By Cory Choy

As many post pros can attest, taking care of your body with proper ergonomics while working is paramount to being able to do your job well. As someone who has suffered from a repetitive stress injury and is currently wearing gloves as I type to prevent/alleviate pain, I can also tell you that I try to take a proper working environment very seriously.

When I apprenticed under master craftsman of sound Bern Haydenburg, I quickly noticed that he did all his mixes standing up. He insisted that if I was going to sit, that I sit in a chair with no arms and that I keep good posture. But he said it was better just to stand. Sound body, sound mind, better-sounding mix.

Now, as a professional sound mixer in my own right, I do almost all of my mixes standing up, so a standing desk in my mix room is an absolute must. Since the mix room is pretty much the centerpiece of our studio and where I do my most important work, what goes into it needs to work flawlessly and look good.

I had a beautiful standing desk installed in the mix room as soon as I was able. (Before that I had been stacking up boxes and doing other makeshift things to allow me to stand.). It’s been absolutely fantastic, but it certainly wasn’t the least expensive thing in the world – and I don’t do everything standing up. Also, other people I work with don’t or aren’t able to mix standing up. This meant we needed an adjustable standing desk, one that could support lots of weight without wiggling or buckling. (Sound mixers like to have big monitors with swivel mounts, and we sometimes lean quite hard on our desks while thinking.)

It took us a while, trying out many different options and configurations, until we found something we fell in love with. But we did, and we learned a whole lot along the way about what works and what doesn’t work for us. (Pro tip: You’re going to want a chef’s mat if you’re standing for hours at a time.)

FlexiSpot
When postPerspective asked me to review FlexiSpot’s E7 Pro Series standing desk as a post professional who uses standing desks, I jumped at the opportunity. Tom Fama, our studio manager, also gave the desk a spin (and assembled it with assistants Rob Parise and Feyisayo Aluko). He gave me his thoughts, some of which I will incorporate into this review.

Unboxing and Assembly
The desk came in several different boxes, and they arrived piecemeal across three days, but I think that was more of a delivery issue than a FlexiSpot issue. The parts were all solid and seemed to be of good build quality. One box was quite heavy, and you really needed two people or a furniture dolly to move it.

The assembly instructions were clear and simple to follow — the individual parts were organized, labeled and easy to identify and keep track of. It ultimately takes a relatively short amount of time to fully assemble, and it only requires a screwdriver outside of what is already included in the kit — that was very nice!

The only difficulty we had with assembly was that one of the mounting brackets between the leg and the desktop would not stay flush with the leg, so when it came time to align the bracket with the designated screw holes under the desktop, they wouldn’t all line up on one side. Even after readjusting the bracket with the leg to be straighter, it still wouldn’t quite line up exactly where it was designed to be. Even so, importantly, it was still possible to fasten the screws securely.

The Main Components
After we assembled the desk, we took it for a spin — and we were very happy with what we found.  One of the standout features of the E7 Pro desk is the sturdy material and solid build quality, which not only looks great but also supports a lot of weight without wobbling or buckling. We put a bunch of heavy speakers, a computer and two monitors on it – you know, the works – and it held up great. The aesthetic appeal of the desk is also worth noting, as it features a clean design, and there are different options you can choose from in terms of leg color and desk size/material. I was given the option for black, white and bamboo tops, which come in different sizes. Bamboo allowed for the largest desktop, which was most desirable for us and was the look we wanted.

The smooth automatic vertical adjustment of the desk is another impressive feature. The start and stop are highly responsive with minimal latency, making it easy to adjust the height to the perfect position for standing or sitting. The height range is suitable for just about any adult-sized person, and the user preset feature is intuitive, making it simple to adjust to the height you want to save with a quick press of the “M” button and corresponding preset bank.

Bells and Whistles
The USB charging feature is a great convenience, supporting a 5-12V range that offers a wider variety of practical charging applications. The versatility of being able to stretch the width of the legs for various desktop sizes, as well as the flexible accommodation for the control panel and optional add-ons (such as the sliding drawer and desktop riser), are also worth noting. These add-ons are incredibly easy to attach or adjust to suit one’s needs.

The troubleshooting steps, included as a clear adhesive sticker on the desktop, are a nice touch. In fact, I moved it underneath by the control remote in case someone doesn’t have the instruction manual on hand and needs to reference it. The cable management is decent but also a bit tricky due to the angle of some of the connectors. Some needed to go to the control box from their designated component.

Room for Improvement?
Tom and I both noted that cables get a bit messy based on the angle needed to connect them. I would’ve preferred right-angle connectors into the control box — or at least a few more inches of space between it and one of the legs — to make connections easier and feel like we weren’t crowding them so tightly.

I also found that there’s a lot of extra slack from the cables that connect to control the legs – and this results in needing to neaten those up in the middle. Fortunately, the metal cover hides most of the extraneous cable, but it can quickly get crowded.

Extras
FlexiSpot was kind enough to send an attachable drawer and a monitor stand. The monitor stand is nice in that it lifts things up, feels solid and matches the desk nicely, but I would have preferred the ability to change its height – something a post pro would want to do.

The drawer is made of thin metal and allows for storage of cables and knickknacks or electronics. I like that we can move it around.

Summing Up
Overall, the FlexiSpot E7 Pro standing desk is a great product that I would highly recommend for anyone interested in a robust and responsive hybrid standing/sitting desktop. It does what it says it does. It does it well, and it looks and feels nice. What more could you want?

Check out the FlexiSpot site to customize the right desk for your workflow.

Cory Choy is an Emmy Award-winning sound mixer at Silver Sound in New York City.