Disguising a speaker as a piece of art isn’t exactly a new concept. Chances are, you’ve seen it done a few times in the past, as well. For their latest collaboration, IKEA and Sonos are going the same route, turning out an art-like audio product in the form of the Symfonisk Picture Frame Wi-Fi Speaker.
Styled to look like a framed art print, the speaker can be mounted up a wall to add some refined aesthetics to the room, allowing you to free up precious floor and shelf space that a speaker would otherwise take up. It’s an even more discreet design than the two companies’ table lamp speaker collaboration in 2019, making it a great option for folks who want to play music in a room while simultaneously confusing people in the room about where the sound is coming from.
The Symfonisk Picture Frame Wi-Fi Speaker houses a 1-inch tweeter and a 4-inch woofer, with a sound profile that shouldn’t be too dissimilar from Sonos’ standard home speakers. We mean… that’s the whole point of IKEA partnering with Sonos for the speaker, after all. Being essentially a Sonos speaker, it should work nicely with other speakers from the outfit, whether you want to pair it with a second speaker for stereo sound, add it to your multi-room listening setup, or send audio to the speaker via Airplay 2. It will also work with the Sonos app (it has Wi-Fi onboard), so you can use your smartphone to control your speaker from anywhere, although physical buttons on the frame will let you adjust the volume and operate some functions without having to pull out the app.
While they call it a “picture frame” speaker, it’s not actually a frame that you can slip your own photos and prints onto. Instead, the art on the frame is actually the speaker’s grille, so if you swap in your own canvas onto it, chances are, you’re going to ruin the speaker’s acoustics. At launch, it will come with an art print in either white or black canvas by Jennifer Idrizi, with more swappable art prints available for later. Basically, you won’t be stuck with the same art the whole time, allowing you to switch things up to help alter a room’s aesthetics.
The Symfonisk Picture Frame Wi-Fi Speaker has a self-leveling bracket that allows you to easily mount it up a wall in landscape or portrait according to your liking. Alternatively, they added a pair of silicone feet that flip out, allowing you to set it down on a flat surface and lean it against the wall. According to the outfit, the feet will not only help it stay upright, it will reduce the speaker’s vibration and rattling, too. Do note, this isn’t battery powered, so whether you mount it or lean it against a vertical surface, you will need to have a power outlet nearby where you can plug it in for power. Construction is ABS for the base, with the grille cut in polyester fabric.
The Symfonisk Picture Frame Wi-Fi Speaker is available now, priced at $199.