I love my other Hercules stands.
However, I made a mistake buying this one.
I thought the boom arm nesting into the stand base was a cool idea, but I didn't realize it was the ONLY way to set the boom arm straight upright.
Again, that's my fault for not noticing before buying.
The boom arm is always at an angle, if you want to set it upright you HAVE to nest it into the base, which is quite annoying.
So it does what it was designed to do very well, you just have to be aware of the limitations before you buy it.