IK Multimedia is well known for its very successful lineup of electronic music accessories such professional MIDI, guitar, and microphone adapters for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. In keeping with the company’s focus on music accessories, it has also developed a lineup of stands and mounts for conveniently using iPads in performance or studio environments. iKlip Stand ($70) expands on IK Multimedia’s earlier iKlip Microphone Stand Adapter for iPad, designed as a stand that can be used on a tabletop or mounted to the edge of a desk.
Even by the standards of most other iPad stands we’ve reviewed, iKlip Stand requires a fair bit of user assembly, and may seem a little daunting upon first opening the package, as a dozen separate parts are inside. Easy-to-follow visual instructions are included in the package, and the assembly isn’t nearly as difficult as it may seem at first glance.
Users can choose to attach the upper part of the stand—the neck and iPad mount—to either a U-shaped desktop base or an included clamp for attaching to the edge of a workstation. The neck attaches to either base using a fairly simple locking ring and spring washer; although it took a bit more effort to attach and remove, this is probably a reasonable tradeoff in a mount that’s expected to securely hold a several-hundred-dollar iPad.
The actual iPad mount follows a design very similar to that in the original microphone stand, allowing the user to slide an uncased iPad in from the top and have it securely held on three sides; unfortunately the mount is not case compatible, so users who normally carry their iPad around will need to remove it from its case in order to use it with the stand. A ball joint connection to the stand allows for a full 360° of iPad rotation along with about 45° of left-right adjustment, 10° downward, and an impressive 110° in the upward direction.
iKlip Stand’s armature can further be adjusted up and down at an elbow joint from an almost completely upright position, right down through about 130° from the vertical. The neck can be rotated a full 360° when mounted on the clamp, however its orientation is fixed when on the desktop base, likely in order to keep the stand balanced.
IK’s U-shaped desktop base and neck length makes the iKlip Stand ideally suited to sliding under music production equipment such as a keyboard or mixer, allowing the iPad screen to be properly positioned for working with everything from mixing and sequencing to sheet music apps. The stand can also be easily disassembled for transporting between gigs, and should be able to easily fit into most equipment cases.
Most of the stand is constructed from plastic, while the desktop base is metal for additional weight and balance, with a rubberized coating on the bottom. The whole assembly has a very solid feel, and is very well balanced.
