Elevation Lab Anchor Under-Desk Headphone Mount Review
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Ever thought about treating yourself to a headphone stand? You know, one of those platforms with a tall hanger attached to a space-wasting base that you place on your desk to proudly show off and hang your headphones on when you're not using them. But if you care more about saving valuable desk space and less about displaying your on-ear or over-ear cans, there's an even better way of doing just that. The Anchor by Elevation Lab, the same company that brought you the hugely popular aluminum-made Elevation Dock for iPhone and recently the Elevation Stand for iMac, is a new under-desk headphone hanger that essentially mounts your headphones underneath your desk or any table for that matter. Unlike traditional headphone stands, the Anchor is purposely designed to put an end to headphone clutter in that it will hide your headphones away from plain sight, yet within a convenient arms reach all while freeing up more valuable workspace. Needless to say it's every headphone user's ideal desk accessory. Be sure to catch our full review on the Anchor down under!
Elevation Lab's Anchor costs $13, available in black only, and comes in this neat little package with some additional information written on the back of the box. Nothing else is included but the headphone mount itself.
If it wasn't obvious already, the design was inspired by a ship's anchor with that distinct and wide two prong shape, which as it turns makes for the perfect dual-sided hanger for mounting a pair or two of headphones on either side. It's a single piece of moulded silicone rubber that's 4-inches wide and 2-inches tall. It’s really nicely made using high quality, thick silicone rubber that’s also flexible. As simple and basic as this may be, I was actually very impressed by the all-around polished design and construction of the Anchor. It doesn’t seem like a cheaply made accessory, especially for the price.
You may be thinking why is it made out of this rubbery material instead of something more premium and solid like aluminum? Well, first of all it's cheaper that way and if you’ve got a small desk and you need to mount the Anchor near your legs, when you’re actually using your headphones and your knee suddenly bumps into the side hook of the Anchor it won’t be an excruciatingly painful experience, but rather more like hitting a soft spring made out of soft flexible rubber. The edges of the two headphone hooks are also well rounded even though they do stick out. Making this thing out of a solid material like aluminum or polycarbonate would be the worst idea ever. I’m happy that Elevation Lab actually thought this product out instead of making it tie in with all of their other all aluminum machined iPhone and Mac accessories. The rubber material does flex a little when you hang your headphones on one of the hooks, but because it's such a high-quality silicone rubber that's also nice and thick all around, the Anchor mount is capable of providing enough support to effectively hold the weight of a large pair of studio monitoring headphones.
When you take the Anchor out of its packaging, the base of it is already pre-fitted with a thin spongy layer of 3M adhesive. It's the same super strong adhesive that GoPro uses, meaning it's tough as nails and more than capable of withstanding the weight of your headphones and the occasional tug. No screws or tools are requires for installation. Simply peel off the red tape and firmly press the Anchor anywhere on a flat and relatively smooth surface for a few seconds and you're done. From my experience, you can hang your headphones on it right away since the adhesive is amazingly strong and reliable. I've attached one to a smooth compressed wood surface as well as a metal frame underneath an Ikea Galant desk system and both Anchor mounts have stayed solidly in place.
If you’ve ever used a GoPro mount you’ll know that the 3M adhesive used to attach the mounts onto various flat surfaces is super strong, and that in order to remove it you need to heat it up using a hairdryer to remove the adhesive from the surface. The same 3M adhesive is used on the Anchor, which means that it’ll stick to the underside of your desk securely. And that’s a good thing because you’ll be able to hang large and hefty headphones on this and bump into it without having to worry about it coming off. In case you do find that you need to remove the Anchor, using a hairdryer to heat the adhesive in order to soften it up should leave behind little to no residue - but will result in a relatively painless removal. Since this will only be adhered to the bottom of your desk, you shouldn’t worry about leftover residue - if any. In general, the 3M adhesive used on the Anchor should enable you do easily stick it onto flat wooden surfaces including glass, metal and even plastic. It’s worth noting that once you remove the Anchor from its adhered position, you won’t be able to reuse it again due to the nature of the adhesive type.
And yes, I actually did test the Anchor's flexibility and adhesive strength by using two large headphones with it for the past few days and the combined weight did not affect the adhesive integrity whatsoever. In fact, I even tried to intentionally pull down on the side of the hook to see if that would negatively affect its 3M adhesive, and thankfully the flexible nature of the silicone rubber material that the Anchor is made out of greatly reduces the amount of tension that is put on the base of the mount. Meaning this thing will not come off unintentionally no matter what.
