Last month, Ikea and Sonos announced that they were collaborating on a new range of light and sound products. Now the Symfonisk range has debuted in Milan, and is made up of a table lamp with built-in wireless speaker and a small, versatile standalone streaming speaker.
The Symfonisk table lamp combines light and sound. It needs to be plugged into the mains, the light is switched on using a dial on the side and there are playback controls on the base. Music can be streamed to the built-in speaker over Wi-Fi – which should support high resolution playback – and the Sonos mobile app can be used to fine tune the listening experience.
"Ikea and Sonos recognize the importance of great sound and its potential to positively affect life at home for the many people," Tad Toulis from Sonos revealed. "We set out to create products neither of us would or could develop independently. To this end, since music and light are both instrumental in creating a sense of place, we developed a product that can deliver both – the Symfonisk lamp speaker."
The Ikea/Sonos Symfonisk table lamp with Wi-Fi speaker is making its debut at Salone del Mobile in Milan this week, and will retail for €179 when it goes up for sale in late August.
The second member of the Symfonisk range is a bookshelf speaker, literally. This Wi-Fi speaker can actually be used as a bookshelf, and its bracket can support up to 3 kg of hardbacks or knick-knacks. It also has hooks that allow for attachment to kitchen rails, or it can just be placed on a solid surface in vertical or horizontal orientation.
Playback buttons on its face are used for listening control, and this device can also be controlled using the Sonos app. The Symfonisk book-shelf speaker will have a recommended retail price of €99.95.
Ikea says that the Symfonisk range has been designed to seamlessly integrate with existing home entertainment systems, but little in the way of detail has been offered at this time.
"Our goal is for our collective work to save space, get rid of cables, make clutter invisible, and bring sound and music into the home in a more beautiful way," said Giles Martin from Sonos.
Source: Ikea
