Ikea wifi speakers made by Sonos

Wheety · 02-08-2019 3:15pm #1

Hope some of you think this is a bargain even if it's not a special offer. Was in Ikea today and saw their new speakers are made by Sonos. Great sound out of them. Maybe not as good as Sonos brand themselves but very good.

https://www.sonos.com/en-ie/symfonisk-by-sonos-and-ikea

Only €99 for the bookshelf speaker.

https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/search/products/?q=SYMFONISK

Optimus Prime · 02-08-2019 3:36pm

Interesting, i wonder do they work with existing sonos speakers? Ive two sonos in my house already and want to get more for other rooms. if i play "all house" can it be made of up 2 sonos1 speakers and 2 of these ikea ones..

laros · 02-08-2019 3:54pm

i wonder do they work with existing sonos speakers?

According to ikea they do work with Sonos

https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/customer-service/product-support/symfonisk/

Akula · 02-08-2019 4:32pm

Fully compatible. They basically are Sonos speakers but just co-branded and sold by IKEA.

The lamp one apparently has exactly the same speaker internals as the Sonos One. It is slightly cheaper, you do get a lamp!, but you don't get Alexa/Google.

The bookshelf one is a weaker speaker, but I've seen some reports they are very nice if set up in a stereo pair. So two of those could be the price / audio quality sweetspot.

Hogzy · 02-08-2019 6:06pm

Interesting! This might be a more affordable option for a surround sound sonos system!

drunkmonkey · 02-08-2019 6:13pm

Hogzy wrote: »

Interesting! This might be a more affordable option for a surround sound sonos system!

I doubt you'll make a surround sound out of them, where's your whoofer...you may be able to make a stereo pair though which would be a very cheap way to do it versus sonos.

I've most of the house all set up but it's a mix of play 3's and the rest of the rooms have ceiling speakers fed through some Sonos amps.

If your after a surround sound set up chat to the lads in richer sounds and see have they anything out the back, I picked up a pioneer €3000 surround set up off them €400 I think.

Weltsmertz · 02-08-2019 8:38pm

Interested in these for main music system.
Currently use a Google home mini.
Two of the bookshelf speakers €200 for stereo.
How would the sound quality compare to more expensive options?

PaulT21 · 03-08-2019 12:43pm

I wonder is there a compatible Hue Bulb, which would make the Speaker Lamp amazing, the E14 Max 7W combination?:)

RonanC · 03-08-2019 3:37pm

Had a listen to these in store today. The bookshelf speaker is hugely impressive for the price.

Linoge · 03-08-2019 8:28pm

drunkmonkey wrote: »

I doubt you'll make a surround sound out of them, where's your whoofer...you may be able to make a stereo pair though which would be a very cheap way to do it versus sonos.

Apparently the bookshelf speakers are perfect as surround (back) L + R speakers. A Sonos One is overkill for these so perfectly slot in.

Of course will need Play Bar and woofer also

Peig Sayers · 06-08-2019 4:52pm

RonanC wrote: »

Had a listen to these in store today. The bookshelf speaker is hugely impressive for the price.

Bought one of these today to replace my wired speakers. Great sound. Disappointed that I can't control it with my Google Home Mini though. Will just have to wait until they roll it out here.

RonanC · 06-08-2019 5:15pm

Peig Sayers wrote: »

Bought one of these today to replace my wired speakers. Great sound. Disappointed that I can't control it with my Google Home Mini though. Will just have to wait until they roll it out here.

Change the address on your Sonos account to the UK and you'll be able to.

Akula · 06-08-2019 9:16pm

Peig Sayers wrote: »

Bought one of these today to replace my wired speakers. Great sound. Disappointed that I can't control it with my Google Home Mini though. Will just have to wait until they roll it out here.

I can control it with mine.

Peig Sayers · 07-08-2019 9:20am

Akula wrote: »

I can control it with mine.

