Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “KVGear Desktop Stands Review – and comparison to Analog Cases and Loci”.
Hello, I’m Robin and welcome to Molten music technology here back in my kitchen today we’re having another look at some desktop stands. Yes, the excitement of it all. Now you may have seen that a couple of weeks ago I did a review of some stands from analog cases. They were good, they were chunky, they were metallic, seemed to do the job nicely and I enjoyed making that video. But I received a few comments from people that actually they weren’t perhaps as unique as I initially thought, and it turns out that they could in fact be a complete copy of stands from somewhere else. Now, Mike from KV, K got in touch and he says o those are my stands well, at least they look a lot like my stands.
They could be my stands. I think those stands are basically based or copies of the stands that we’ve been doing for years. So I had a look – and you know he’s he’s probably right so I said well, why don’t? I do a compan comparison review of your stands alongside the analog cases ones, and then people can make up their own mind as to which one is best which one works for them and then hopefully most people would be happy happy with that.
So Mike said well right y I’ll, send you some over and you can have a look, and so he did and so the stands we’re looking at today are the ones from KV gear. Now, oddly, the thing that analog cases said was unique about that. This is an analog case. One was the telescopic nature of this thing here, so that you can make it wider and smaller funny thing with that is that KB gear, as I say, have been doing the exact same thing for many many years. The other thing is that these side pieces look almost identical, let’s get a little bit closer in, so this is the analog cases one. This is the case VR one. You can’t see for this. Let’S look in a little bit closer right, so this is the analog cases one.
This is the kvr one, and this is the side piece right here. As you can see, they are, you know, pretty much identical even to the positioning of the hole here. Even the rubber feet are absolutely the same, so I don’t think there’s any doubt really that they are modeled on the same thing I mean there’s a tiny bit of difference there, but they really do sit identically together. What does that mean mean? I I don’t.
I couldn’t I can’t possibly possibly say so instead of worrying about how similar they are, let’s see how different they are, so the analog cases one is made of metal. It is it’s heavy. It ain’t going anywhere. It’S absolutely made of a piece of Steel.
I suppose KV gear one. It’S made of plastic hardened plastic, good plastic, but it’s light very, very light, in fact, in comparison to this this, so that is definitely a factor, let’s put them back together now. These are both the sort of medium siiz stands that they do uh both of them do a larger stands or other stands of bits and pieces, but these are probably the best two to compare directly now. Here is the telescopic bit here. You undo it here and you can got a little bit of extension come back in, so that’s as far as the analog cases. W go that’s as far as the kvr one goes pretty much pretty much the same.
Nothing in it really now the telescope bit itself is different. The analog cases, one is much more like a microphone stand, uh this one just kind of isn’t and it’s Al made of plastic as opposed to the metal, and it’s that that mass, the weight of it, which is the most defining factor of each, is that a Pro or is that a con difficult to say so? What I would say about the analog cases, one is that it is very heavy. So if you’re looking for portability, this does all come apart and go into your bag, then this is going to add a substantial amount of weight to it. The other thing is that you can never seem to tighten up these ending nuts enough, so whenever you put it down, it’s never flat. It’S always wanging about the place like so and you’re, always having a constantly, tighten up and tight up and Tien up and then flatten out when it goes down and then tighten it up again, the kvr one. They are absolutely solid.
The nut does up at the side and once it’s tight, it’s tight. It’S in position so once you’ve got it where you want it to be, it’s not going to change so you’re, not picking up, and this end bit is wanging around. It’S completely fine and it’s so light it’s not going to hardly add anything to the weight of the pack that you’re carrying and the gear that you’re carrying. But lightness is all very well, but is it going to handle heavy gear? That’S the next question.
So let’s have a look at the bullfrog, which is a nice chunky. Synth put that on top. If you look at the back here, bring this up a little bit. If you look at the back here, you know it’s a table.
That’S wobbling! More than the actual stand, so this is the kvr one. I swap that for the chunkier analog cases, one see there’s just as much movement because of the table, but in both cases it’s rock solid. Now you would think that the KB gear one would be flimsier. Somehow would easily rock or bend over, but it doesn’t at all it’s completely and utterly solid and a lot less weight than the analog cases. One now the kvr one has some other stuff going for it as well, in that it comes with some potential expansion accessories. The uh analog cases one came with with a tray.
That is the only thing you can add to that KV gear. One has a tray yeah, you stick a tray on. It’S also got holes in it, so you can potentially put trays together to make a wider tray or attach gear to it or other bits and pieces, so the tray is no bother, but another thing you have is an extender like this. Now this works exactly the same way. It’S got the same kind of uh telescoping bit in the middle like so, but this can then screw in to the back of here to give you an entirely new tier, that’s pretty damn cool.
So using a couple of screws and Wing nuts. I can turn it into a larger stand. That’S pretty cool! That’S pretty cool! There’S, also a couple of extra adapters for it, which allow you to either extend the side for a larger piece of gear or to use at the back here.
In order to add a little bit more strength to the back, so it’s less likely to tip over. So you know, KV gear, have thought about these things: they’ve developed extras for it, they’ve developed little brackets and bits and pieces to help. You expand upon your your stand or to make it more rigid or to put things together and they’ve got all sorts of different accessories and different sorts of stands to to match up with whatever your requirements are. Of course, it’s still not quite as versatile as my as my Loki stands, which I really do like other than the cable snag thing as I’ve talked about before, but these are extraordinarily adaptable and modular and are mostly brilliant but they’re, not, I would say, they’re not As sturdy, not as sturdy as the K here, not as sturdy as the analog cases was but still very, very adaptable and always worth looking at, are they the original Stand that did this original Stand originally? Did they come up with a telescopic bit or was it already available on microphones and other stands? I don’t know. I can’t possibly say, however, these being light that they are the fact that the edges uh stay once you’ve screwed it up, which means it’s not going to uh to twang apart uh. How it sits nicely on your desk doesn’t slide about, can accommodate all sorts of midsize things, including something as chunky as a nice big synthesizer, it’s good, it’s expandable comes apart, easy and isn’t going to add any weight to your back. While I certainly can’t say that analog cases stole the idea, it’s certainly not a unique one and analog cases make a lot of fuss about their idea being unique.
And that’s that doesn’t sit quite right because it’s been on this stand for years and years and years. So it definitely feels like a lot of thought and Engineering has gone into this thing. The fact that it is made of plastic in order to remain remain light and yet still has all the rigidity and the ability to carry stuff that the the very heavy steel one does says. A lot about the effort that KV gear put into producing their stands. But in any case, whether you like light yet sturdy, heavy and chunky or esoterically, strange pieces of uh modular art, then there’s a stand out there, for you hope that was helpful in the meantime, go make some tunes .