Forget the speakers – SYMFONISK is all about sound

When Sara Morris, Product Manager at Sonos, tried out the new IKEA and Sonos bookshelf speaker at home, her neighbor called and asked her to turn down the bass.

“That was when I realized how awesome this speaker sounds and that we had created something really special”, she says.

Being the audio experts, Sara and the rest of the Sonos team have brought everything they know about sound and how people interact with high-tech devices to the table. IKEA on the other hand has contributed with their solid home furnishing knowledge.

“You need to take up space to make sound and it’s only by working with IKEA, who can tuck that sound away in hidden ways, that we can really get people to stop thinking about the speaker and start thinking about the sound”, says Sara Morris.

A lot of effort has been put into making the SYMFONISK WiFi bookshelf speaker as versatile as possible.

“This is not your ordinary speaker. It’s great tucked away in the bookshelf or it can be put on display. You can mount it on the wall that way turning it into a bedside table or a floating shelf – or you can use speaker hooks to hang it on a rail and integrate it into your kitchen”, says IKEA designer Andreas Fredriksson.

He’s only got good things to say about the collaboration, which doesn’t mean that it’s been all plain sailing. Together they taught each other how to create a versatile, multi-orientation speaker, that fits perfectly into the IKEA range and is accessible to as many people as possible.

In the end (and at the risk of sounding a bit smug) the WiFi bookshelf speaker looks and sounds even better than anyone could hope for. 

“It’s more than a speaker, it’s a piece of furniture. I really like that the customers can decide how to use it themselves. It blends into the home and fits perfectly everywhere. You can hide it or show it off. And it sounds amazing”, says Andreas.