As far as we're aware, the Anchor is the world's first rubberized headphone hanger that mounts under a desk, coffee table or shelf. And unlike the popular Sennheiser HH-10 headphone hanger that clamps to the edge of the desk, the Anchor is a less expensive and more discrete alternative. I've been using this Sennheiser clamp for the longest time and it did its job remarkably well I'll give it that. It can be easily removed and repositioned elsewhere around your workspace unlike the Anchor, but it only has enough room to hang one headphone and it sticks out far too much. Not to mention it costs $40 compared to the $13 Anchor. And for that reason I personally went ahead and purchased myself two Anchor mounts to use anywhere I please for less than half the price of a single Sennheiser headphone clamp hanger.
I honestly can't think of any caveats other than the fact that once you stick the Anchor anywhere under your desk, coffee table or what have you, you basically won't be able to reuse it ever again. But I'm fine with that, and suffice it to say that most people wouldn't find the need to reposition theirs either except for when the time comes to replace that particular piece of furniture.
Elevation Lab's Anchor mount actually reminds me a lot of a Bluelounge accessory in that it solves a problem in the neatest and most functional way possible. I mean seriously, Bluelounge really missed the opportunity to come up with such a clever idea. Nevertheless, Elevation Lab has indeed conceived a rather unique headphone accessory that's insanely easy to use and in fact has enhanced my desktop workspace immensely. Before using the Anchor I had my ATH-M50x, my current headphones of choice I would like to note, thrown off to the side of my mouse along with their extra-long coiled cable. What the Anchor does in addition to discretely hiding your headphones and saving you some extra space on your desk is it allows you to run the cable from the back of your computer or any other audio source underneath your desk and straight up in front of you, as oppose to running over and in-between your peripherals so that your setup can be kept looking organized and clean of any cabling to get in the way of using your mouse and keyboard.
This really is a must have desk accessory for anyone that spends a significant amount of time in front of a display working or playing using a pair of headphones.. With the M50x's extra-long cable I use a Bluelounge CableDrop, which is also an adhesive-backed silicone rubber mount, to better route the cable underneath my desk. And because there's enough slack for the cable to move through the CableDrop mount, I don't need to pull on the cable when I come to put on my headphones. It's an optional step worth considering if you want to get everything perfect and tidy down there. Alternatively, you can use the second hook oppositely facing your headphones to hang excess cord.
As much as I enjoyed using the Just Mobile HeadStand that we reviewed a while ago, I much prefer this type of headphone mounting. I think that we can all agree that after a while we start to care less about how our headphones look when they're put off to the side or hung on a stand that you first thought was absolutely the best thing ever and they eventually just become a tool that you grab whenever you want to listen to audio. All I want for my headphones is for them to be kept somewhere safe but still within quick reach. The Anchor does exactly that. It's practical, literally takes up no desk space and it's cheaply priced.
Contrary to Elevation Lab's own images showing the Anchor with a similar pair of headphones, I did notice that the Audio Technica ATH-M50x and also heavier headphones like the aluminum made JBL Synchros S700 tend to pull down on the flexible silicone rubber hook, but it’s really not anything that would cause the headband of the headphones to slide off thanks to the raised edge that ensures a secure fit. Speaking of this raised hook edge – virtually any headband whether it’s thick, thin wide or narrow will fit on the Anchor's dual-sided hook design.
Declutter your desk one headphone at a time with this one-of-a-kind discrete mount
The Anchor headphone mount is a superior solution to the traditional desktop headphone stand at a much more affordable price. It's such a simple thing, but it works oh so well - or dare I say - perfectly. We’re using not one but a couple of Anchors to discreetly mount headphones and run cabling underneath the desk. At $13, the Anchor works exactly as advertised and we really couldn't be any happier with its desk decluttering result. It's the most convenient and space-saving way to keep your headphones out of plain sight, yet within reach. And for that reason we are awarding the Anchor with our Editors’ Choice Award. If you’ve got a desk and a pair of headphones, we highly recommend you get one yourself. If it weren't for the fact that the Anchor can't be reused after sticking it and having to heat the adhesive in order to remove it, we would have given it a perfect score.
