The cables and gadgets on my desk had everything to fear.
It started with regular clearing of cables, hiding things in boxes in the shelf. Little things like that. Then the realization and simplification of connecting devices directly to the monitor instead of through the receiver. Then the receiver itself went, along with its room-filling speakers.
Suddenly, only one thing remained to be done.
Boom.
This is what it feels like. The screen floating before me, as high or low above my desk as I want and as near or as far away as I want.
This is what is going on behind the scenes:
The screen is now on a nice and solid VESA arm made by Multibrackets. The effect is surprising, somehow it feels like a new, more futuristic and sleeker screen.
Challenges
It takes some thinking to get the position you want sometimes. Most positions are achievable, but with four separate axis to think in sometimes more than just pushing in the general direction is required. I see it as a fun puzzle.
Setting up takes some fiddling too. My major problem was super-simple, but actually required med to mail support to feel sure about what to do. The thing was, for the very first twist - to rotate between portrait and landscape, or to simply adjust the angle slightly - a surprising amount of force was required. I was too hesitant, especially since the monitor's part of the snap-in attachment moves a little bit when I twist it, and so it would not budge. Support told me to let go, to twist it like I was opening a jar for the first time. With that perfect image in my mind I went back home and got it moving smoothly on the very first try. Now it twists easily but firmly, requiring two hands and also staying firmly in place once let go of.
Joys
Otherwise, this is a wonderful setup. The desk is much clearer, and the screen goes both higher, wider, closer and farther than ever before. This produces some additional challenges for neat cabling, we will see what I can figure out there. I have wanted something like this ever since I first saw the original sunflower Imac. I can lower the screen to sit right on the desk, or raise it up to 30 centimeters above it. I can bring it forward like the first photo, which is actually a little too close for comfort when standing by the desk. In the opposite direction, it goes all the way back:
What took me so long?
The key realization I lacked from the start was that VESA arms were something you could actually find and buy for reasonable amounts of money. I am not sure why I thought they would not be, but I did and it took I while before I did the quick searching needed to figure out they were not only available, but also in stock at my usual geek toy store.
My quest for a less cluttered desk has, I think, reached a logical conclusion.
For now, at least.