The IKEA SYMFONISK Speaker lamp is a collaboration between Sonos and IKEA, which you can add to your existing Sonos ecosystem, like the IKEA SYMFONISK Bookshelf and IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame speakers. It has a unique dual function as a speaker and a lamp to help it blend in with your home decor. It comes with a room correction feature to adjust its sound according to the unique acoustics of the room it's placed in. With this feature enabled, the speaker has a bright sound profile overall that adds a touch of sparkle to higher-pitched voices and sibilants like 'S' and 'T'; you can customize its sound using the bass and treble adjustments in its Sonos S2 companion app. Unfortunately, the room correction feature is currently only available with iOS devices. This Wi-Fi speaker also isn't Bluetooth-compatible, so you can only play your audio via an internet connection.
Our Verdict
The IKEA Speaker lamp is alright for music. With its room correction feature turned on, it has a bright sound profile that adds a touch of sparkle to higher-pitched voices and sibilants like 'S' and 'T'. Its fairly balanced mid-range ensures vocals and lead instruments sound clear and present in the mix. Unfortunately, it lacks low-bass, so you can't feel the deep thump and rumble in bass-heavy music like EDM or hip-hop. Fortunately, you can tweak its sound to your liking using the bass and treble adjustments in its companion app.
- Bass and treble adjustments.
- Wide-sounding soundstage.
- Room correction feature only available with iOS devices.
- Lots of compression at max volume.
The IKEA Speaker lamp is sub-par for videos and movies. With its room correction feature enabled, it has a bright sound profile that ensures voices and dialogue sound clear and detailed in the mix. However, it lacks low-bass, so you can't feel the thump and rumble typically present in action-packed scenes. It requires a second unit to play stereo audio and downmixes stereo content to mono when using it on its own, which isn't as immersive. There's also a lot of compression present at max volume that degrades the quality of your audio as you bump up the volume. That said, if you own a Sonos soundbar, you can link it to the speaker when you want to upgrade your setup.
- Bass and treble adjustments.
- Low Apple AirPlay latency.
- Room correction feature only available with iOS devices.
- Lots of compression at max volume.
- Requires second unit for stereo audio.
The IKEA Speaker lamp is passable for podcasts. With its room correction feature turned on, it has a bright sound profile which adds a touch of sparkle and detail to voices in dialogue. It has good directivity, thanks to its 360-degree design, meaning you can hear your podcasts and audiobooks clearly from most angles. Unfortunately, this large speaker isn't very portable due to its wired design, so you can't easily move it from room to room. There's also a lot of compression present at max volume that degrades audio quality as you increase the volume level.
- Bass and treble adjustments.
- Wide-sounding soundstage.
- Lots of compression at max volume.
- Not very portable.
The IKEA lamp speaker doesn't support voice assistants. However, you can control the speaker via an Alexa or Google Assistant-enabled third-party device.
The IKEA lamp speaker isn't designed for outdoor use and needs to stay wired to a power source to work.
Changelog
- Updated Oct 21, 2022: Added a comparison to the IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame in the 'Introduction', 'Style' and 'Compared To Other Speakers' boxes.
- Updated Mar 03, 2022: Review published.
- Updated Feb 18, 2022: Early access published.
- Updated Feb 17, 2022: Our testers have started testing this product.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The IKEA Speaker lamp comes in Black and White. This review represents the test results for the Black variant; you can see its label here. Both variants will perform similarly.
If you come across any other variants of this speaker, let us know in the discussions, and we'll update the review.
Note: IKEA released the first generation of its SYMFONISK speaker lamp in 2019. The test results in this review represent the second generation of this speaker, released in 2021.
Popular Speaker Comparisons
The IKEA Speaker lamp is a collaboration between Sonos and IKEA, like the IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame and the IKEA SYMFONISK Bookshelf speaker. Though its sound profile isn't as balanced as that of the Sonos Move and doesn't produce a bass that's as extended as that of the Sonos Five, this home speaker has a unique dual function as a speaker and a lamp that helps it easily blend in with your home decor. With its room correction feature enabled, it has a bright sound profile overall, and there are bass and treble adjustments you can use to tweak its sound to your liking. Unfortunately, it doesn't have built-in voice assistants like the Sonos Move. Also, like many Sonos speakers, it isn't Bluetooth-compatible, and the room correction feature is only currently available with iOS devices.
See our recommendations for the best home speakers, the best Sonos speakers, and the best smart speakers.
The IKEA SYMFONISK Bookshelf and the IKEA SYMFONISK Speaker lamp are both Wi-Fi speakers from a collaboration between IKEA and Sonos designed to blend in with your home decor. You can place the Bookshelf speaker horizontally or vertically, and you can mount it to your wall. It can get slightly louder than the Speaker lamp, with significantly less compression present at max volume, so audio quality doesn't degrade as much as you bump up the volume. That said, the Speaker lamp offers a better-balanced sound profile that can produce a slightly more extended low-bass than the Bookshelf. It also has better directivity resulting in a wider-sounding soundstage.
The Sonos One Gen 2/One SL and the IKEA SYMFONISK Speaker lamp are both Wi-Fi speakers designed for use at home. The One Gen 2 offers great voice assistant support with Alexa and Google Assistant built-in. With its room correction feature enabled, it has a boomy sound profile. That said, the SYMFONISK is a collaboration between IKEA and Sonos. It has a dual function as a speaker and a lamp. With room correction enabled, it has a bright sound profile, though it can produce a more extended low bass than the One Gen 2. It also has better directivity, resulting in a wider-sounding soundstage.
