Need for Seat Maxnomic Gaming Chair

[mrdiggz]

So which chair would you recommend, of the ones you've used?  I plan to buy a new chair in the very near future and I would like to get a high-quality, good-for-my-back one.  You're not the first person in this thread to call this particular chair a gimmick, so what would you recommend to the chair un-savvy?  

 

Recommending a chair to anyone is tough because everyone's body is unique to their own as well as their tastes. The first think I would want to know from you if whether or not this chair will be something you plan on using 6+ hours a day on a daily basis. If so, you should seriously consider buying a chair with a contoured, upholstered seat rather than a mesh seat. Please take a minute to read this excerpt from thehumansolutionblog.com.

 

When it comes to mesh seats, comfort is easier to discuss in ergonomic terms.  A great chair seat contours to your body to spread your body weight across a larger area, reducing the pressure that your hips,  buttocks and spine incur.  A stiffer mesh will not spread your weight and is a poor choice for someone who sits for long hours each day.  A softer mesh will give better, but may stretch and sag over time.  For these reasons, few of the better chair designers will produce a chair with a mesh seat, and most mesh chairs are offered with an upholstered seat.

A bigger potential problem with a mesh seat lies with the plastic frame many use.  When sitting in your chair your knees should be somewhat lower than your hips (raise or lower your seat height to accomplish this).  However many chairs use a synchro-tilt mechanism that causes the seat to rock backwards with the chair back which raises the front lip of the seat.  This can cause pressure on the back of your thighs and reduces blood flow to your lower legs.  This hard edge can also be very uncomfortable if you like to perch forward in your seat.  One mesh seat chair that does not have this problem is the Knoll Life which has a waterfall seat front and a flexible edge that moves downward as you lean forward.

In summary an all mesh chair can be a good choice for a conference room or home office where users are not often sitting for long hours on a daily basis.  The balance of users will benefit from considering the combination of a mesh back with lumbar support combined with a contoured, upholstered seat.

 

 

I make a point to address this issue because the Herman Miller Aeron chair might be the most popular of high end chairs and many put them to a higher standard. And while I do think they are wonderful chairs, they really aren't built for prolonged sitting hours. I personally felt the fatigue after working in an office where I've sat on these for 8+ hours on a daily basis.

 

As for my own personal chairs, I use the Ergohuman model LEM4ERG for home use and a Herman Miller Sayl for my work place. The Ergohuman chair is very adjustable and fits my needs. The build quality is very good although I will confess that it's not on the level of some chairs that I've seen in the $1000+ range. At work I bought my own chair, the Sayl by Herman Miller. I think its the perfect chair for the office environment and very stylish to boot. If you consider buying this chair, you will need to go with a lot of options not found in the stock model, such as adjustable armrest, adjustable seat depth, and adjustable lumbar. One major reason I bought this chair was for its back. The flexible material feel fantastic on your back and will move and flex with the movement of your body while in the the chair, similar to the Herman Miller flagship Embody, which I will get to in a minute.

 

My two chairs below:

 

 

 

 

As for other chairs I can recommend, there are plenty out there but some that come to mind are the Knoll Generation, Steelcase Leap and Humanscale Freedom chairs. I've sat in all of these and can tell you that they are great chair, although they just didn't fit me the way my current chairs did. My roommate for example owns a fully built Humanscale Freedom chair and he loves it! He swears it's changed his life because he suffered from discomfort in his back and shoulders prior to owning this chair. But for me, the way the Freedom chair's mechanics work just didn't float my boat, as the entire backpiece and head rest of the chair moves and re-adjusts with your leaning positions. And this is why I suggest going out to sit in them. You should never buy a car without test driving it first.

 

Here's some pics of the Generation, Leap and Freedom chairs. +back side of the Freemdom chair with its back support on sliders.

 

 

And I would like to add that the two most comfortable chairs I've personally sat on are, 1) Herman Miller Embody, which almost feels like the back support is a part of your body. It can twist and turn and flexes with your movement in a very natural way. 2) Steelcase Leap Worklounge chair, which feels like luxury in all its glory. You kinda melt into that seat. The caveat to both of these chairs is the price. The Embody fully built is aroun $1400 and the Leap Worklounge is about $2400. Very expensive, I know. The Steelcase Gesture chair looks like a cool chair, although I can't vouch for it since I haven't tried it out. But it is another example of a high end chair that might better suit your needs.

 

Embody, Leap Worklounge with sliders (can order them with casters), and the Gesture.

 

You can check out other chairs at http://www.smartfurniture.com. They have video reviews for some the chairs and are pretty informative. I actually bought my Sayl chair from them and it was a pleasant experience. 

 

YouTube also has a lot of chair reviews you can check out to narrow down what you are looking for in a chair that works for you . Hope this helps.

[Guest]

-snip-

 

The Steelcase Amia seems to have pretty good comments and reviews around the web. It is considered as the little sister of the Leap. It has a lot of ajustements and is 2/3 the price of the Leap. Many people I've read or spoken too say that the Amia is in fact more confortable than the Leap. I am actually planning on changing my Staples chair which has very bad ergonomics. I am looking at Steelcase. I just have to try them first. I had an Herman Miller Aeron at my previous job. Pretty good chair, but I always had tingles in my feet after 2 hours in the chair. The seat was blocking the blood circulation because the end of the seat is plastic.

 

I wish my current employer would pay for such good chairs. I work as a Network Administrator and stay 35H out of 40H per week at my desk. I currently have a decent chair (Global Granada 3212), but it is a low back and I have quite a high back. I can't rest my shoulders on my chair at work...which eventually hurt. I guess it forces me to stand up and move around the office for few minutes !

[MarcOS]

Chair reviews are welcome Please make a follow-up to this video. I'd love to know your thoughts on this chair after a couple of weeks of use (particularly because I'm not very tall (like Linus ). And I think people will be interested to know why is it worth it to buy a $300 chair (even though good office chairs are usually around $1,000). 

[DeanMarkTaylor]

I liked this quite honest detailed video review of the Herman Miller Embody Chair:

 

Both price and resellers in the UK is a killer though.

[WihGlah]

I can spend 5 hours a day sat in front of my PC and another 6 sat in front of my PC at work.

 

Just ordered a Maxnomic Leader Red. (one size up from the Dominator). Hoping it helps with my posture and that dull throbbing pain I get in my upper back

[DominicNikon]

this chair or a GTX 970?

[d1screet]

this chair or a GTX 970?

GTX 970. What are you upgrading from?

[DominicNikon]

GTX 970. What are you upgrading from?

GTX 760 

[d1screet]

GTX 760 

I'd say that you'd see a pretty sizeable improvement in graphical performance in games. But then again, if all you play is something like LoL, it shouldn't matter too much anyways.

 

Luxury chairs may be nice, but being mindful of posture and remembering to stretch/take a 30 sec walk every 1-2 hours goes much further in one's sitting comfort.

[DominicNikon]

I'd say that you'd see a pretty sizeable improvement in graphical performance in games. But then again, if all you play is something like LoL, it shouldn't matter too much anyways.

 

Luxury chairs may be nice, but being mindful of posture and remembering to stretch/take a 30 sec walk every 1-2 hours goes much further in one's sitting comfort.

ok