first discovered in the middle of 2023, these winglatch, three pin clicky switches are the second clicky switch to have been made by KTT and have only made their appearance on those aforementioned eastern facing sales page as of the time of writing this review. Priced very much in line with other budget-grade KTT switches, the cost-effective pricing of these Purple Sauces around $0.20-$0.40 per switch depending on source and general interest potentially stirred up from this review may see these make a western appearance later in 2023 if a vendor is interested in stocking them. However, as it stands today, the potential future of these switches at large remain as mysterious as their appearance.

Purple Sauce Switch Performance

Appearance

At the highest level, the KTT Purple Sauce switches come in a two-tone colorway design with matching opaque light purple stems and bottom housings and a translucent, darker purple top housing. They also feature a click jacket style clicking mechanism which has a lower half in a white color as well as normally thread, roughly 50g bottom out silver colored spring. Baring the mountainous KTT logo on the nameplate and winglatch style housing which KTT has come to co-own in the public consciousness alongside Kailh, these switches are fairly easily recognized as KTT-made. While they may initially pass for TKC Blackberries, Akko CS Purple, or some other fully purple colored switch in passing, the variation in color between stem and top housing as well as their shades in and of themselves are enough to make them distinctive from those other switches given a closer look. These Purple Sauce switches are also much more easily distinguishable as KTT-made switches at the mold detail level, though, which will be touched on below.

**Figure 10:** Purple switch color comparison to KTT Purple Sauce switches (center), including Kailh Purple Potato, Taro Ball, Huano Pandora, Amethyst, TKC Blackberry, and Akko CS Purple.

Looking first to the translucent purple winglatch style top housings, these feature two distinctive points on their exterior which clearly mark them as KTT made. The first and most obvious is that of the KTT logo centered on the nameplate of the switch. The second, much more fine detail is the location of the top housing mold markings which are located on the lower right-hand side of the LED slot region in the form of a double-digit number and the lower left-hand side as a single-digit number. Unlike most other modern mechanical keyboard switch brands, KTT-made top housings have their mold markings on the outside and are offset to these corners rather than being located on the interior of the top housings. Other features including the winglatch housings and bifurcated, thin rectangular LED slots also are fairly common among KTT-made switches but not necessarily exclusive of them. On the interior of the top housings there is very little to report in the way of design features as nothing stands out as novel or not present in other switch brands I’ve covered here previously. The photo of the interior of the top housings, as shown below in Figure 12, will suffice to document their design.

**Figure 11:** KTT Purple Sauce top housing exterior design showing mold markings in lower left- and right-hand corners of LED slot region and KTT logo nameplate.

**Figure 12:** KTT Purple Sauce top housing interior design showing nothing in the way of interesting architecture or design features.

Moving next to the stems of the KTT Purple Sauce switches, while the design is incredibly rare for KTT given their historical lack of clicky switch offerings, the mechanism itself is fairly in line with other click jacket style mechanisms. Coming with a light purple, opaque upper half and a barely opaque white lower half, the click jacket style mechanism of the KTT Purple Sauces is articulable and produces a clicking sound via the rattling of the lower half of the stem jumping around within the housing of the switch after the attached stem legs pass through the leaves of the switch. The only two points perhaps worth noting about the design of either half of the KTT Purple Sauce stem is the presence of mold ejector circles on the very thin upper edge of the backplate of the purple portion as well as raised edges on the slider rails in the lower white half of the stem. Much like has been seen in more recent switch release designs, these raised edges were likely added to minimize the surface area of contact between the stem rails and switch bottom housing guide rails, which ultimately reduces the chances of a switch having scratch.

**Figure 13:** Front and back side view of KTT Purple Sauce stem showing articulation of click jacket mechanism and mold ejector circles.

