Mostly defaults--I only have a handful of custom keybindings, most of them a carry-over from the old ITS/Twenex Emacs defaults, since I have editing finger habits which are decades old. (It's wonderful that you can get most of the basics in every Cocoa-based edit field in OS X.)
I wouldn't even call myself an Emacs power user. I've written a modicum of Emacs Lisp, but nothing major.
Custom hardware? Hoo boy, let's not go down that road, too off-topic. ;-) Well, OK, the best keyboard ever made by the Hand of Man is the old Tom Knight AI Lab keyboard (google "Tom Knight Keyboard" and you'll find lots of info). The particular recipe that Microswitch (Honeywell) developed for that generation of keyboards, based on (highly expensive) Hall-effect mechanical switches, is still unparalleled to this day--it had a sort of preternaturally comfortable throw. I even bought one of the Microswitch Symbolics-style keyboards from a custom run (for about $600) at LLNL back in the early 80's, and hacked up a Sun-1 CPU board to read the keyboard's up/down parallel encoding to produce ascii serial out, I was so attached to that quality of keyboard. (Didn't hurt that I could map all the Shift/Meta/Super/Hyper/Network shift keys to the appropriate escape sequences ;-). Had to give it up when ascii terminals died out; sigh.
Since then, I've kinda given up, but the Thinkpad keyboards from a few years back were exceptional (don't know if Lenovo has kept the quality up lately), and the latest-generation Apple flat-topped short-throw keyboards are also exceedingly fast and accurate for typing. But none of them come close the pure tactile nirvana of those old Microswitch keyboards.
You can still find some of those incredible Microswitch keys on older ATMs. They were designed for millions of abusive presses before failure.
I agree about the Thinkpad keyboards. Also, a relative had a Dell 8100 laptop that I used extensively for a while, and its keyboard was very "fast" and comfortable, for me. I think Dell's keyboard quality has gone down since then.
These days, I tend to prefer good laptop keyboards. I like the short throw; also, many of them have a more precise and consistent action than the mass produced detached keyboards.
I'm not familiar enough with the recent Apple keyboards, although I will complain about their (and others') laptop designs of recent years that place the keyboard at the back of a "huge" shelf of real estate often also having a sharp front edge. (Those features bother my wrists no end, particularly when I don't have control over the height of the work surface.)
I've spent time on a variety of stuff going back to DEC terminals (and some yet older stuff I no longer recall). Actually, of older stuff, one of my favorite keyboards was the one that came with my Kaypro. I don't suppose its switches were all that "de luxe", but it was very smooth and I could really move on it without tiring. And/or I was younger ;-) and spent enough time with it specifically to become rather accustomed to its feel.
As for Emacs, every time I start, I quickly tire of its key combination and the discomfort they cause me. I suppose I should try one or another remapping, but I end up switching programs before I get that far. Perhaps if I'd started with it when I was younger, I would have built up a requisite flexibility and muscle memory more rapidly than discomfort.
(As for obsession, I now find the screen and keyboard two of the most important features of a system. It doesn't matter how fast it is, if it's a pain to look at and makes typing an undue exercise.)
If you like short throw keyboards you might want to give Cherry a try. I don't think they are very popular in the US (pretty big in Europe). I haven't found anything better than the Cherry eVolution STREAM XT and I try out every keyboard I can get my hands on.
And they are dirt cheap, too. I get a new one every year or so and fresh out of the box, it's like keyboard nirvana.
I've seen the name Cherry, but I didn't realize they offered that kind of a product. I'll have a look -- thanks!
P.S. Actually, for a desktop system, I've recently been using a Kensington Ci73. The keyswitches aren't as good as I'd like, but they're better than many. Also an inexpensive unit.
I've thought about getting a Thinkpad (now Lenovo) detachable keyboard, but the reviews weren't positive enough to make me "push the button", as it were. It appears to glitch with speedy typing. Also, it has one of those shelves, although the 2nd revision while dropping the integrated touchpad may (or may not) have beaten the shelf back to a more manageable size.
For the price, and with the reported glitches, I'd want to try one hands-on, before purchasing. Though I may change my mind on that.
I wouldn't even call myself an Emacs power user. I've written a modicum of Emacs Lisp, but nothing major.
Custom hardware? Hoo boy, let's not go down that road, too off-topic. ;-) Well, OK, the best keyboard ever made by the Hand of Man is the old Tom Knight AI Lab keyboard (google "Tom Knight Keyboard" and you'll find lots of info). The particular recipe that Microswitch (Honeywell) developed for that generation of keyboards, based on (highly expensive) Hall-effect mechanical switches, is still unparalleled to this day--it had a sort of preternaturally comfortable throw. I even bought one of the Microswitch Symbolics-style keyboards from a custom run (for about $600) at LLNL back in the early 80's, and hacked up a Sun-1 CPU board to read the keyboard's up/down parallel encoding to produce ascii serial out, I was so attached to that quality of keyboard. (Didn't hurt that I could map all the Shift/Meta/Super/Hyper/Network shift keys to the appropriate escape sequences ;-). Had to give it up when ascii terminals died out; sigh.
Since then, I've kinda given up, but the Thinkpad keyboards from a few years back were exceptional (don't know if Lenovo has kept the quality up lately), and the latest-generation Apple flat-topped short-throw keyboards are also exceedingly fast and accurate for typing. But none of them come close the pure tactile nirvana of those old Microswitch keyboards.
You can still find some of those incredible Microswitch keys on older ATMs. They were designed for millions of abusive presses before failure.
(Uh-oh, is my obsession showing? ;-)