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IKEA SYMFONISK Sonos-compatible floor lamp speakers that fit in well in a lounge area
Sonos and Ikea made a floor lamp speaker that could be perfect for surround sound – The Verge
From the horse’s mouth
IKEA
IKEA and Sonos launch the new SYMFONISK floor lamp speaker (Press Release)
My Comments
IKEA have, for a few years, established a partnership with SONOS in order to create speakers that they can sell through their furniture stores. As I have mentioned before on this Website, I value IKEA’s approach as an affordable path to “cotton on” to the SONOS network-based multiroom audio ecosystem or build out a multiroom audio setup based on this platform.
Here, the speakers come as a traditional bookshelf speaker, table lamp or wall-art panel. but work like other SONOS speakers as far as reproducing audio content is concerned. You won’t be able to use these speakers as smart speakers for voice-activated home assistants.
.. can work well with Sonos Beam soundbar or similar Sonos soundbars for full-on surround sound
You could even team a pair of these IKEA speakers up with a Sonos soundbar like the relatively-affordable SONOS Ray unit in order to create an elementary surround-sound home-theatre setup without spending too much. This capitalises on SONOS implementing network-based multichannel audio for stereo setups with like speakers or surround setups where the surround speakers are a pair of like speakers. Even households who invest in a full-bore home-theatre setup may find these setups attractive for having surround sound in other lounge areas of their home like the family room.
But IKEA have premiered the SYMFONISK floor-lamp speakers that are like the table-lamp equivalents but are on a wire-frame stand so they can be free-standing. These would be equivalent to the traditional floor lamp a.k.a “standard lamp” that is used as a free-standing light in a lounge area.
Again these are a pair of speakers that increasingly earn their keep in a lot of situations. With an open-plan living area where the lounge furniture acts as a room divider in its own right, they would come in handy as surround speakers for a SONOS soundbar without standing out like a sore thumb. Oh yeah, a pair of these can make a pair of unobtrusive speakers for most rooms.
SONOS could take this further for IKEA by allowing a pair of speakers normally deployed as surrounds for a SONOS sundbar to work as a pair of stereo speakers that are their own zone. Here, it could come in to its own with the SYMFONISK table lamp or floor lamp speakers acting as part of a room divider between a lounge area and a dining area, where you may want to use them for music during dinner for example.
I would also see this come along with DTS Play-Fi, the HEOS ecosystem promoted by Denon and Marantz or the MusiCast ecosystem promoted by Yamaha or even the WISA wireless speaker platform where a pair of aesthetically-pleasing speaker/lamp combos are sold for one or more of these systems by the homewares fraternity. This is more to court those of us who have a soundbar or AV receiver capable of network or open-standard wireless surround setups could expand to full surround in an innocuous manner especially with an open-plan lounge area.