Finally arriving at the opaque, light purple bottom housings of the KTT Purple Sauces, these too have a few details which denote them as specifically KTT made and also nothing particularly revolutionary. Internally, the two points worth checking out in the design is the small presence of factory lubing on the leaves of the switch as well as a beefy, chonky boi of a south side spring collar. Whereas neither half of the KTT Purple Sauce stem appeared to come with any factory lubing, the small presence of lubricant on the leaves of the switch was assumedly placed there to reduce leg/leaf scratch with the actuation of the click jacket mechanism. This is not necessarily uncommon, but worth mentioning, as it’s a good coin toss chance as to whether or not switches that come unlubricated from the factory will have this stem/leaf contact point lubed as well. As for the south side spring collar, only the words of The Melon himself can properly describe the appearance of this thing – “Damn boy, he’s thick, boy. That’s a thick ass boy.” Externally, the three pin bottom housings of the KTT Purple Sauce switches are fairly plain with the only details worth noting being that of the two locations of the mold markings – one to the left of the center, stem-containing pole in the form of a single capital letter and the other being the upside down, double digit marking between the metal PCB mounting pins.

**Figure 14:** KTT Purple Sauce bottom housing interior design showing aggressively large south side spring collar and factory lubrication on the points of contact between stem legs and leaves.

**Figure 15:** KTT Purple Sauce bottom housing exterior design showing three pin construction and two locations of KTT-specific mold markings.

Push Feel

Anyone who has tried a click jacket clicky switch before has a general idea of how they feel in hand. Whether it’s a Cherry MX Blue or a Razer Green, they all have an unmistakable degree of plasticky chaos to their mechanism that makes them both sound and feel distinctive from any other switches out there. While the KTT Purple Sauce switches definitely still feature a good amount of that grindy, collision-heavy, plastic-on-plastic feeling to their mechanism, they do feel quite a bit more clean, composed, and singular than some of those previously mentioned examples. Located what feels like near the halfway point of the downstroke, the click jacket mechanism has quite a bit of linear, pre-bump lead into a fairly quick, light tactile feeling mechanism. Pushing back with a bit more force than something very light like a Cherry MX Brown, the click jacket mechanism in the Purple Sauces is fairly easily and quickly passed, leading to a muted, almost unnoticeable bottom out that does not end out on a singular point. Strangely, even though the force curve of the KTT Purple Sauce switches below don’t belay this point in the slightest, the interaction with the mechanism in the upstroke feels much shorter and sharper than that of the bottoming out at slow actuation speeds. When typing faster, however, the bump produced by the mechanism at both downstroke and upstroke are more or less identical feeling.

**Figure 16:** KTT Purple Sauce force curve diagram.

As for the other, non-mechanism related push feeling notes for the KTT Purple Sauce switches, they are certainly not great but also not necessarily poor performing when keeping the context of their budget-level pricing in mind. Without any factory lubing on the slider rails of the stem or bottom housing, there is a minor amount of scratch that is consistent both within the switch and across the full batch of switches I received to test, though admittedly it is a bit hard to deconvolute this from the overwhelming feeling of the click jacket mechanism. It’s also worth noting here as well that as a result of a lack of lubrication paired up with this mechanism, there is some spring ping that is present in some switches in this batch which produces a physical sensation as well. Much like with the lack of factory lubing and smoothness, the housing collisions are almost an after thought in this switch and extremely hard to pull out from the background with the overwhelming feeling imparted by the mechanism.

Sound

Much like with the note made in the Push Feel section above about how these switches feel more composed, singular, and well-constructed than their relatives in other click jacket mechanisms, the sound of the Purple Sauces also follows this as well. These are still very much distinctively click jacket mechanisms – jagged, chaotic, and full of plastic-on-plastic collision goodness with some occasional spring ping and very little else to help sweeten the deal. However, they do so in a slightly more narrow and composed fashion with the mechanism sounding more coherent in their stock than most click jacket clickies. That being said, though, careful attention to this should be paid to the break in testing below as this changes quite a bit with even a little amount of usage. With respect to sound beyond the iconic click jacket mechanism, though, these are otherwise fairly subdued clicky switches with the sound that is produced from the mechanism beyond on the slightly quieter half of the clicky switch spectrum with a flat, mid-ranged pitch as well. Additionally, occasional spring ping and scratchiness can be picked up in the undertones of this switch like that of the topping and bottoming out housing collisions, but they are not the predominant noises featured in the sound profile of this switch.

