We’ve all seen merchandise that fall into the “for the one that has all of it” class. They’re normally far costlier than different selections, but they nonetheless handle to turn out to be objects of want by sheer design and high quality of supplies.
That is the one means you may even start to justify the $119 that Grasp & Dynamic (M&D) asks for its
MC300 headphone stand
.
Yep, it’s a headphone stand. From a purely useful viewpoint, in the event you simply want a approach to preserve your cans helpful but neatly organized, the MC300 is full and complete overkill. There are dozens of headphone stands on Amazon for below $20 that can allow you to dangle your headphones — particularly in case your cans are wired. However, in the event you’re a wi-fi audio fan, you don’t simply want a spot to hold your headphones, you want to have the ability to cost them, too. And in case your headphone stand may also wirelessly cost your earbuds and your telephone? That’s starting to sound like a fairly good resolution.
The MC300 — which is available in your selection of polished silver or black aluminum — does all of these items, and its ultra-minimalist design is destined to enchantment to followers of modernist structure who worth simplicity and an nearly complete absence of decoration. In truth, the MC300’s simplicity was what drew me to it within the first place. I needed a stand that will disappear when taking headphone evaluation photographs. My earlier selection, the
Avantree Common Headphone Stand
, which you’ll see on this evaluation of the M&D MH40 Wi-fi Headphones, felt too distracting.
The one-piece chrome steel stand arm plugs into the skinny base by urgent down on the knurled collar, after which it might freely rotate 360 levels. Simply don’t go loopy — the stand is completely suited to hanging even very heavy headphones with out tipping, however solely when the arm hangs the cans instantly over the bottom. The farther away it swings, the much less steady it will get.
The highest of the tubular stand arm has a flat cutout, which is extensive sufficient to accommodate even a pair of Apple AirPods Max , which has one of many widest bands within the wi-fi headphones world. I think about there’s some debate about whether or not a slim metal rod goes to deform your headphone band’s cushion over time (versus a wider, curved holder), and possibly there’s some benefit to that. However I critically doubt you’d be capable of really feel such a change, given how small the realm is.
The bottom of the stand doubles as a Qi-compatible wi-fi charger with an invisible Apple MagSafe-compatible magnetic connection. In the event you’re a MagSafe maven, this one characteristic is perhaps sufficient to woo you — after appreciable looking out, the one different MagSafe headphone stand I might discover is that this $80
Satechi 2-in-1 Headphone Stand
. A tiny LED on the entrance tells you the charging standing: stable white for charged or idle, pulsing white for charging, and purple if you’ve positioned a non-Qi product (or misaligned a Qi product) on the bottom.
M&D has given it a warmth sink-like design on the underside to assist it dissipate warmth extra effectively. There’s a USB-C enter to attach the bottom to a wall adapter and a USB-C output for charging wired units. The intent is to make use of the output to your wi-fi headphones — a brief USB-C cable is supplied for doing so — however you may use it for a telephone or some other machine that wants energy. A handy magnetic cable clamp retains it affixed to the stand arm when not in use. An extended, 1-meter (about 40 inches) USB-C cable can also be included to plug the stand into an influence supply.
Talking of energy sources, this brings me to my one and solely actual critique of the MC300. For $119, this factor ought to completely include a top-notch USB-C energy adapter. Not solely due to the value, but additionally as a result of it takes the proper of adapter to get probably the most out of the headphone stand.
Each the UBS-C output and the charging pad have totally different ranges of energy relying on the wall adapter you utilize. With a 5 volt/3 amp or 9 volt/2 amp adapter, the charging pad runs at 5 watts and the USB-C output runs at 10 watts. That’s OK, however not nice. You want a 9 volt/3 amp adapter to get these connections to run at their most energy: 10 watts for the pad and 15 watts for the wired output — and even that’s nonetheless shy of the perfect wi-fi and wired charging ranges (15 watts/40 watts respectively).
Shopping for one isn’t a giant funding —
this Ugreen mannequin from Amazon is simply $16
and meets M&D’s necessities — but it surely’s only a reminder that M&D ought to actually embody one within the field.
Is the M&D MC300 headphone stand and wi-fi charger value $119? On the one hand, it’s arduous to argue that it’s, particularly if you have a look at comparable merchandise available on the market like that Satechi 2-in-1 above. Alternatively, if you take note of the MC300’s undeniably glossy, minimalist design, its top-notch supplies, its MagSafe-compatible wi-fi charger, and its skill to cost two units at as much as 10 watts/15 watts every, it’d simply be the one headphone stand in its class — at any value.
And hey, in the event you can justify dropping $599 on M&D’s superior MW75 wi-fi headphones, and an additional $349 on the equally glorious M&D MW08 Sport wi-fi earbuds, the MC300 is actually only a 12% add-on. Yup, I don’t simply write about audio merchandise, I’m additionally a grasp rationalizer in the case of shopping for them.
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