I just decided to make comparison pictures of a black Sanwa OBSF-30 and a standard X-Arcade button. I took apart an x-arcade to get the button to truly see for myself the difference in quality between the top and bottom ends of the market.
As you can see from the following images, there is a massive chasm in size and maybe not so clearly, the difference in quality and efficient design.
The operation of the Sanwa switch is silent whereas the X-Arcade has very loud click.
I hope some people find this comparison interesting or useful.
It would actually be more closer to compare Happ/iL buttons with X-Arcade Buttons then Sanwa.
Since X-Arcade buttons are more or less poor copies of the Happ/iL buttons. Also both buttons you are showing are two completely different style buttons as Sanwa are Japanese style buttons wheras X-Arcade is based on the American style buttons.
Also the design of the button itself basically narrows down to the quality of the microswitch and the actual spring itself.
You could take the plastic shell of an X-Arcade button but use Happ cherry microswitches as well as Happ springs and there would virtually no difference in how they play.
EDIT : I should also mention that HAPP buttons because of the larger / more durable spring can take alot more punishment then Sanwa buttons before wearing out. Ask any Marvel VS Capcom 2 player why they prefer HAPP style sticks over Sanwa and it almost always in the end is narrowed down to the fact that the buttons take a beating in that game and HAPP buttons suitably last longer because they are much more rugged.
Sanwa buttons are decent though but they aren’t any more superior to HAPP, it’s all a matter of preference in this regard.
The Cherry microswitches that Happ uses are rated to last 10 times longer than a normal Sanwa OBSx microswitch. What do you value more: reliability or sensitivity? Someone who runs an arcade is going to have different answers to that question than someone who sits around playing Street Fighter for hours.
The X-Arcade buttons are only bad because they are cheap knockoffs, not because the design of the button itself is flawed.
I have the best of both worlds with my custom Happ stick from arcadewhips.com and my Madcatz SE swapped out with all Sanwa parts. The SE plays really nice and fluid compared to my Happ stick (for now) and the buttons on both feel great but I can sense the Sanwa’s are a bit more sensitive and require a bit less effort to engage. But regardless I still prefer the over all look and feel of the Happ style buttons but that is just me.
I found out from infamouskid that I should swap out my Happ competition stick with an iL. I thought he was full of it at first until I picked up my Sanwa parts from him for my SE. He brought both down and showed me how much better the iL is and that is probably what was used in most of the arcades we use to play each other on. I find that I can pull off combos easier on my SE with the JLF then my Happ competition and infamouskid might be right because the iL seems to registers diagonals much better than the Happ competition.
old competition sticks were actually made by iL but their contract ended and now they’re made by Suzo. Old competition sticks = iL competition sticks = win.