“Slightly rubbery, which picks up any residue off your fingers and makes the knob look dirty. The rotation is ever so slightly off axis. The click isn’t too satisfying.”
“Nowhere near enough depth, and too much weight to the rotation. Also lacking in knob grip.”
“Great weight (not too heavy, not too light), and lovely stiffness.”
Via Anna, via MeFi.
Overall a very average knob experience.
I even watched the videos.
There’s something to be said for a pleasing mechanical action. Car doors, kitchen units, even amplifier knobs.
You should flip the toggle switches on my 1965 (transitional) Fender bass head. The switches on the 70s silverface stuff are good enough in their way, but there’s really no comparison. A ball-bearing-on-glass feel not altogether unlike an old Smith and Wesson trigger.
I’m glad nobody has gone for the cheap “know what I mean? know what I mean?” play.
Why, the very idea. I run a classy establishment and its patrons are classy people.
Well, not Anna, obviously.
I even watched the videos.
I did too as knob feel really is important. The reviewer is quite economical with his video commentary but I think most viewers won’t have any problem understanding his intent.
I think vanderleun also meant to refer to was “That’s what she said”
I did too as knob feel really is important.
The design of mechanical interactions – ergonomics, I suppose – is something I appreciate. I remember the huge clunky keys on a Betamax video recorder that my school friend’s dad had bought around 1980, and which impressed me no end. (They’d be terrible now, not at all precise and with way too much resistance, but as a child they were a big part of the appeal. That and the fact we weren’t supposed to go near the thing, on account of it being so new and incredibly expensive.) And skilled people have spent a lot of time making sure CD drawers open just so, and that toilet seats fold down in a silent and pleasing manner.
Insofar as one can be pleased by the motion of a toilet seat.
Doh……there I was thinking it was about penises.
I have such a one-track mind….
Excuse me for going but I have a knob to polish and then will have to shoot off….
Insofar as one can be pleased by the motion of a toilet seat.
Up and down slowly is good.
Side to side wobbling is never good.
Side to side wobbling is never good.
No, you don’t want any sudden lateral motion at a critical moment.
Any minute now this thread will turn into a sitcom from 1972.
Where’s Suzanne Sommers when you need her?
So. A site devoted to the backwards bonk.
In the interest of avoiding the numerous double entente’s that have yet been made, mostly those on my mind anyway…I’ve never understood the appeal of a “click” knob on volume controls. Why? I’ve avoided them all my life and now my new car has one. Volume=39 is too soft, yet 40 is too high. Damn, now thinking about what Goldilocks would like in a knob…
Once you’ve watched one of those videos, you have to watch them all, mainly for the expressive hemming and hawing*, by turns unconvinced, then surprised by the sheer variety of all the knobs.
I’m gonna check me some knobs right now!
I suppose the appreciation of knobfeel, for want of a better word, is actually quite nostalgic. I looked around the Guild of Evil’s headquarters and most of the electronic equipment lacks a knob of any kind. It mostly uses remotes and isn’t designed for any direct physical contact. If there are buttons and dials at all, they’re tiny and perfunctory, hidden away, and only there in case something goes wrong with the remote.
Incidentally, we mustn’t titter about toilet seat motion and toilet safety in general. Your toilet is a death trap just waiting to strike. This one certainly was. And who can forget this explosive episode? It seems that toilets malfunction explosively more often than you’d think.
Luckily, our finest minds are working on the next generation of toilet seat technology. Stay safe out there, people.
The funny thing is the knobfeeler makes good points. You don’t want axial skew on your knob.
Great blog, David.
Ahh, double entendres, they never get old and flacid.
Contender for the ultimate #firstworldproblem…?
My company’s web blocking software seems to have an objection to the word “knobfeel”.
Just what we need, priggish bits…
It seems another company also has been providing information to the general public on this issue:
http://s10.postimage.org/e1qk6x7qh/knobstiffness.jpg
There ought to be an industry award for the knobs with the best knobfeel. They could call them Knobbies, just as hotel towels are awarded Fluffies
TypePad’s spam filter is still being temperamental. If anyone has trouble with their comments not appearing, email me and I’ll poke them free with a broom handle.
Many thanks on the kind words everyone!