New at IKEA: SYMFONISK picture frame with Wi-Fi. When IKEA launched the first speakers in the SYMFONISK series in collaboration with Sonos in 2019, I was immediately thrilled by the clever partnership: inexpensive Sonos speakers combined with attractive design, what more could you want?
The designers at Sonos and IKEA probably thought that too and this year they created the SYMFONISK speaker with a picture frame look. Two weeks ago I received a test device (which I am allowed to keep in return for this test report) and can tell you my first impression here. First of all: I think the picture frame speaker is very cool.
The SYMFONISK picture frame WiFi speaker
The speaker is available in the housing color black (my test device) or white and costs CHF 199 in Switzerland. It comes with a matching “picture”, an abstract network motif in black or white. Personally, I would probably have bought the white model, as it looks lighter when hung on a wall and looks less like a speaker.
Hang or stand? Both are possible with the IKEA SYMFONISK picture frame speaker
The speaker fabric panel is inserted into the housing with 12 pins and can be pushed out of the speaker from the back to the front using practical cutouts and easily replaced. There will also be other designs available for CHF 20. According to IKEA, these should also be available at the start of sales. In any case, there will be enough subjects that there will be something for every taste.
Different designs will be available as easily interchangeable panels for CHF 20
There are two clever hanging devices on the back to hang the speaker flat on the wall in portrait or landscape format. The cable can be laid neatly through various guides and, if necessary, even rolled up and hidden in a recess provided and lashed with a Velcro strap. There are also two rubber feet that can be inserted into the designated recesses and the speaker can be set up either horizontally or high. Overall, I think the mounting and installation options are very well solved.
Practical cable storage compartment on the back of the speaker
The technology in numbers
The speaker has control buttons for volume and play/stop that are easy to feel on the edge. On the front, a status light shines through the speaker fabric as soon as the device is in operation. The speaker is 41 cm wide and 57 cm high and 6 cm thin and has a 6.5 m long, fabric-coated power cable. The exciting thing about it: in addition to the power cable input, there is also a corresponding output. This means that several speakers can be connected together with just one power source. According to IKEA, standby consumption is approximately 2 W.
In addition to the power connections, there is also an Ethernet port on the back. You can also integrate the speaker directly into the LAN instead of via Wi-Fi.
Set up and connect the SYMFONISK picture frame
The new speaker picture frame is also very easy to set up: once you have installed the SONOS app and are connected to Wi-Fi with your smartphone, an Apple-like 3D animated overlay appears in the app with the device in the correct color and a button “Add”. You will then be asked to bring your smartphone close to the speaker’s status light and seconds later the speaker will be paired via NFC and ready for use.
1-2-3: thanks to NFC, the SYMFONISK picture frame is set up quickly
After a firmware update you will be asked to do Trueplay tuning. Here the app then tries to optimally calibrate the speaker to the room using sounds from the speaker and the microphone on the smartphone. To do this, you have to move your smartphone up and down while doing the Trueplay dance for about a minute while pacing around the room. After repeated cancellations, I cleaned the holes at the bottom of my iPhone X so that the built-in microphone could listen in better. After that, the tuning worked straight away.
If the speaker is set up in the Sonos app, it is available for playback in Spotify, iOS and MacOS, for example, as a Wi-Fi speaker. I assume this behaves similarly on Windows.
The sound experience
After setting up, the first sound test took place, which immediately amazed me: rich and at the same time balanced music played to me! I have been using the SYMFONISK picture frame repeatedly over the last two weeks: sometimes quietly to listen to music in the background while eating, sometimes loudly when cleaning, sometimes at medium volume when cooking. Compared to the SYMFONISK shelf WiFi speaker, which I have owned for a long time, I can make the following initial statements about the new mural model:
To me, the new audio picture frame sounds very balanced and less bass-heavy than its shelf-shaped counterpart. This is certainly due to the flat design and a correspondingly different sound body. For me, the picture frame is certainly the better choice if you don’t want to hear your neighbors tapping on the ceiling with a PEPPRIG broom on a BEKVÄM stepladder, even when the music is a little louder. But that doesn’t mean that I would miss the bass in the picture frame. Overall, the sound simply sounds more balanced and homogeneous to me. A friend of mine said that the tone sounded a bit flat. But he added that he had to reduce the bass on his SONOS setup at home…
Conclusion
I immediately became friends with the newest child from the partnership between SONOS and IKEA. I think the size is great; hanging it up or setting it up allows for many options. Especially with the white model you get a great sound source that still looks good. From the packaging to the furnishings, IKEA is once again bringing a great speaker model onto the market that is a real joy.
I tried to find something to criticize but couldn’t find anything. Everyone should convince themselves of the sound. In the past, IKEA has set up test speakers in each of its furniture stores for you to listen to. I can highly recommend the speaker and look forward to more hours of music enjoyment with my sounding picture frame.
From July 15, 2021, the SYMFONISK picture frame with WiFi speaker will be available in IKEA stores, via the IKEA app and online at IKEA.ch for CHF 199.
ps: Hobbyists with a lot of hand skill (!) can probably cover the panel themselves with their own speaker fabric. In the decoration industry, for example, there is so-called backlit fabric that is very thin and printable. However, the fabric is glued to the panel and so it would certainly be tricky to stretch and glue a new one…