Hmmm....changed the region to U.K. on the app and online but it still won't work. I say "hey Google, play xxx xxx on living room speaker". It says "ok, playing xxx on Spotify on living room speaker". I can see it playing on the app but there's no sound coming from the speaker?

Zascar · 07-08-2019 11:38am

Ok so it looks like although Alexa/home is not built in, you can use your existing Alexa to play music via this speaker. Is that correct? Does it work via bluetooth, cable, or both?

Peig Sayers · 07-08-2019 1:55pm

Peig Sayers wrote: »

Hmmm....changed the region to U.K. on the app and online but it still won't work. I say "hey Google, play xxx xxx on living room speaker". It says "ok, playing xxx on Spotify on living room speaker". I can see it playing on the app but there's no sound coming from the speaker?

Got it working! Just had to change the speaker name to Sonos. If you don't specify sonos it will just play on the home mini.

sioda · 07-08-2019 2:06pm

Peig Sayers wrote: »

Got it working! Just had to change the speaker name to Sonos. If you don't specify sonos it will just play on the home mini.

Just create a routine and name it sonus music

Ush1 · 07-08-2019 2:37pm

Linoge wrote: »

Apparently the bookshelf speakers are perfect as surround (back) L + R speakers. A Sonos One is overkill for these so perfectly slot in.

Of course will need Play Bar and woofer also

Would that play true 5.1 like for movies?

swingking · 07-08-2019 4:57pm

Ush1 wrote: »

Would that play true 5.1 like for movies?

5.1 is 5 speakers and a sub-woofer so no

Hogzy · 07-08-2019 5:25pm

swingking wrote: »

5.1 is 5 speakers and a sub-woofer so no

Not necessarily, The playbar will act as a centre channel and a left and right channel so if you had that together with a Sonos Subwoofer and 2 of these bookshelf speakers at the rear that would have the full 5.1 system.

Ush1 · 07-08-2019 7:11pm

Hogzy wrote: »

Not necessarily, The playbar will act as a centre channel and a left and right channel so if you had that together with a Sonos Subwoofer and 2 of these bookshelf speakers at the rear that would have the full 5.1 system.

How would it connect to an amp or receiver?

Homer · 08-08-2019 9:20am

Ush1 wrote: »

How would it connect to an amp or receiver?

It’s not. You set it up as a 5.1 system via the Sonos app

Slipshaney · 08-08-2019 1:46pm

Ive a Sonos Beam, and a Sonos Play 1.

If I went for one of these Ikea bookshelf speakers, I presume theres no problem combining all three for a 5.0 system?

Ush1 · 08-08-2019 3:15pm

Homer wrote: »

It’s not. You set it up as a 5.1 system via the Sonos app

Okay, so could these be used to watch a movie with DD 5.1 for instance?

Hendrickp · 08-08-2019 3:44pm

Slipshaney wrote: »

Ive a Sonos Beam, and a Sonos Play 1.

If I went for one of these Ikea bookshelf speakers, I presume theres no problem combining all three for a 5.0 system?

As far as I know I think you need to have 2 of the same model speaker for the 5.0 system to work. So you'll have to buy another Play 1

Masala · 08-08-2019 7:58pm

So.... should I buy??? Have a mate going to IKEA tomorrow and have the chance to get him to pick one for me. What u think???

degsie · 08-08-2019 8:02pm

Masala wrote: »

So.... should I buy??? Have a mate going to IKEA tomorrow and have the chance to get him to pick one for me. What u think???

