Wouldn’t it be great if the right job opened the door to building a killer computer setup? It happened for design and product lead Jaime Creixems.
Today’s featured setup is his M1 Max MacBook Pro and Studio Display-driven wonderland, complete with excellent audio equipment and fun sidelights like Lego sets.
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16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro headlines design and product manager’s dreamy setup
Creixems, aka Redditor webjac, showcased the well-outfitted setup in a post entitled, “M1 Max Macbook Pro 16″ setup, and a bit of LEGO.”
“It’s been a lot of hard work. I’ve been unemployed, or with jobs I didn’t enjoy for quite a while,” he said in reply to an appreciative and envious commenter with setup aspirations.
“Eventually, if you keep trying, it gets better,” he added. “My current job is a dream job for me and I love it, but it took a while to get here. The setup has been slowly built over the past couple of years.”
Muscular MacBook and Studio Display
Creixems uses a high-end, 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro open on a Twelve South Curve Flex Stand. The laptop drives a 27-inch 5K Studio Display. He also relies on an 11-inch iPad Pro with a Pencil.
Among his peripherals, the input devices are all Apple. He’s got a Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad 2 and Magic Mouse 2. To this he adds helpful elements like a Sandisk Extreme 4TB portable SSD for backup and a Belkin Boost Charge Pro 3-in-1 charging stand for his iPhone 14 Pro Max, his Apple Watch and other items in need of juice.
It all sits on a Fully Jarvis standing desk with an Ikea Eleven monitor stand, which features a handy drawer, and a large Deltahub desk pad.
Great audio gear for podcasting and more
The setup also boast great audio gear. One bit, oddly enough, is a chrome call bell like you’d see on a hotel reception desk. It sits right under the MacBook Pro within the base of its stand.
“Curious about the bell, does someone bring you food when you ring it?” someone asked.
“I wish! I use it for my podcast, whenever we talk about a series and we’re about to give out spoilers we ring the bell before. All our effects are practical effects,” Creixems said with a chuckle.
USB mics: Shure MV7 vs. Blue Yeti
Other recording gear includes the much-liked Shure MV7 USB microphone on an Elgato Wave Mic Arm.
Here’s how Creixems describes his use of the Shure mic and what came before:
I had a Blue Yeti and then a Yeti X before for years before changing to the MV7 last years and I’m digging this one a bit more. It’s not as flexible as the Yeti on audio options (Cardioid, 180, etc.) but I do find that I sound better with it.
The touch controls are a little bit tricky to reach since they kind of overlap with the frame but I can manage those from the Shure software on the Mac as well.
Overall I’m happy with it and not planning on changing it anytime soon. Better sound quality, but less flexibility. What tipped me over was that the [Yeti] Micro USB connector started to fail and was creating delays, noise and other artifacts randomly every now and then. Eventually I got tired of it and replaced it with the MV7 after some research.
PreSonus speakers
In addition, Creixems uses Presonus Eris 3.5 near-field monitors as speakers. They look to be featured-packed for a low price of $100 a pair. They feature 3.5-inch woven composite drivers and 1-inch ultra-low-mass silk-dome tweeters, come with studio production software and are “the only monitors in their class with acoustic tuning,” the company said.
“The Eris 3.5 are amazing, way overpowered for my little studio and I love them,” he said. “No special stands for them, just whatever I found on Amazon that looked decent.”
And don’t forget to check out the list of gear below, including the cool Lego sets.
Shop these items now:
Computers:
Display:
Input devices:
Audio:
- Presonus Eris e3.5 near-field studio monitor speakers
- Desktop speaker stands
- BeyerDynamic 770 Pro (250 OHM) headphones
- Shure MV7 USB microphone
- Elgato Wave Mic Arm
- Acoustic Foam Panels
Furniture and lighting:
Lego:
Accessories:
If you would like to see your setup featured on Cult of Mac, send some high-res pictures to info+setups@cultofmac.com. Please provide a detailed list of your equipment. Tell us what you like or dislike about your setup, and fill us in on any special touches, challenges and plans for new additions.
