the desk felt nice overall when using it butttt
its too tall you can't use a normal computer chair whyyyy
also my desk after 2 years is bowing in the middle from pressure I assume its cheap material I would not buy this desk again
also it soaks up water like crazy from cups n such

The ONLY complaint I have is that they didn't provide the right size screws for the rack rails that attach to the desk . The holes they pre drilled line up with the oversize punch out holes on the rack rails . Someone wasn't paying attention. I had to purchase the proper screws , no really big deal , however still was an oversight . Love the desk overall . Feels pretty solid

ok, so here is my honest review of the Ultimate Support Nucleus Z Explorer Workstation.

The Positive Part:

1. its a nice Studio Desk and i love that its black in color, it has a texture to it that makes it feel tough.
2. it does feel very well made and the side panels and large/smaller table tops are all made of 1 inch thick MDF.
3. its wide enough for my Mini Home Studio gear.
4. you can add a computer keyboard tray underneath the desk (as an extra purchase at any time)
5. you can use your own keyboard stand underneath the Studio Desk (just adjust the Keyboard stand height)
6. the large table from the middle fit my Tascam DP-24SD with about 1 inch of a gap from the sides
7. the top tier shorter table top had the edges wide enough to have my Mackie XR624 monitors on their side.
8. there is still plenty of space on the desk to fit my Roland SP404MKII i pre ordered 2 months ago.

that's about the only good things about it, lets get to the bad part now.

The Negative Part:

1. though the desk feels tough because of its texture, it still can get scratched by sliding a device back and forth that has a bit of weight on it.

2. the desk arrived in 2 boxes about 3 days apart from each other, the boxes are 1 very tall thin box holding the two top tables and some hardware and the second box is half the size holding the legs and pretty much everything else.

3. it doesn't come with the LED lighting and i feel it should for its hefty price tag.

4. it arrived with missing screws to put the racks together and i waited for almost a whole months to receive the replacement screws and they never came even after i reached out to ultimate support by phone and email.

5. its very heavy once it is assembled and because its so wide it cannot be easily transported to another room should you want to move it.

6. the desk is ridiculously tall at 36" from the floor to the top of the first large table top of the studio desk, its as tall as my kitchen counters. i'm not sure if they intended the desk to be built for Shaq but i'm only 5 foot 7 inches tall and this desk makes me feel really short next to it.

7. In Order to Not have to stand all day recording music you will need to spend some extra cash to buy a (Drafting Chair) that is similar to the height of a breakfast bar chair or stool that is tall enough to reach your ear level to where you have your monitors positioned on the top tier of the desk as you are seated. if Ultimate Support Could Have Made This Desk A Normal Height, Any Chair Could Be Used For This Desk.

8. the width of the top tier desk for the monitors side is excellent but it also makes it very hard to put a power conditioner with Light tubes that come out of the device to give lighting to the gear i have. though the power conditioners did fit there i was unable to pull out the lights to light up my gear because of the width of the monitor area, so i ended up having to place them in the middle rack space which i am not at all happy about but its gonna have to stay that way pretty much forever unless my Furman PL-PRO DMC 20 Amp power conditioners ever give out then i can shop for some New power conditioners that have a flushed light similar to the Panamax MR4300 that are 15 amps and intended for Home Theater Gear. however since i have never had a Furman or Panamax Product Fail Me i can pretty much say this is gonna be a forever thing for me.

9. the wire management is very poorly designed, there is this super heavy weighted metal bracket that is supposed to be used to hide all your wiring, the bad part is that its in the middle of the desk on the bottom when it should be as close as you can get it to the back as possible to be able to cover as much wiring as possible inside that metal bracket. does it still work in the middle? yeah but you can still see exposed wiring.

so..... overall would i recommend the desk to you if you were in need of one? yes but only if it meets your needs, the main reason i got mine was because on the amount of devices i had for racking them and to fit my TASCAM DP-24SD right in the middle. i was not going to be able to do this with the platform studio desk from output that i really liked and was considering before i got the ultimate support desk.

i feel it should cost no more then $700.00 for what you get but lets face it, everything goes up in price every year so i guess get what you can while you can.

hope you enjoyed my review and i apologize for not showing an image of the back of the desk but its heavy with all the gear on it and my wife isn't too happy that i chose to put it in our bedroom lol! this is about as "out of the way" as i can get it.

