The IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame is a collaboration between Sonos and IKEA to create a speaker that easily blends in with your home decor, like the IKEA SYMFONISK Speaker Lamp and the IKEA SYMFONISK Bookshelf speakers. You can mount it on your wall and switch out the art for other designs to better match your home's colors. While it doesn't come with Google Assistant or Alexa built-in, you can still control it using an Amazon or Google-enabled device. It's a subtle way to add a Sonos speaker to your Sonos ecosystem, and you can use it as a surround speaker to upgrade an existing Sonos home theater soundbar setup if you have one already.
Our Verdict
The IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame has a bright sound profile overall with its room correction feature enabled. As a result, its balanced mid-range ensures vocals sound clear and present in the mix, while higher-pitched voices and instruments sound bright and sparkling. Unlike larger speakers, it lacks a thumpy low-bass. It also has a noticeably narrow and directional-sounding soundstage, so your audio doesn't sound as clear from most angles. While you can connect it to another compatible speaker to create a stereo pair, it downmixes stereo content when using it on its own, which isn't as immersive.
- Little compression present at max volume.
- Bass and treble adjustments.
- Very narrow soundstage.
- Doesn't support Bluetooth.
- Downmixes stereo content to mono.
The IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame is poor for watching videos and movies. It has a bright sound profile that adds sparkle to the mix, while voices and dialogue reproduce clearly and accurately. You can daisy chain this speaker to another IKEA Picture frame to create a stereo pair and can use them as subtle surround speakers to upgrade an existing Sonos home theater soundbar setup. That said, it doesn't get incredibly loud on its own and lacks low bass, so you don't feel the deep thump and rumble typically present in action-packed scenes.
- Little compression present at max volume.
- Bass and treble adjustments.
- Low Apple AirPlay latency.
- Very narrow soundstage.
- Doesn't support Bluetooth.
- Downmixes stereo content to mono.
- Not Chromecast-compatible.
The IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame has a balanced mid-range that ensures voices and dialogue sound clear and present in the mix, while higher-pitched voices and instruments sound bright and sparkling. It isn't designed to be portable, so you can't physically move your podcasts with you from room to room, and the speaker doesn't get incredibly loud. However, you can connect it to other compatible IKEA and Sonos speakers across your home when you want to listen to your podcasts between different rooms of your home.
- Multi-room.
- Very narrow soundstage.
- Doesn't support Bluetooth.
The IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame doesn't support voice assistants. However, you can still control it with a separate compatible Alexa or Google-enabled speaker.
The IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame isn't designed for outdoor use.
Changelog
- Updated Aug 17, 2023: Updated the Portability picture for greater clarity and consistency between reviews.
- Updated Oct 21, 2022: Review published.
- Updated Oct 14, 2022: Early access published.
- Updated Oct 11, 2022: Our testers have started testing this product.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame comes in two color variants, black and white, which we expect to perform similarly. We tested the black variant; you can find its label here. You can also switch out the artwork on the front mesh panel for other designs from IKEA.
If you come across any other variants of this speaker, let us know in the discussions, and we'll update our review.
Popular Speaker Comparisons
The IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame, much like the IKEA SYMFONISK Bookshelf and the IKEA SYMFONISK Speaker lamp, has a unique design to help it seamlessly blend in with your home decor since it's a collaboration between Sonos and IKEA. That said, it has a noticeably more narrow and directional-sounding soundstage than its counterparts. Unlike other Sonos speakers, it doesn't come with any built-in voice assistants. It also doesn't support Bluetooth, so you need to connect to it via your Wi-Fi network instead.
Check out our recommendations for the best home speakers, the best Sonos speakers, and the best smart speakers.
The Sonos One Gen 2/One SL offers a wider and more open-sounding soundstage than the IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame. It offers great voice assistant support with Google Assistant and Alexa built-in. It also has a boomier sound profile that's more suitable for fans of bass-heavy music. That said, the Picture frame gets a touch louder with significantly less compression present at max volume, so your audio sounds cleaner when you max out the volume. Its sound profile is also brighter, so higher-pitched vocals and instruments have more sparkle. If you prefer having built-in voice assistants, go for the One Gen 2. However, if you prefer having a speaker with a more subtle design to blend in with your home decor, go for the Picture frame instead.
The IKEA SYMFONISK Speaker lamp is a better speaker than the IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame. The speaker lamp offers a better-balanced sound profile overall and has significantly better directivity, resulting in a much more spacious and open-sounding soundstage. That said, while it gets as loud as the Picture frame, it has much more compression present at max volume, so your audio doesn't sound as clean or clear when you max out its volume.
The IKEA SYMFONISK Bookshelf is a bit better speaker than the IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame. While the Bookshelf doesn't have the widest-sounding soundstage, it still sounds much wider and more open than the Picture frame's. Otherwise, they both perform fairly similarly, so depending on your aesthetic preferences and your home decor, you may prefer one over the other.
Test Results
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