Wobble

The stem wobble is by far the least surprising aspect of an otherwise ‘down the center’, predictable switch design. These have a noticeable, not likely super problematic level of N/S and E/W direction stem wobble that is slightly higher in the N/S direction. Unless you’re using tall keycaps in a build or particularly picky about your stem wobble, the chances that this is the metric that will turn you away from these switches is likely slim.

Measurements

If you’re into this level of detail about your switches, you should know that I have a switch measurement sheet that logs all of this data, as well as many other cool features which can be found under the ‘Archive’ tab at the top of this page or by clicking on the card above. Known as the ‘Measurement Sheet’, this sheet typically gets updated weekly and aims to take physical measurements of various switch components to compare mold designs on a brand-by-brand basis as well as provide a rough frankenswitching estimation sheet for combining various stems and top housings.

Note: Due to the articulable, two-piece nature of the click jacket clicky mechanism, measurements are difficult to complete and thus not included in the aforementioned measurement chart. I did my best to make approximations of what measurements I could, though, and have included those in the normal measurement card format above.

**Figure 18:** Numerical details regarding the stock KTT Purple Sauce switch force curve diagram.

The latest in the content-adjacent work that I’ve picked up, the new ‘Force Curve Repository’ is now hosted on GitHub alongside the Scorecard Repository and contains all force curves that I make both within and outside of reviews. In addition to having these graphs above, I have various other versions of the graphs, raw data, and my processed data all available for each switch to use as you please. Check it out via the ‘Archive’ tab at the top of this page or by clicking any of the force curve cards above.

Break In

Break In Notes

17,000 Actuations

- At 17,000 actuations, the KTT Purple Sauce switches really do begin to show signs of aging that is a bit more accelerated than most switches I’ve reviewed with break in testing. This is especially noticeable in the sound of the Purple Sauces, which becomes much more pingy, high pitched, and a touch more chaotic after being broken in thus far.

- Very much like other switches I’ve completed break in testing on, though, the KTT Purple Sauces are subject to a slight increase in both N/S and E/W direction stem wobble over that of their stock forms. This, however, does not change much beyond this point with further actuations.

34,000 Actuations

- At 34,000 actuations, the same notes made previously about the increased stem wobble as well as slightly more rattly, higher pitched sound also apply here as well. While they definitely did not increase enough to warrant another mark, they did still somewhat increase on these metrics.

- The only real change noted at 34,000 actuations was not so much one that was negative, but still noticeable, nonetheless. At this point, the batch of switches broken in thus far began to feel a bit more deep and as if they had slightly thicker housing collisions, but at the point of the click jacket mechanism instead. I’m not entirely sure that this phenomenon wasn’t just imagined in my head, but I still wanted to note it down in the event that it was real.

51,000 Actuations

- At 51,000 actuations, the sound of the KTT Purple Sauce switches really takes a downward turn, with the mechanisms moving towards an even more chaotic, unpredictable tone. These start to sound a lot more like KTT Gold switches, if not original Cherry MX click jacket mechanisms after 51,000 actuations.

- The push feeling of the KTT Purple Sauce switches also changes at this point, moving on from the (potentially hallucinatory) deepened mechanism feeling and directly into an increased plasticky, grindy chaos that matches that of the increased craziness noted in the sound of these switches as well.

**Figure 20:** Comparative diagram showing no distinct trend in change of KTT Purple Sauce force curve diagram during break in testing. Variation seen almost certainly just a function of manufacturing variability and/or click jacket mechanism shenanigans.

Comparison Notes to Other Notable Clicky Switches

Note – These are not aimed at being comprehensive comparisons between all factors of these switches as this would simply be too long for this writeup. These are little notes of interest I generated when comparing these switches to the Purple Sauce switches side by side.

