We don’t review many wireless speakers that double as picture frames, but if Ikea’s $199 Symfonisk Picture Frame is anything to go by, this form factor has a surprising amount of potential. Now, let’s get one thing out of the way: This is marketed as a frame, but there’s no place to put a picture. It would be far more accurate to call it wall art—that just so happens to have a Sonos speaker built in. Semantics aside, there are different cloth panel covers you can use to customize the “frame” to your liking, and it can rest on top of a side table or other surface, or hang on the wall like a piece of art. The drivers deliver surprisingly robust bass (that might literally rattle your walls), and audio generally sounds strong for the price. With support for Sonos multi-room streaming and Apple AirPlay 2 compatibility, the Symonisk Picture Frame is just as versatile as any other speaker from Sonos, with the added benefit of doubling as a piece of art.
Not Your Average Picture Frame
Measuring 22.3 by 16 by 2.3 inches (HWD) and weighing in at roughly 10 pounds, the Symfonisk Picture Frame is quite large. It’s available in black or white, with the cloth grille covering the drivers emblazoned with the geometric pattern seen in the photos in this review. There are other, splashier designs available for $19.99 each, including a stylized paint drop design and a turntable illustration. As mentioned, there is no place to put your own art, so these aren’t exactly frames. Ultimately, what you see is what you get, so make sure you like one of the available designs before buying in.
There are controls along one of the side panels, including a play/pause button that can be used to navigate tracks (two presses for track forward, three for backward), and dedicated volume up/down buttons. Of course, since this is a Sonos speaker, you can also control these things on your phone or tablet.
On the rear panel, there’s a recessed area for connections. The included clothbound power cable connects back here, and there’s also an AC out connection, as well as an Ethernet port for directly connecting to your home network if you don’t want to use Wi-Fi.
When oriented horizontally, you can imagine that a pair of tweeters could provide a sense of stereo separation when listeners are nearby, but alas, this is a mono speaker. That said, two Symfonisks can be paired as left/right speakers for true stereo audio, and what a single Symfonisk lacks in stereo separation, it makes up for in power. Beneath the grille, the speaker delivers audio via an approximately 1.3-inch tweeter and a 3.5-inch woofer. It gets plenty loud, and depending on your volume levels and the build of your living space, rattling the walls is a real possibility. Near the drivers, there’s a port for efficient air movement.
The setup process is seamless for existing Sonos users: open the app, a prompt to pair with the Symfonisk Picture Frame will appear, and your phone will pretty much do the rest. There’s a small LED indicator on the front of the frame, and placing the back of your phone near this LED kicks off the pairing process. There will likely be a quick firmware update once you’re paired, and after that you’re good to go. If you don’t have a Sonos account, setting one up takes a few minutes and involves connecting the app to your Wi-Fi network, and then from there you’ll go through the steps described above.
The Sonos app is fairly intutive. It incorporates your existing music library, as well as any streaming services you use such as Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and various other options like iHeartRadio, Sirius, and obviously, Sonos Radio. In addition, the speaker will integrate seamlessly into your household’s existing Sonos speaker system, and can be used in conjunction with any other Sonos speakers you have. The app also allows you to adjust EQ, though it only controls bass and treble.
Installing the frame on a wall is slightly more involved than setting the speaker up with the app. Ikea includes multiple wall mount and anchoring options. The speaker can be situated vertically or horizontally, and it can also be leaned against a wall—special feet and a band that connects to the wall to keep it from falling forward are included. The instructions for mounting and setting the speaker up are classic Ikea diagrams with as few words as possible (often none). Just keep in mind that that the power cable will be hanging down from the speaker if you mount it. It’s an attractive, classy cable, but it might drive some design fans a little crazy.
What’s missing? Bluetooth functionality would be nice, but we don’t expect it from Sonos home speakers, and there is no smart speaker functionality like you get with many other Sonos models. You can, however, stream to the speaker via Apple AirPlay 2 once you have it set up with your network, as well as stream directly from the Spotify app.
Symfonisk Picture Frame Sound Quality
On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the Symfonisk Picture Frame delivers a powerful thump, and while it may shake the walls, it doesn’t distort. At moderate volumes, the bass depth is still robust, and nicely balanced with the highs. The woofer can’t quite reach down to deliver the deepest lows on this track, but the bass response still sounds powerful.
Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the Symfonisk’s general sound signature. The drums on this track can sound overly thunderous on bass-forward systems, but the Symfonisk paints a more accurate picture—the drums have a full-bodied depth to them, but nothing is overdone. Callahan’s vocals get a bit more low-mid richness than they probably need, but they still sound good, as there’s plenty of high-mid and high-frequency presence here to provide clarity and detail.
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On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum loop receives an ideal amount of high-mid presence, allowing its attack to retain its punchiness in the mix. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with less power than you might expect—we hear their raspy top notes, but not much of their ominous subwoofer-level depths. That’s not a huge surprise, as there’s a woofer here but no sub. The drum loop ends up getting some extra low and low-mid heft to round things out, however, so things don’t sound deprived of bass in the slightest. The vocals on this track are delivered with excellent clarity and no real hint of added sibilance.
Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, retain their general brightness, but are perhaps a bit overly boosted in the lows and low-mids. It doesn’t sound bad, but there’s definitely a lean toward bass here that those seeking accuracy won’t love. That said, you can adjust the EQ to a degree in the Sonos app.
A Work of Art?
Sonically, Ikea’s Symfonisk Picture Frame is a powerhouse mono speaker that delivers strong audio for the price. If you’re a fan of one or more of the designs, it’s easy to recommend—the speaker sounds terrific and works seamlessly with the rest of the Sonos ecosystem. That said, Ikea and Sonos have teamed up to make some other good options if you’re looking to spend a bit less. We’re big fans of the $99 Symfonisk Wi-Fi Bookshelf Speaker, which doubles as a shelf, and the $179 Symfonisk Table Lamp, which is a speaker built into a lamp. In the non-Sonos Ikea realm, the $89 Ikea Eneby (12-Inch) is a stylish and surprisingly powerful Bluetooth speaker. And when it comes to non-Ikea Sonos models, the $199 Sonos One (Gen 2) offer similar sound quality to the Symfonisk Picture Frame, along with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice control, though its form factor is much more traditional.
