It’s been a while since my experience with the Musso H80 Pro. It took me a long time to re-think my requirements, re-evaluate what was on the market, and wait to see if autumn sales had any impact on prices (they didn’t!). It ended up being a straight run between the SecretLab Titan Evo XL and the Boulies Master Max, with the Boulies chair leading based on a circa £150 price difference. With no opportunity to try each chair “in the wild”, I could only go on the fact that they both looked to be of similar design and features, they both seemed to meet my requirements, and the reviews were similarly positive in general, with complaints seeming to be in the same area. Come cyber-Monday, when I realised that every “sale” led on from the next, and their prices were consistently the same, I decided to pull the trigger on the Boulies Master Max.
I went for the blue fabric version which was recorded as being in-stock, and took advantage of their free delivery service, which was via DPD, who I think are great, especially with their communications and delivery slots. Unfortunately I didn’t get an ETA for delivery and as the days passed during the week, I became a little concerned, but on Thursday night I was informed that I’d have it on Friday (and I did!).
Unboxing
A box is a box is a box, but I liked that this opened from the larger side as opposed to one of the narrower edges. Everything was very neatly packed inside and I got a great sense of quality from what I saw.
All the components were there, along with a (fairly) sensible instruction sheet. As I removed the packaging materials from the pieces, you definitely got that feel of quality, especially when compared to the Musso. I’ve seen unboxing videos of the SecretLab chairs, and I think they’ve got a more up-market experience than Boulies, but I have no complaints – it’s a chair, it’s securely and well packaged, and I’d be able to use all the packaging material if I needed to send it back.
Assembly
Assembly itself probably took about 45 minutes, with lots of time taken up with photographs and checking the quality of the materials. If I were doing it again straight through I doubt it would take 30, from opening the box to sitting on the chair. I did all the assembly myself but there were a couple of points where an extra pair of hands or eyes might have been useful.
Unlike some people, based on reviews I’d read, I really like the fact that all the main screws / bolts are already attached to the chair, and need removing before assembly. Having received so much furniture with missing items, I think it’s great to see the manufacturer do this so they know that anything they ship definitely has the right number and type of fasteners in the box.
The seat base felt thick (although not overly so) and well padded, and I couldn’t feel the frame through the cushion, unlike some other well-known brands that I’ve tried in stores. Everything had a really solid feel to it, and there were no chips, dints or scratches.
The first job is to fit the arms to the seat base. They’re handily labelled “L” and “R”, but it would be nice if the seat base had a corresponding label to match it, so you don’t have to do weird spacial mathematics in your head to figure out which would be the front of the chair if it was the other way up, and which side would be on the left if you had your back to the front of it (I’m still not making much sense of it, but I got there). Again, the arms had a really solid, quality feel, with all movements controlled by solid buttons and levers, and lots of real metal evident in all its shiny glory. I chose the narrowest fixing point for the arms, but there’s lots of room to make them wider if you need it. I’m a big fellow, at over 16 stones and 6 feet tall, but I’ve still got a hand span between each thigh and the armrest supports.
Next up is the tilt levers and operating unit. This is where the instructions fall over a little bit, because they just tell you to install that “the right way”. Hmmmm… And pray, tell, what *is* the right way? Which is the front and which is the back, because the pictures on the box and the instructions don’t give you a clue, and there’s no “Front”, “Back”, “L” or “R” evident on either the chair base or the unit itself. I checked out some pictures on the web and had an educated guess that the hole for the gas lift should go towards the rear of the seat base, and that turned out to be “the right way”.
After that was complete, it was time to clip the castors (easily) into the solid feeling base, drop the gas-lift in there and drop the dust cover over that.
The next part was where an extra pair of eyes might have helped, guiding me to putting the seat base onto the gas lift, and making sure the socket was directly above the hydraulic unit itself. Again, I got there and it was fine, but the bulk of the seat base, whilst giving me confident in a great quality, well-built product, didn’t help me in this process.
