Sonos & Ikea AirPlay 2-compatible Symfonisk speakers will cost as little as $99
As anticipated, Sonos and Ikea on Monday revealed two upcoming speakers meant to do double-duty as room decoration, while offering "smart" features like Apple's AirPlay 2.
The Symfonisk table lamp includes volume and track control buttons, as well as two class-D digital amps, one tweeter and one mid-woofer. People wanting smart lighting functions will have to buy their own smart bulb separately.
The second speaker -- also under the Symfonisk brand -- is meant to sit on shelves or attach to walls. While it can be positioned vertically, when horizontal, it can serve as a small bookshelf in its own right. Internal specs are similar to the lamp but likely not as powerful.
Both speakers will integrate with existing Sonos systems and take advantage of that company's TruePlay technology, which tunes performance based on reverberated sound. Some other control options will include a native Ikea app and Spotify integration.
AirPlay 2 will allow Siri controls, and multi-speaker grouping without having to go through the Sonos app. By extension, the Symfonisk line will also have limited control through HomeKit.
Both the lamp and bookshelf speaker will ship in August, at prices of $179 and $99 respectively.
The Symfonisk table lamp includes volume and track control buttons, as well as two class-D digital amps, one tweeter and one mid-woofer. People wanting smart lighting functions will have to buy their own smart bulb separately.
The second speaker -- also under the Symfonisk brand -- is meant to sit on shelves or attach to walls. While it can be positioned vertically, when horizontal, it can serve as a small bookshelf in its own right. Internal specs are similar to the lamp but likely not as powerful.
Both speakers will integrate with existing Sonos systems and take advantage of that company's TruePlay technology, which tunes performance based on reverberated sound. Some other control options will include a native Ikea app and Spotify integration.
AirPlay 2 will allow Siri controls, and multi-speaker grouping without having to go through the Sonos app. By extension, the Symfonisk line will also have limited control through HomeKit.
Both the lamp and bookshelf speaker will ship in August, at prices of $179 and $99 respectively.
Comments
I have not tried or listened to the Apple HomePod yet, and I am aware that you can hook up multiples, but I assume that most people use only one of them, as they are not that cheap.
What ever happened to stereo sound? Do people just not care anymore?
Who cares how much it costs of some are willing to pay? I'm waiting for HomePod surround sound. Some surround speakers can go for $300+ so it isn't unrealistic as a market especially with smart room acoustic detection in HomePods, they might sound better than more expensive setups.
Most have not heard a decent system with imaging. It's not even that expensive anymore. A pair of Elac Debut 6.2 or Jamo 803 ...a small amp and decent source material would blow people away. I think too many people think they need the huge amps and speaker wire running everywhere.
Bass waves are long. When the length of the wave exceeds the shortest dimension of the room, it becomes impossible to trace its origin. High frequencies produce much shorter waves so the room dimensions don't affect them the same way. The smaller the room, the higher the frequency at which the signal becomes essentially omnidirectional. Of course, that means the opposite is also true -- the larger the space, the LOWER the frequency at which the source disappears. People with large listening spaces should probably stick with traditional full-range stereo.
Individual HomePods can create decent stereo, bouncing sound off the wall behind the device, and there are Dolby Atmos enabled speakers that bounce sound off the ceiling to create vertical presence, but I think it would be something of a trick for a HomePod in front of you to undetectably send sound past your head to then bounce off the wall behind you in order to create a surround sound effect. Never say never, but I think it would be exceedingly difficult to create surround sound without speakers both in front of you and behind you.
Consider the number of 'feature' BT speakers sold for use with iOS devices. Very few of them will work with a second BT speaker, and fewer still will then become discrete Left and Right channel speakers. And of those BT (and AirPlay) speakers, they're usually small enough that if they offer stereo from a single enclosure, the distance between channels is so small, that without some DSP magic, they may as well be mono. So headphones (stereo) and single speaker (mono, stereo-ish) for playback, not mastering is common, convenient, and good enough for many.
I think this is exactly the problem. That and it's not easy or convenient for people to learn what to listen for to appreciate an improvement in sound and soundstage. For a lot, if given the chance, their education consists of maybe an element or two they didn't hear from mediocre to poor speakers and headphones and may miss when going back to old crap gear.
Where as if there was somebody to actually point out the differences as they're listening, lightbulbs would go on. Knowing what to listen for would make a big difference.
It also doesn't help that a lot of 'listeners' think good sound is the product of 'turning the bass up to 11'.
i did link them to my Apple TV to provide incredible sound for movies for a while! Really really good! That also played in ‘stereo’.
Love them.