Mac Format - UK (2019-12)

£150 FROM IKEA, ikea.com FEATURES AirPlay 2, Wi-Fi

The Symfonisk lamp

speaker doesn’t quite

match pure Sonos, but

performance is good.

HHHHH

Sonos integration

Balanced soundstage

It’s also a lamp!

Sonos One is better

VERDICT

84 | MACFORMAT | DECEMBER 2019 Image credits: Sonos/IKEA

Sonos IKEA Symfonisk

lamp speaker

for the light switch and the play/pause and

volume controls sitting on the plinth.

Clever, not smart

It’s worth mentioning that this isn’t a smart

light, though the standard bulb fitting means

you could turn it into one.

You might expect the top end to be quite

bright (it’s a lamp – keep up!) but the sound

is actually rather decent. There’s plenty

of weight to the presentation, as is par for

the course with Sonos speakers, and the

performance doesn’t lose its focus despite

the product’s rounded physique.

Our dialling down of the bass helped

keep the soundstage from becoming overly

cluttered, without making it sound thin

or weak. Some subtle details are lost, but the

general character of the music is present.

In essence, this is a good speaker for

background listening – as we would expect

would be its primary function, given its dual

purpose as a table lamp. ANDREW MURPHY

Y

ou’d be forgiven for thinking

the Symfonisk is merely an

IKEA lamp with a few drivers

tuned by Sonos. But this clever bit of kit –

and the bookshelf speaker opposite – slot

seamlessly into the existing Sonos ecosystem.

Both bits of ‘smart furniture’ enable you

to switch seamlessly between up to four

different connected devices simply by

pressing the appropriate key combination –

so you can flit between your Mac, iPad,

iPhone and even an Apple TV without

skipping a beat. Or at least that’s the theory.

Using the Sonos control app, you can

link the lamp to any other component in the

Sonos multiroom family, or pair two of the

same speakers to operate in stereo. Both

new Symfonisk speakers can also be grouped

with Sonos’s AV products and work as rear

channels in a 5.0 or 5.1 home audio setup.

The power lead fits snugly into the lamp’s

undercarriage, and there’s the option of

a wired internet connection. But that’s it save

Invest in a Sonos IKEA

Symfonisk combo and you

could sort your audio, lighting

and, er, book storing needs.

Light and sound in one handy accessory