The only major part that remained was the seat back. Again, the screws were in place and needed taking out before fitting.
You’ll definitely benefit from a helper here, as you’re trying to hold quite a tall piece of furniture in place while you put screws through relatively small hinges on the base, without it swinging one way or the other. Before long though, I’d got it sorted. It was nice to have all the tools available and neatly labelled.
Screwing the hinge covers in place was fine, although they probably felt like the lowest quality components. I really didn’t like the screw covers. They’re “sided”, so you can only use the correct part on the correct side, but they’re really not easy to fit in – they both took a bit of coercion. Removing the last little pieces of protective polystyrene wrap gave me a fully assembled chair.
The strap-on pillow is quite nice, but I ended up taking it off as I thought it was just in the way a little when I wanted to stretch my neck.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I was really annoyed by the placement of the fire hazard label. You can’t sit on it there, and the minute you pull it off you can’t sell the chair on to a professional reseller or even give it to charity, as I’ve tried before and any sofa, seat or chair that doesn’t have that warning label they can’t take. Why not just clip it under the base then it can be there if people want it, and it’s still very easily seen?
Functions
So what does it do, this chair that cost a little north of £360?
There are what I’d describe as a plethora of functions. You can get them from the Boulies website, but this is what I’ve tested and what works:
Tilt
I’m not sure I’m a fan of the tilt. They say twist the dial clockwise to increase the force needed to lean back – that made it worse, I spun it all the way anti-clockwise, which was definitely an improvement, but I still find it a little too easy to tilt. I’ve used the left hand lever under the chair to lock the base as flat as possible. Whilst I’m sat at my desk, I don’t want to tilt either. I want a properly ergonomic position. If it were an open plan room, or I was using the chair anywhere else but at a computer keyboard, it might be nice, but as-is, and for my use case, it’s not quite right.
Back Angle Adjustment
Pulling the lever down the right hand side at the rear of the seat base allows the chair back to lean backwards. If you’ve got any weight on there it will definitely lean backwards. Quickly!!! It frightened me a little, but the base was stable enough to hold me. I’m not sure where or why I’d ever lean it back far enough to lie down, but I could if I wanted to. What this does give me though is a fully adjustable option to get the back aligned exactly how I need it, which is almost straight up, but that’s fine!
Seat Height
Like with most chairs of this type, pull the right hand lever under the seat base, and if you’re sat on it it’ll go down to a certain point (way too low for me), and if you’re not it’ll go up to a certain point (a bit too high for me). The range of adjustment seems great, and I’m typing this comfortably sat with my feet flat on the floor and the base of my bum in the back corner of the seat.
As a slight aside, in that position the front edge of the seat comes just to the back of my knees, but not so far that I can’t bend my lower legs backwards a little.
Lumbar Support
This is one of the key features for me. Any chair I bought needed good lumbar support, that was adjustable, not some sort of strap-on pillow that is shaped for nobody’s back in particular. Both this and the SecretLab chair have the same function of a dial at each side of the chair, one moving the lumbar support up and down to reach the perfect spot in your spine, and the other moving the support in and out to make sure you’re in exactly the right position for you, as an individual. I like the range of adjustment and I definitely know it’s there. It’s definitely better than the old pump up bladder I had in my old chair, but to be honest, that wasn’t bad for me anyway.
Having the adjustment dials click in a ratchet style means you can make really small adjustments and know it’s going to stay in place, but also know exactly how many clicks it will take to put it back where it was.
Armrests
I think the armrests have the most adjustment capability of anything on the chair. I’ll try and deal with them one by one:
Height
The height of the armrests is adjusted by holding a nice, quality feeling metal lever on the outside of the rest itself. They can independently move from really low to what I’d describe as very high. There are six solid positions that give a lovely satisfying click as they lock in.