KTT Gold

- In terms of volume and overall sound, the KTT Golds and Purple Sauces are very similar to each other, though not quite identical. There is a slight bit more depth and clarity to the click jacket mechanism in the Purple Sauces than the original Golds which are several years old at this point.

- Further pointing to an improvement in KTT’s general designs and/or molds over the years, the stem wobble in the Purple Sauces is also more improved, with less N/S and E/W direction stem wobble.

- The smoothness of the KTT Purple Sauces is a bit better than that of the KTT Golds, though neither come with any factory lubing to any of their components.

Cherry MX Green

- While click jacket mechanisms, broadly, are not great about their coherency and singularity of sound, the Purple Sauces at least sound a lot more clean and well-constructed when compared directly to the raucous mechanism in the MX Greens.

- In terms of out of the box smoothness, the KTT Purple Sauces also take the edge over the well-known and questionably loved scratch present in stock Cherry MX switches.

- The KTT Purple Sauce switches are noticeably better than the Cherry MX Greens when it comes to stem wobble, with the N/S direction in particular highlighting the disparity between these two.

Zeal 3-in-1 Clickiez (40g)

- The Zeal 3-in-1 Clickiez are not only a bit louder than the Purple Sauces, but also a bit more complex in their sound, with rich, rounded undertones to a pointed, pen-like click as compared to the plasticky, tangled sound of the Purple Sauces.

- The Clickiez switches, even at their lightest spring weight, are noticeably better than the KTT Purple Sauces with respect to stem wobble when in clicky mode. (This does not necessarily hold true for the other configurations of Clickiez switches.)

- While the Clickiez are generally more prone to switch to switch variations given their mandated DIY configuration, the Purple Sauces have noticeably more inconsistencies with respect to their clicking mechanism and presence of underlying spring ping, as well.

Kailh Box Jade

- There’s hardly a sound comparison to be made here with Kailh Box Jades being the gold standard for higher pitched click bar clickies. They have a significantly louder click which is higher pitched, more singular, and more consistent than even people’s highest hopes for the click jacket mechanisms in the KTT Purple Sauces.

- While the Box Jades’ click bar mechanism is obviously more heavy to actuate in hand than the KTT Purple Sauce switches, I was surprised to see the differences in their peak forces only being roughly 30gf or so. The Box Jades feel as if they are 50 or more grams heavier at their peak force than the Purple Sauces.

- Even though the two switches have drastically different stem designs from each other, their N/S and E/W direction stem wobbles are fairly comparable to each other, with both being slightly worse than average for the most recent modern switch releases.

TKC Blackberry

- Of all of the switches on this list not made by KTT, the TKC Blackberries are definitely the closest approximation of the sound of the Purple Sauces. While the Purple lack that sonorous, slightly rounded edge to their click that the Blackberries have, they’re fairly similar in terms of overall volume and pitch.

- Looking at the comparative force curve between these two switches, the ‘bump’ produced by the mechanism in the Blackberries makes them seem like they have a much longer, larger feeling bump than the Purple Sauces. Contrary to that, this bump in the Blackberries feels about the same length as the Purple Sauces, but much heavier, instead.

- The stem wobble in both the N/S and E/W directions in the KTT Purple Sauce switches is just the tiniest bit better than that of the TKC Blackberries, but altogether likely not enough to warrant even a difference in points in between them.

Novelkeys Cream Clickie

- Given the starkly different mechanism of action between these two switches, the Cream Clickies and Purple Sauces are hardly comparable to each other. It’s more or less like comparing a linear (Clickie) to a tactile (Purple Sauce) switch.

- The KTT Purple Sauce switches are a bit better than the Novelkeys Cream Clickies when it comes to N/S direction stem wobble, but fairly comparable when it comes to E/W direction stem wobble.

- In terms of stock smoothness, the Cream Clickie switches are noticeably smoother throughout the entirety of their stroke than the Purple Sauces.

Scores and Statistics

Note – These scores are not necessarily completely indicative of the nuanced review above. If you’ve skipped straight to this section, I can only recommend that you at least glance at the other sections above in order to get a stronger idea of my opinion about these switches.