Ikea SYMFONISK Picture Frame Speaker Review

[TomekNet]

Has anyone tried to hack / make Symfonisk Picutre Frame a passive speaker? I have several Sonos speakers and I like Sonos system in general, but in new location I'd like to use two of those IKEA wall speakers as a part of my whole house multi-room system (that has it's own amps). I really like the form factor (very low depth) and low price of those speakers.

 

[Guerilla]

I dont know, but I Imagine that they are heavily eq'ed so that they wont Sound good without DSP. Good chance though, that someone here or on other forums have listened or will for you.
Cheers!

 

[Propheticus]

I Imagine that they are heavily eq'ed so that they wont Sound good without DSP

Very likely

 

[somebodyelse]

Assuming they're like the other IKEA speakers the crossover is active too.

 

[Toslink]

The DSP is the at least half of the listening experience, from the electronic crossover, to speaker-specific equalization, to the volume-based bass boost....it's almost certain that the listening experience would be quite hobbled if the speaker were to be used passively. One would need to make a passive crossover to get it working, which would not be a trivial affair. The alternative, though, would be to extract the electronics and place them remotely and run a 4-conductor speaker cable to the cabinets for in-wall use. That would be the most sensible approach, I believe.

 

[Guerilla]

Here is what you want @TomekNet Just put a fabric in your favorite design on the fronts:

cornu spiral horn wall speaker - Google Search

Ever think of building a Cornu Spiral horn? Now you can!

I did. For years in fact, but put it off thinking there was no way my skill level was up to the task. That is, until our good friend xrk971 opened the door to something that is easy for the layman and very rewarding. See this thread...

www.diyaudio.com

 

[TomekNet]

Here is what you want @TomekNet Just put a fabric in your favorite design on the fronts:

cornu spiral horn wall speaker - Google Search

Ever think of building a Cornu Spiral horn? Now you can!

I did. For years in fact, but put it off thinking there was no way my skill level was up to the task. That is, until our good friend xrk971 opened the door to something that is easy for the layman and very rewarding. See this thread...

www.diyaudio.com

Thanks, but it seems that most of that design is ~10-12 cm deep and if such a speaker would get required WAF I would just go for Monitor Audio SoundFrame 1, Dali Oberon On-Wall, Quadral Signum Phase or DSL Flatbox. Beauty of the IKEA speaker is it only has 6 cm od depth, it seems to sound great and is much cheaper than all speakers mentioned.

 

[TomekNet]

The DSP is the at least half of the listening experience, from the electronic crossover, to speaker-specific equalization, to the volume-based bass boost....it's almost certain that the listening experience would be quite hobbled if the speaker were to be used passively. One would need to make a passive crossover to get it working, which would not be a trivial affair. The alternative, though, would be to extract the electronics and place them remotely and run a 4-conductor speaker cable to the cabinets for in-wall use. That would be the most sensible approach, I believe.

It's not an issue of power delivery / speaker electronics location, but sound source and control. My multi-room audio setup has two output options per each audio zone: a) high output from inbuild class D amp or b) digital output as S/PDIF coax.

So I guess the only reasonable approach would be hack to board and provide digital signal to sound controller bypassing all network and Sonos interfaces. And I believe it's impossible or no one has done it yet

 

[somebodyelse]

It's not an issue of power delivery / speaker electronics location, but sound source and control. My multi-room audio setup has two output options per each audio zone: a) high output from inbuild class D amp or b) digital output as S/PDIF coax.

So I guess the only reasonable approach would be hack to board and provide digital signal to sound controller bypassing all network and Sonos interfaces. And I believe it's impossible or no one has done it yet

People have made things to convert whatever source to something the Sonos can see, like using darkice to cast the inputs from a USB audio device. Not a perfect fit, but a relatively easy and well walked path:
https://www.instructables.com/Add-Aux-to-Sonos-Using-Raspberry-Pi/

The full conversion route would probably be easier if you characterise the crossover then rip and replace the electronics with something like the BeoCreate or one of the Sure/Wondom JAB series boards. Not impossible, but takes a bit of skill and, as you say, probably not done yet.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

All Sonos speakers are UPnP renderers. I've used my Sonos Play:1s from LMS, Pulseaudio-DLNA, BubbleUPnP, etc.

 

[TomekNet]

All Sonos speakers are UPnP renderers. I've used my Sonos Play:1s from LMS, Pulseaudio-DLNA, BubbleUPnP, etc.

