The IKEA Eneby 12 inch measurements

[Thomas_A]

While I hooked up my measurement equipment I also made a short measurement of my $89 IKEA Eneby bluetooth speaker. Measurement distance around 1.4 meter using one of my Line Audio OM1 microphones. First one out is a 1/6 octave smoothed one with distortion measurement. The seem to stretch down to around 45 Hz or so. Certainly the speakers do have bass.

Looking in more detail with gating (I only can measure above 800 Hz here), it looks as if the frequency response is decent. My DIY monitors are shown as comparison (green).

There are dips 3-4 kHz and 7-8 kHz which IMO would make them suitable as stereo speakers. (I have the same goal with my DIY speaker which can be noted in the graph also.) Which is possible using the 3,5 mm plug for each channel.

Would be interesting to see a full spin of these (which I have wished for).

 

[Thomas_A]

Below is a comparison the IKEA Eneby response 800-20000 Hz with that of M106 and IL10.

 

[Kachda]

very iffy response overall with the dips in 2k-4k, and then another dip around 7k followed by a hump around 15k. I can't characterize the sound but it will probably be unpleasant ?

do you have the directivity index to see if they are eq-able ?

 

[Thomas_A]

very iffy response overall with the dips in 2k-4k, and then another dip around 7k followed by a hump around 15k. I can't characterize the sound but it will probably be unpleasant ?

do you have the directivity index to see if they are eq-able ?

Didn't make more measurements at this time. I would not say that the sound is unpleasant, in fact not bad at all. But it is a powered BT speaker at $89, so of course there are limitations. They are available in IKEA stores, so no problem for most people to listen to them and judge for themselves.

 

[Sonny1]

Actually way better response than I would have imagined. Have not heard one in person but a $89 Bluetooth speaker with relatively flat response and bass? Looks pretty good to me. I wonder if any of the JBL BT speakers in this price range measure this well?

 

[Kachda]

can these be paired for stereo ?

 

[Thomas_A]

can these be paired for stereo ?

If you use two units and connect with a 3,5 mm cable + stereo adapter to some unit with preout, it is possible. Don't think there a thing like stereo BT around, sending to two units at the same time.

 

[Thomas_A]

Would be nice to hear what others think of the Eneby 12 inch. I know at least one other member got it.

 

[richard12511]

Better than I would have expected. Clearly less neutral than the M106 and your DIY monitors, but not as bad as I would have expected. Extremely high WAF.

 

[Thomas_A]

Better than I would have expected. Clearly less neutral than the M106 and your DIY monitors, but not as bad as I would have expected. Extremely high WAF.

The surprising for me how deep it goes. It should be a contender to the cheaper monitors reviewed on this site. And the overall impression is excellent IMO, as long as you keep to reasonable volumes. It would be nice to see a spin analysis since I have only limited ways to measure it....please check it out @amirm.

 

[Thomas_A]

Here are some more measurements with horizontal measurements 0, 15, 30 and 45 degrees. Due to the horizontal dual woofers, there is the classical cancellation. Below gated response:

Averaging the on axis, +/-15 and +/-30 degrees, I get the following.

The same as the first one 0, 15, 30 and 45 but non-gated:

 

[Airegin]

I got one a few days ago and I have to say the sound signature is perfect for low volume listening. It sounds fairly neutral at very low volumes (thanks to the 3-4k dips I'm sure). I use it for listening to music and myNoise background sounds while trying to sleep.

 

[Thomas_A]

I got one a few days ago and I have to say the sound signature is perfect for low volume listening. It sounds fairly neutral at very low volumes (thanks to the 3-4k dips I'm sure). I use it for listening to music and myNoise background sounds while trying to sleep.

I use the Eneby 30 in the kitchen and it works very fine there. I usually don't need crank up the volume in the kitchen, but my view is that the power capacity is more than adequate.

 

[Airegin]

I use the Eneby 30 in the kitchen and it works very fine there. I usually don't need crank up the volume in the kitchen, but my view is that the power capacity is more than adequate.

I mainly use it to play nature sounds while going to sleep and it's a godsend. The mids are a bit recessed at medium volume but that's what makes it sound neutral at very low volumes. If you look at equal loudness curves, you'll see that the 3-4k dip is in the right spot.

 

[Thomas_A]

It seems that the Eneby 30 will be updated into a Eneby 2. Have no idea if they changed the sound but not a possibility to connect two of them i stereo mode via bluetooth.

 

[Pawelekdabek]

It seems that the Eneby 30 will be updated into a Eneby 2. Have no idea if they changed the sound but not a possibility to connect two of them i stereo mode via bluetooth.

Yeah, I've bought 2 units of new version just beacuse of the stereo pairing function and it seems like they also added little wave guide for tweeter also. I measured it at my preferable listening postion with all possible EQ settings and I can post it here if you want but I have to say my room is super messy and it will for sure not represent how this speaker sounds, also whole response is very sloped down as my head is under the speaker level.

Photo of new "waveguide":

Spoiler

 

[Thomas_A]

Yeah, I've bought 2 units of new version just beacuse of the stereo pairing function and it seems like they also added little wave guide for tweeter also. I measured it at my preferable listening postion with all possible EQ settings and I can post it here if you want but I have to say my room is super messy and it will for sure not represent how this speaker sounds, also whole response is very sloped down as my head is under the speaker level.

Photo of new "waveguide":

Spoiler

View attachment 112784

Thanks for info. Did you also have the old version? I was thinking if they also improved or messed up the current rather good response of the old version. It would be nice if you could post measurement of 1 meter on axis measurements with gating on one speaker to "exclude" the room. I would be more interested in the >1 kHz response. If you have the old ones as well it could be nice to see a direct comparison.

 

[adam2434]

I picked up an Eneby 30 Gen 2 a couple days ago just out of curiosity and to play around with. Was curious to see what IKEA could do for $89.

After a bit of on-board bass and treble adjustment, this thing sounds pretty darn good for $89. Bass has some punch and vocals are pretty clear and present. It also gets decently loud without noticeable distortion and compression.

My nitpick would be that the high frequencies lack some detail and resolution (like cymbal decays), but not sure if this is mainly due to bluetooth compression or the speaker itself. This speaker is obviously not meant for critical listening, so this is a nitpick and probably not something that most people would notice in casual background music use. I may try the aux input with a Chromecast Audio playing FLAC from Tidal to determine if the highs sound any better vs. using bluetooth.

Regarding the bass and treble controls, these need to be adjusted by ear and there is no way to know the adjustment level. To set them back to the default, you would have to do a factory reset. It would be cool if there was a companion app to enable discrete bass and treble adjustments and perhaps to save a few settings, like perhaps one for outdoors and one for indoors.

I'm also curious about volume adjustment when 2 are paired for stereo. The manual says the the volume for each needs to be adjusted on each unit. However, this would be difficult since there is no way to know the volume level set by the knob. The volume knob and phone control of volume are independent, BTW. In other words, you could max out the phone volume and still increase the volume with the knob on the speaker.

Anyone tried 2 in stereo? If so, are you able to achieve equal volume from each speaker?

 

[Thomas_A]

No idea about the volume knobs for stereo pairing. I use the gen 1 as a kitchen ”radio”. Have also used it outdoors and it does its job. And it sounds good.

 

[adam2434]

Yeah, I see this as a kitchen radio or maybe bedroom radio, which my wife would primarily use.

I have multiple "real" systems for my listening.

At $89 USD, it sounds good for the money and seems built well...great bang for the buck.