Width
Using a small plastic button under the inside of the armrest, you can move them towards and away from your body. There’s not a massive range of adjustment, but there are again a few solid clicks to lock them in place wherever you choose. In conjunction with the screws in the base, you can really make these go quite wide.
Twist
Using a little shiny (what I assume to be metal) button towards the inside front of the armrests, you can twist the front so that it points forward, to the left or to the right. I’ve taken to having both rests pointing to the right, which gives my left forearm support to get to the keyboard and the right on support while using the mouse. When I need to type more than use the mouse, I just press the button and flip the right one so they’re both pointing towards the middle. There are only the three positions but they all lock solidly in place when the button is released.
Back and Forth
Using the same button as to twist, you can slide the top of the armrest towards the front or back of the chair. I’d say there’s a few centimetres of movement, with four positions that click in place, about a centimetre apart. That’s great for people who like to sit closer or further away from their desk, if their preferred height happens to match the desk’s (like mine!).
Miscellaneous
The last couple of things it does are swivel (quietly and nicely) and wheel (smoothly and quietly). I roll around fine on a laminate floor, I’m not sure how it’d be on carpet but I can’t imagine it being a problem at all. When I’m sat, it’s stable, and doesn’t just roll around the floor unwanted.
Comfort
I guess when it comes to buying a chair, it all rests on its comfort. Is it big enough? Is it comfortable to sit on for long periods?
I’ll take the size question first. It’s definitely big enough. I’ve already mentioned my dimensions but my backside fits on the seat flat base with the edges just touching the slanted sides. The length of the base is about as long as the back of my thighs, my elbows are slightly away from my body, and the top of the chair back comes to about the middle of the back of my head. As I sit back into the chair the shoulder supports flare just to the outside of the width of my body. Would I have fit in the standard version, and been able to save a chunk of cash? I don’t know. If you could try these chairs in a shop, I might have been able to find out, and that annoys me, but I don’t regret going for the larger size – I know I fit in this, and it’ll support me even if I add a few more pounds (I’m writing this on Christmas Eve 2024, it’s at the forefront of my mind!!!).
So the most important question, is it comfortable? Honestly, that’s difficult. I’ve had this chair for about three weeks now. I’ve sat in it for more than eight hours every day. I’ve had no pains, my back is supported properly and I feel I’m in an appropriately ergonomic position (yes, I know, there’s no scientific basis for the marketing term “ergonomic”, but I’ve been having it pushed down my throat for 30+ years in various work environments so it’s second nature now).
The seat base is probably best described as “firm”, but it’s not “hard”. I feel supported, but not too much pressure. There is a small amount of pressure just behind my knees as the front of the seat base rises up slightly, but I wouldn’t call it uncomfortable and it doesn’t cut off my blood supply or give me pins and needles.
The armrests again give good support. Based on my previous chair having ones made of a similar rubberised material and failing after 4/5 years, I’m not 100% convinced of their longevity, but they’re definitely giving me the feeling of quality and solidity.
Is the chair as comfortable as my old office chair is a question I’ve been asking myself. It’s very difficult because it was an old chair that was falling apart, it was a different style, it was a different size, it was different materials, it was, well, different.
Final Thoughts
Do I regret buying this chair? Absolutely not.
Will it be going back? Absolutely not.
Is it worth the price? Hmmmm… That’s a really tough one. It’s much better than all the other chairs I’ve been able to try, up to similar prices in Currys. It’s a long way better than the Musso that was slightly more expensive. It’s well over £100 cheaper than the equivalent SecretLab, for what seems to be basically the same chair bar a magnetic head pillow and magnetic armrest tops. Unfortunately I’ve not had the opportunity to try one of those, so I don’t know what the comparison would be like. I guess I’d say the chair should probably be cheaper, but they’re clearly selling them at this price so supply and demand economics suggests it’s right.
I hope you found this overview of my new chair useful. If you’ve any questions or would like more pictures, just leave me a comment.
Until next time…
– The Zoo Keeper
