I had been looking to get myself a desk for my home studio for a while, but I often struggled to find one that would (a) be within budget and (b) be tough enough to withstand my 88 key Korg Kronos keyboard. Most budget/mid-range desks looked good in theory, but one of the problems they had was that their slide-out trays weren't big enough or sturdy enough to handle the size of the Kronos. So, I ended up paying a bit more than expected, but it turned out to be the right investment.
Overall, I can't fault the desk at all - it's very robust (and absolutely massive!), and my original fear that the slide-out tray wouldn't take the weight of the Kronos turned out not to be an issue, it handles it brilliantly. The only minor issue I've discovered so far (and this is more of an issue with the Kronos than the desk) is that, even when the gap between the slide-out tray and the desktop is at its highest level, I can't fit my hand between the desktop and the synth to reach the on/off switch it on the back of the synth - I have to crawl underneath the desk on my back and shine a torch up to find the switch. As I say, this is an issue with the synth itself (seriously, why can't they put switches on the front of synths???) but I mention it here as the only drawback.
A few extra points to mention:
1. This may only affect where I live (I'm in Scotland) but, because of it's weight, Thomann won't deliver the desk to you using their "standard" couriers. Instead, they use a heavy haulage "freight forwarding" company. This meant delivery took a week and a half rather than the typical 1-2 days. Not an issue for me, but something to be aware of.
2. The freight forwarding company only do curb-side delivery. Again, this is pretty much as expected, and thankfully the delivery person was able to use a forklift to move the containers (the different parts of the desk come in multiple large packages) into my street-level garage. This wasn't a problem for me (except when it came to getting it into my house), but you may want to think about this if you live on the tenth floor of an apartment building!
3. The different parts of the desk are very, *very*, heavy, and getting it up to my studio room took three people. Thankfully, no bad backs!
4. Set yourself at least a full day, possibly two, to put the desk together - and make sure there are at least two of you. This is no IKEA desk! My septuagenarian dad is much better than I am using a screwdriver and drill, so he helped a lot, but we still spent a couple of hours a day putting it together over the course of about a week.
5. The printed manual you get with it isn't great - it only shows you how to attach the legs to the desktop, which is only about a quarter of what is required. I didn't actually notice that one of the flyers that came with the desk included a QR code for the full manual. We ended up following an assembly video on YouTube (search for "Fantom Series - Assembly Video manual") which was really good, although a bit fast and we had to pause it regularly.
Hope this helps anyone who is thinking about getting this desk. My last concern is that I've no idea how I'm going to get it out of my studio if I ever need to move house!