Buy it, try it, bring it back?

fenris · 09-08-2019 8:53pm

The Sonos app is a complete pain, it used to work really but over the last few years it has steadily gotten worse in terms of design and functionality.
The link to spotify and alexa is frequently broken, I have sonos all throughout the house and really regret it now, all these nice speakers that never really get used anymore as the app and integration to other services is so poor, mostly we end up listening to stuff on the amazon Dots or Echos.
So in short, the hardware is great but rendered irrelevant by the really poor software and integration to other services, check out the google play store reviews of Sonos and also the Sonos support forums and you will see very common threads of dissatisfaction.

gomara · 10-08-2019 4:06pm

Above is not my experience with Sonos recently. I have a Play 3, and 3 Play 1s, one standalone and a stereo pair. While the app changed radically about 2 years ago and had some issues currently it’s very stable. I have very few issues. Playing from Spotify using the app is perfect. Very infrequently asking Alexa to play from Spotify to Sonos results in silence and you have to ask again. I did have problems however when I tried to group Alexa devices with Sonos devices in the Alexa app. That was a disaster and I had to revert it. Not a Sonos issue. I don’t work for Sonos before anyone asks but I am a 10yr user of the system. Issues such as the previous poster raises are more likely due to configuration problems or WiFi channel contention. I live in a very quiet area with little other wireless devices, that helps. Also I use a Sonos Bridge which handles all the speaker traffic.

fenris · 10-08-2019 7:31pm

Not contention or wifi issues, everything else works on multiple devices reliably except Sonos, including playing direct to Alexa devices direct from Spotify.
They are mainly Sonos software issues and also problems with Sonos breaking the Spotify connect process by not respecting the Spotify API, I believe that one odd the recent issues was due to Sonos accidentally making multiple speakers appear like multiple Spotify instances using the same key in different places at the same time and thus breaking the authentication rules for Spotify resulting in songs stopping mid song, the Sonos response is generally top log out of everything and reinstall spotify and Sonos then go through the reauthorization process.
If it was some crappy bluetooth speaker for a few bob then you wouldn't mind so much, but when something is being sold as a premium solution then it should at least perform its basic functions reliably, i.e. play the music you want where you want. I have a fair sample of Sonos devices in that i have at least one of every speaker except the subwoofer, direct ethernet to the majority and sonos running on clear channels for wifi. The problem is poor software leaving down good engineering, the bit that really stings is that it used to work really well and i now feel quite bad as i recommended it to several friends and family, I now end up troubleshooting their installations.

soundsham · 10-08-2019 7:32pm

fenris wrote: »

The Sonos app is a complete pain, it used to work really but over the last few years it has steadily gotten worse in terms of design and functionality.
The link to spotify and alexa is frequently broken, I have sonos all throughout the house and really regret it now, all these nice speakers that never really get used anymore as the app and integration to other services is so poor, mostly we end up listening to stuff on the amazon Dots or Echos.
So in short, the hardware is great but rendered irrelevant by the really poor software and integration to other services, check out the google play store reviews of Sonos and also the Sonos support forums and you will see very common threads of dissatisfaction.

Ya shocking integration off the Alexa app in the beam and new ones can’t get Spotify to play unless done manually also only plays some radio stations
Superb sound but doesn’t do have the things a dot/echo can do unfortunately
update needed for Ireland to get it to work as in other regions......still waiting

Disappointed with what it can do but love the sound it gives out

Suckit · 29-04-2021 3:21pm

Sorry for the revival of an old thread. Bought this with somewhere specific in mind, and never got around to setting it up. The place I had in mind is now gone thanks to covid.

I tried to set it up and found the Sonos app poor to say the least. After a bit of searching, I found this:

Snapcast.
https://github.com/badaix/snapcast#Snapcast
https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2016/02/18/multi-room-aud...
I use shairplay[0] to stream from an iOS/macOS device, and Mopidy[1] with the Iris UI[2] to play server-side from your music collection, Spotify, or other internet radio.
[0] https://github.com/juhovh/shairplay
[1] https://mopidy.com/
[2] https://github.com/jaedb/Iris#readme

Which is mainly shown here - https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2016/02/18/multi-room-audio-with-snapcast/

I was wondering if anyone else has set this up like this, or found any alternative way other than with Sonos, and had decent success. I have had other sonos speakers that caused a whole host of issues also, so I don't intend on giving this a whole heap of my time, if I can avoid it.

Ikea wifi speakers made by Sonos

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