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I bought it a year and a half ago, I wish it was a little shorter, And it's not easy to assemble I did it by myself but I have over 30 years of recording studio experience working with outboard gear installing I am moving them around I recommend this because it is very sturdy and the clients love it

I bought this desk a few years ago. About 4-6 months into owning it I noticed both the top tier and main desk were starting to bow in. So bad that my studio monitors were leaning in at an absurd angle. After over 6 months of customer service battles (I even spoke with the engineer who designed the desk on multiple occasions) I actually approached the Ultimate rep at NAMM and they finally got the ball rolling and fixed the situation. They then sent me the nicest Nucleus workstation, which also turned out to be absolute garbage. I have moved on to another studio and setup, but BEWARE this desk is horrible.

Long term review.

I've had mine since 2017 and it's survived 3 house moves and 2x 6.5" Yamaha monitors plus an Amazon adjustable monitor arm holding a 32" tv.

Build quality is surprisingly good for the price.

Only concern is that the monitor has apparently caused the desk to sag a bit in the middle. The photo is after my most recent move where I mounted the monitor arm directly to the desk (instead of the clamp I used to use) and swapped the tv for a wide screen monitor.

First of all this is a tall desk. It's about 4 inches taller than a normal desk. I had to replace my chair with an extended height chair to be able to use this desk. Not to bad for me because I like to sit a little higher anyways. Also have another person with you to assemble this desk, it will help. Also get a cordless drill! Lots of screwing and the screws are really tight into the pre-drilled holes. This desk is heavy and is very sturdy! I would recommend this desk!

The first thing I should mention is that this desk is BIG. Both in height and length. It's work surface is 34 inches tall (4 inches taller than your normal desk, doesn't sound like much, but it is - quite a difference if you use a regular chair) and it is about 63 inches wide. Very large for any normal desk. The bridge on top of the desk is even taller. While you can place a video monitor or two on top, you should expect to to buy adjustable arms that will bring the screen down to a comfortable viewing level to relieve neck strain. Audio monitors installed horizontally on the bridge sound amazing. Vertically, the high frequency driver will most likely be ineffective unless you use the desk in a standing position.

This desk is made with MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) which is powder coated. MDF is strong and will only swell if it is not treated. The Explorer has a thick layer of coating which will prevent it from having any issues during the first several years of it's life unless the surface is punctured. However as I observed, the coating is very thick and and very hard to puncture.

For the downsides. It is big. And I mean big! Make sure you are ready for the size of this desk in your room. Secondly, expect to have to buy more of the Nucleus-Z line to make it fit your needs. The lower add-on shelf for a keyboard was almost immediately desired while the normal surface of the Explorer seemed perfect for mixing. An additional problem is that the highest rackspace on both sides can only be used by gear that does not have any knobs or buttons that protrude very far from the face of the device. Because of the angle of the racks, the overhang of the bridge prevents anything from extending out very far from where the surface of the device would exist. This is most noticeable with power conditioners and patchbays but could also be seen with modular synths and 500 racks. This can be overcome by designing your rack layout before purchasing the desk. Putting the lowest clearance devices in the top rackspace will ensure that you will not have any problems.

When I received my desk, I noticed that the packaging was very beat up by the shipping company, however the desk was packaged very well and there was no damage to it.

During assembly I found that one of the pilot holes for one for the screws was missing. This counts as a manufacturing defect and after contacting the manufacturer, they offered to take the entire desk back and replace it with a new one, but also gave the option to drill a pilot hole myself. They gave me the specs to drill the hole and I did so without incident. I get the feeling that this is not a normal occurrence with them as the support technician had to consult with higher levels of management at the company.

Additionally, I HIGHLY suggest an electric screwdriver as someone else had suggested. This desk is put together with such high tolerances that driving any screws manually will quickly become tiresome and even painful. After about 20 screws I went to my local hardware store and picked up an electric screwdriver to finish the job. There are about 80 screws! I made sure to only tighten the screws about 90% of the way and finished them with a manual screwdriver to make sure I didn't over-tighten any of them.

After the desk was built, I noticed that it is very solid (AND HEAVY! About 119 pounds) with the exception of a very slight wobble from side-to-side when physically forced. While this may not be noticeable to most people, it will be noticed mostly with cheap video monitors that have factory stands. An upgrade to an adjustable monitor stand is highly recommended.

All of the metal parts of the desk are made of 1/8" metal and are very HEAVY. They are much heavier than I expected for the size. Even the adjustable feet of the desk are very large and heavy.

While the desk isn't perfect and isn't quite the quality of a $2000+ desk, it is very solid and has the feel of something much more expensive than what was paid. It took about 10 hours to complete construction including breaks, contacting support and a trip to the hardware store. Without problems and with an electric screwdriver I would estimate that it would take about 2.5 hours or less to build including breaks.

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