Grasp & Dynamic’s headphone stand: costly however distinctive

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We’ve all seen merchandise that fall into the “for the one that has all of it” class. They’re often far costlier than different selections, but they nonetheless handle to change into objects of want by way of sheer design and high quality of supplies.
That is the one means you’ll be able to even start to justify the $119 that Grasp & Dynamic (M&D) asks for its MC300 headphone stand.
Simon Cohen / Digital Traits

Yep, it’s a headphone stand. From a purely purposeful viewpoint, should you simply want a option to maintain your cans helpful but neatly organized, the MC300 is full and whole overkill. There are dozens of headphone stands on Amazon for underneath $20 that can allow you to dangle your headphones — particularly in case your cans are wired. However, should 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 reasonably good answer.

Simon Cohen / Digital Traits
The MC300 — which is available in your alternative of polished silver or black aluminum — does all of these items, and its ultra-minimalist design is destined to attraction to followers of modernist structure who worth simplicity and an nearly whole absence of decoration. In reality, the MC300’s simplicity was what drew me to it within the first place. I needed a stand that may disappear when taking headphone assessment images. My earlier alternative, the Avantree Common Headphone Stand, which you’ll see on this assessment of the M&D MH40 Wi-fi Headphones, felt too distracting.
The one-piece stainless-steel stand arm plugs into the skinny base by urgent down on the knurled collar, after which it may well 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 secure it will get.
Simon Cohen / Digital Traits
The highest of the tubular stand arm has a flat cutout, which is large 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 slender 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 magnetic cable holder will be positioned wherever on the tubular metal rod. Simon Cohen / Digital Traits
The bottom of the stand doubles as a Qi-compatible wi-fi charger with an invisible Apple MagSafe-compatible magnetic connection. If you happen to’re a MagSafe maven, this one function is likely to be sufficient to woo you — after appreciable looking, 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 crimson if you’ve positioned a non-Qi product (or misaligned a Qi product) on the bottom.
Simon Cohen / Digital Traits
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 on your wi-fi headphones — a brief USB-C cable is offered for doing so — however you would use it for a telephone or some other system 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 worth, but in addition as a result of it takes the correct of adapter to get probably the most out of the headphone stand.
Simon Cohen / Digital Traits
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 very best wi-fi and wired charging ranges (15 watts/40 watts respectively). The difficulty is, 9V/3A USB energy provides aren’t all that widespread.
An iPhone 14 fees wirelessly, held in place by the MagSafe-compatible base. Simon Cohen / Digital Traits
Is the M&D MC300 headphone stand and wi-fi charger price $119? On the one hand, it’s laborious to argue that it’s, particularly if you take a look at comparable merchandise available on the market like that Satechi 2-in-1 above. Alternatively, if you take into consideration the MC300’s undeniably glossy, minimalist design, its top-notch supplies, its MagSafe-compatible wi-fi charger, and its means to cost two units at as much as 10 watts/15 watts every, it would simply be the one headphone stand in its class — at any worth.
And hey, should you can justify dropping $599 on M&D’s superior MW75 wi-fi headphones, and an extra $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 on the subject of shopping for them.

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