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 Bose Home Speaker 500 is a better speaker than the IKEA SYMFONISK Speaker lamp. The Bose offers fantastic voice assistant support with Alexa and Google Assistant built-in. It can play stereo content without downmixing it to mono, which is more immersive. It has better directivity resulting in a more open-sounding soundstage, and it can get louder with less compression present at max volume. It's also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-compatible. However, the IKEA is has a dual function as a Wi-Fi speaker and a lamp and is designed to blend in with your home decor. It can also produce a more extended low-bass than the Bose.
The Sonos Move is a better speaker than the IKEA SYMFONISK Speaker lamp. The Move is a portable speaker that's both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi-compatible. It has a better-balanced sound profile and can get louder with a bit less compression at max volume, so audio quality doesn't degrade as much as you increase its volume. It's battery-powered and better built, so you can take it outdoors with you. It also offers fantastic voice assistant support with Alexa and Google Assistant built-in. That said, the SYMFONISK is a collaboration between IKEA and Sonos that has a dual function as a Wi-Fi speaker and a lamp.
Test Results
The IKEA speaker lamp is sleek and designed to easily blend in with your home decor. Its round, cylindrical base stands vertically and is tightly wrapped in fabric. The lamp speaker was tested with its black fabric lampshade on, though you can switch it out for a glass shade instead. That said, while a light bulb comes included with the speaker base, its glass and fabric shades need to be purchased separately. You can find the speaker and its shades in black and white. For other IKEA speakers with subtle designs, check out the IKEA SYMFONISK Picture frame and the IKEA SYMFONISK Bookshelf speakers.
The speaker isn't very portable. It's fairly large and needs to remain wired to a power source to work, so you can't easily move it from room to room. Since it's specifically for use at home, it isn't suitable for outdoor use.
Note: The test results above represent the volume and weight of the IKEA lamp speaker with its fabric lampshade. With its glass shade, it weighs 7.5 lbs (3.4 kg), and has a volume of 1076 in³ (17,640 cm³) . With no shade, it weighs 4.4 lbs (2 kg), and has a volume of 422 in³ (6,919 cm³).
The speaker's build quality isn't bad. Its base is mostly made of plastic and wrapped in tight polyester fabric. It sits vertically on four rubber feet, and its fabric and glass lampshades screw on top of the lamp base. That said, the lampshades are fairly fragile, and you need to handle them with care. The fabric shade feels like it can easily rip if you aren't too careful with it, and while the glass shade comes in two parts that feel fairly sturdy, the glass can still break if you accidentally drop it.
The IKEA speaker lamp has easy-to-use controls. You can double-press the Play/Pause button to skip to your next track and triple-press it to backtrack. You can also long-press it to add the audio you're listening to on this speaker to another compatible speaker. The indicator light underneath it lights solid white when the speaker connects to a network and solid green once you reach minimum volume. There are + and - buttons to control the volume, and the speaker emits an audible tone as you increase and decrease its volume level. There's a button at the bottom front of the speaker to turn the lamp's light bulb on and off.
- Quick guide
- IKEA SYMFONISK Speaker lamp
- 4.3W light bulb
- Ethernet cable
- Power cable
Note: The IKEA lamp speaker can only currently be purchased from IKEA. The fabric and glass lampshades are not included in the purchase of the speaker and need to be purchased separately.
The IKEA lamp speaker has a decent frequency response accuracy. It has a bright sound profile that adds a touch of sparkle to higher-pitched voices and sibilants like 'S' and 'T'. Its fairly balanced mid-range ensures vocals and lead instruments sound clear and present in the mix. However, it lacks low-bass, so you can't feel the deep thump and rumble typically present in bass-heavy music like EDM or hip-hop. Fortunately, there are bass and treble adjustments in its Sonos S2 app to tweak its sound to your liking
Note: This lamp speaker comes with a room correction feature, which Sonos calls 'Trueplay', that optimizes the speaker's sound according to the acoustics of the room it's placed in. The sound tests were conducted with Trueplay turned on. Unfortunately, this feature is currently only available with iOS devices. It was tested with its fabric lampshade, which causes a slight bump in the low-bass range, as opposed to the glass shade. You can see this difference here, though it isn't very noticeable when listening to audio.
The lamp speaker's soundstage performance isn't bad. It needs to be paired to another speaker to play stereo audio and downmixes stereo content to mono when using it on its own, which isn't as immersive. That said, it has very good directivity, meaning you can hear your audio clearly from most angles.
The IKEA lamp speaker has disappointing dynamics. It doesn't get loud enough to fill a large crowded space with sound. However, it's still loud enough to fill smaller areas like your bedroom. Unfortunately, there's a lot of compression present at max volume that degrades the quality of your audio as you increase the speaker's volume.
The lamp speaker doesn't support voice assistants. That said, you can still control it via an Alexa or Google Assistant-enabled third-party device.
The Sonos S2 app is fantastic. It features bass and treble sliders to tweak the speaker lamp's sound profile to your liking. You can also use the app to connect the speaker to another compatible Sonos speaker when you want to create a stereo pair, or to multiple other speakers when you want to play different audio in different rooms of your home at once. There's also a room correction feature that optimizes the speaker's audio according to the acoustics of your room, which Sonos calls 'Trueplay'. However, this feature is currently only available with iOS devices.
The speaker lamp comes with an Ethernet port underneath its base to connect it to your network.
The IKEA speaker lamp is Wi-Fi compatible. It supports Apple AirPlay and has very low latency over this connection, so the audio you hear and the visuals you see are in sync when watching videos and movies. Unfortunately, it doesn't have Chromecast built-in, and it doesn't support Bluetooth.