What if the nightstand lamp could make you sleep with a lullaby? Or if your shelf was playing soothing songs, flipping through a copy of your favorite dog-eared book?
Enter the Sonos IKEA Symfonisk Lamp Speaker and Library Speaker, combining practical home furnishings with Sonos audio craftsmanship.
Many were skeptical when Swedish furniture retailer IKEA announced that it would be teaming up with famous audio brand Sonos, but both speakers scored four out of five stars in our latest reviews.
So which of these unconventional wireless speakers would be the best for your home? We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the lamp speaker and the shelf speaker to make your decision easier.
The Symfonisk Lamp Speaker
(Image credit: Andrew Murphy / LaComparacion)
Symfonisk Speaker vs Speaker Speaker: price and availability
In the IKEA style, none of these speakers are particularly expensive; the cheaper of the two is the bookshelf speaker, which costs € 99 / € 99 / € 149 AU, while the lamp speaker will cost you € 179 / € 150 / AU € 269.
This means that the lamp speaker is closer to the Sonos One in terms of price, which you can currently buy for around € 200 / € 200 / AU € 280, and sometimes less, if you make it a bargain.
So if your main concern is sticking to a budget, you may want to go for the shelf speaker, but neither will drain your bank account.
The Symfonisk Library Speaker
(Image credit: Andrew Murphy / LaComparacion)
Symfonisk speaker vs shelf lamp: design
Let's start with the Symfonisk Lamp Speaker, which unsurprisingly looks like a lamp, although rather than a traditional base, the base is basically a speaker encased in a wraparound white grille.
If you've ever had traumatic experiences with IKEA furniture, don't worry - just screw in a light bulb, snap the shade in place, and plug in the eight-digit power cord, and you're good to go. .
Although the Symfonisk lamp speaker does not have the best structure, it fits well in the house. In terms of connections, you will only find one Ethernet port - both speakers can connect to your home network via Wi-Fi, but a wired connection can be more robust and reliable. Otherwise, the unit has an on / off switch and play / pause and volume controls.
The Symfonisk library speaker perfectly matches your décor. It can be wall mounted as a bookcase that can hold up to 3kg of books or ornaments, or placed horizontally or vertically on any suitable surface.
Featured in black or white, this brick-shaped cabinet features a fabric grille on the front, with play / pause and volume controls. As with the Symfonisk lamp speaker, the only connectivity options you'll find are a power cord and a wired Ethernet port.
The Symfonisk Lamp Speaker
(Image credit: Andrew Murphy / LaComparacion)
Speaker Symfonisk Lamp vs Speaker Shelf: Features
The Lamp Speaker and the Symfonisk Library Speaker share many of the same characteristics. These wireless speakers are not just IKEA products with some drivers provided by your audio partner.
Instead, they are full members of the Sonos ecosystem and can therefore connect to any other Sonos component on your home network. You can also pair two Symfonisk speakers for stereo sound or even pair one with existing Sonos home theater devices such as the Sonos Beam, Sonos Playbar, Sonos Playbase, or Sonos Amp.
This means you can even use the speakers as rear channels in a 5.0 or 5.1 surround sound system - great for a lamp and a shelf.
Like Sonos products, the two Symfonisk speakers bypass Bluetooth connectivity for a home internet connection via Apple AirPlay 2 or Spotify Connect.
The obvious difference between the two speakers is that the lamp speaker also serves as lighting for your home; The good thing about this is that you can choose to install it with a smart bulb, like Philips Hue.
So if you want to embrace the smart home, the Symfonisk lamp speaker lets you do it more thoroughly than the bookshelf speaker.
The Symfonisk Library Speaker
(Image credit: Andrew Murphy / LaComparacion)
Pregnant Symfonisk Lamp vs. Library Speaker: Sound Performance
Whether you're using the lamp speaker or the library speaker, it only takes a few seconds to connect them through the Sonos app, where you'll also find multiple ways to tweak Symfonisk for optimal sound performance.
An example is TruePlay, which uses the built-in microphone on your smartphone or tablet to scan the shape of the room you are in and change the EQ settings accordingly.
The app also has a simple two-band EQ that allows you to adjust the bass and treble response. We found that both speakers benefited from a slight bass reduction, with Sonos's loudness feature enabled to add focus and punch.
The Symfonisk lamp and library speakers provide a full-bodied soundscape and a lively, enjoyable presentation; However, the speaker from the lamp differs slightly better in terms of accuracy and width.
This is partly due to the wraparound circular grille used by the lamp's speaker. This design allows the soundstage to open wider than the rectangular library speaker for a more immersive listening experience.
This does not mean that the speaker in the library sounds bad; In fact, its audio performance is better than you might expect. Bold, focused and full-bodied, the Symfonisk library speaker doesn't hesitate to throw music into the room.
Neither speaker offers the detail and precision of the Sonos One, but it's important to remember that they both do double duty and are less expensive than the one used. Sonos flagship wireless speaker.
The Symfonisk Lamp Speaker
(Image credit: Andrew Murphy / LaComparacion)
To go
Choosing which Symfonisk speaker to buy is not particularly difficult: if you want a lamp, go for the lamp speaker, and if you can use a shelf or just a speaker that can put it on a shelf or the like, go to the speaker from the shelf.
If both solutions apply equally, it should be noted that the shelf speaker is significantly cheaper and offers many of the same features as the lamp speaker; both are full members of the Sonos ecosystem and could therefore be associated with each other or with other speakers to considerable effect.
The speaker on the lamp sounds better from a distance, with a wraparound grille that provides a wider soundscape than the speaker on the shelf.
No matter which speaker you choose, it won't accept an interior design device - Symfonisk speakers are not only attractive focal points in your living room, they are high-performance audio devices.