I'm currently using LMS with AirPlay Bridge plugin as a "bridge" between my multi-room audio system and several Sonos One speakers I have, connected with WiFi. It works most of the time, but it doesn't work as flawless as my passive speaker / wired zones. I can't sync those wireless zones with wired zones (obviously) and even wireless zones get out of sync each other. Getting those Sonos speakers wired with Ethernet might help, but I believe streaming protocols add latency / overhead anyway. So I'de love to have it all wired directly, if possible (hence looking for any solution).

People have made things to convert whatever source to something the Sonos can see, like using darkice to cast the inputs from a USB audio device. Not a perfect fit, but a relatively easy and well walked path:
https://www.instructables.com/Add-Aux-to-Sonos-Using-Raspberry-Pi/

That's basically what I use right now (also with RPi4) but the processing overhead is an issue.

The full conversion route would probably be easier if you characterise the crossover then rip and replace the electronics with something like the BeoCreate or one of the Sure/Wondom JAB series boards. Not impossible, but takes a bit of skill and, as you say, probably not done yet.

Haven't heard of those, will read, thanks!

 

[Guerilla]

If your wall is hollow like a dry-wall many brands has speakers to build in so that they will be flush with the wall. I dont know which brand sounds best. It can be put in a solidwall as well of course. Either way is will take some work to route wires and finish with tapestry/paint
Cheers!

 

[TomekNet]

It's a solid wall that I can't dig into, unfortunately.

But meanwhile I might have figured out some kind of solution / workaround.
Sonos has recently released a new low-end sound bar - Sonos Ray. It's $280 and has Toslink input what AFAIK makes it the cheapest Sonos component with digital input. So theoretically I might convert SPDIF coax digital signal from my whole-house audio system to optical with a cheapo D2D converter and feed Ray with my music source. Then it should be possible to pair two IKEA picture frames speaker with Ray sound bar to make it a group. Despite the cost it still might be the cheapest solution for very low depth wall speakers in bedroom and additional third speaker in that room (Ray) might contribute to the soundstage.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

IKEA SYMFONISK accessories launch for Sonos speakers

IKEA has launched several new accessories for its SYMFONISK speaker range, which it developed with Sonos. New artwork from famous artists, including Klimt and Van Gogh, is available for the SYMFONISK picture frame with Wi-Fi speaker. Plus, a new bamboo lampshade is available for the SYMFONISK...

www.notebookcheck.net

 

[williamwally]

It's a solid wall that I can't dig into, unfortunately.

But meanwhile I might have figured out some kind of solution / workaround.
Sonos has recently released a new low-end sound bar - Sonos Ray. It's $280 and has Toslink input what AFAIK makes it the cheapest Sonos component with digital input. So theoretically I might convert SPDIF coax digital signal from my whole-house audio system to optical with a cheapo D2D converter and feed Ray with my music source. Then it should be possible to pair two IKEA picture frames speaker with Ray sound bar to make it a group. Despite the cost it still might be the cheapest solution for very low depth wall speakers in bedroom and additional third speaker in that room (Ray) might contribute to the soundstage.

I would assume theoretically spdif out from tv to the setup you described could work as an LCR system?

 

[Futility]

That's a Giant Killer Picture Frame!

Too soon?

 

[TomekNet]

I would assume theoretically spdif out from tv to the setup you described could work as an LCR system?

I doubt that. I believe you may add One speakers as sourrounds or rears only. But I'm not 100% sure.

 

[nathan]

Yep, the Ray in that scenario is the only speaker(s) that gets to play the left center and right signals. Of course feeding it a digital feed from yoru whole house audio system likely means it is a stereo feed, anyway? Im not sure Sonos upconverts that to a surround format, at all. I would think they should.

 

[DanielT]

Amir:

"Objective measurements don't fully support my highest honors but my listening test results do. So it is my pleasure to give a strong recommendation to Ikea SYMFONISK picture frame speaker by Sonos."

What is it based on? Of course how other speakers perform. It's almost embarrassing that this speaker performs better than some of the more expensive models from recognized speaker manufacturers. Not almost, it is embarrassing!

IKEA, nick nack things and so this. Fun of course that they sell this speaker, but embarrassing for other "serious" speaker manufacturers.I mean IKEA.., speakers.. come on! If IKEA can produce speakers this good, then dedicated speaker manufacturers MUST step up!

If it was possible to smoothly incorporate this speaker with subwoofers and EQ to get a really good sound, I could easily have done that. Partly because it is a nice solution, nice looking speakers, but also partly to annoy the crap out of some audiophiles.
(I have Hifi stuff so even if it worked I wouldn't do it now, but if I didn't have my Hifi stuff I have now...then ..)

 

[Dennis_FL]

There’s a 25% price increase since this review