Grovemade's premium headphone stand review: simple and elegant

Simple by design

If there is a way to describe the Grovemade headphone stand — other than beautiful — it would be simple. It is simple in the design, it is simple in function, and it is simple in its materials.

Four components go into Grovemade's headphone stand. There is all-natural cork which is used as a pad for the bottom of the stand. There is wood, either Eastern Hardrock maple or American black walnut, that makes up the center of the stand. That wood is sandwiched between two pieces of stainless steel before being padded with all vegetable-tanned American leather in black or brown.

Because the materials are simple and raw, there is little room for imperfections. Mass-produced products come out identically from molds and machines. These, however, need to be expertly crafted with care using only the best materials possible. It is that attention to detail that appeals so much to Apple users.

Between the wood and the steel, this is quite the substantial headphone stand. It's weighty, which keeps it in place on your desk and makes it feel like a solid, well-made product.

Your headphones of choice are placed over the top with each earcup coming to rest on either side of the padded-leather surface. There is a slight recess on either side so the earcups don't move off the stand. The top also has slight grooves that prevent the headband from inadvertently sliding off.

AirPods Max

A bespoke set of headphones needs an equally bespoke stand to be perched on. Since we've gotten our hands on the AirPods Max, we've placed them lovingly upon our Grovemade headphones stand each day right atop our desk. They look great and complement each other well.

AirPods Max stay in place without issue on the Grovemade stand. There is only one concern by using this to store your Apple over-ear headphones — battery.

Apple touts its Smart Case as a way to save battery life on your headphones when not in use. See, AirPods Max doesn't have a power button, so they are always on and consuming some degree of battery life. The Smart Case uses a magnet to put the headphones into sleep mode, but it isn't as necessary as it seems.

When in the Smart Case, they immediately go into a low-power state with Find My tracking and Bluetooth still active. After 18 hours of sitting idle in the case, they drop into a lower state of sleep that disables Bluetooth and Find My.

If you opt not to use your case, the headphones will still sleep into the low-power mode automatically after only five minutes of sitting stationary off your head. They then drop into the ultra-low power mode after 72 hours have passed.

What that means is that while the case does help you go into both the low and ultra-low states quicker than without, your headphones will still get there eventually. If you use your headphones each day, it likely won't matter all that much because you won't hit the 72 or 18 hours of inactivity and the case is just getting you into low-power straight away versus after five minutes.

In our experience, it barely made a difference at all. Whether we used the case or stored them on the Grovemade stand, battery life wasn't that far apart. We prefer the convenience and style of the Grovemade stand versus the few battery percentage points we might save.

Show off for style

We aren't here to tell you that the Grovemade headphone stand is a necessity — it isn't. But it is a stunning piece of craftsmanship and the best way to show off any set of headphones, whether it is rock-inspired such as the Marshall Major, sound-dampening like the Bose NC 700, or elegant such as AirPods Max.

Grovemade spent a lot of time on the design, build, and function of such a simple desk top stand, and we couldn't be happier with how it holds up.

Pros

• Simple, all-natural materials
• Bespoke design
• American-sourced materials and American-crafted
• Functional design to display your favorite headphones
• Well-paired with AirPods Max

Cons

• Premium price tag

Rating: 5 out of 5

Where to buy

Pick up Grovemade's wooden headphone stand direct from Grovemade for $140 in American black walnut with black leather or hardrock maple and brown leather.