Hacking a Sonos Mono Amp with the Ikea Symfonisk speaker

With a couple of small electrical hacks, we can turn the 99 dollar Ikea Symfonisk Speaker into a 100 watt mono Amp with full Sonos capabilities.
Full guide available here: www.thetylergi...
Full 3D Printed Enclosure Instructions here: www.thetylergi...
And all the tools and parts needed to do this yourself (these are Amazon affiliate links that receive a small commission from).
Required components:
Conwork 8-Pack 4mm Banana Plug Socket Connector Binding Post for Amplifier Speaker Terminal in-Wall Plate - amzn.to/3k2jYbU
28AWG Silicone Stranded Wire Hook up Wire Kit 28 Gauge Electronic Tinned Copper 6 Colors 10Ft - amzn.to/37smZ05
Recommended Ceiling Speaker:
Micca M-8C 2-Way in Ceiling in Wall Speaker, 8 Inch Woofer, 1-Inch Pivoting Silk Dome Tweeter amzn.to/3ufDqXp
Soldering Tools:
Hakko FX-888D - amzn.to/2M4Iltb
Neiko 01902 Adjustable Helping Hand -amzn.to/3bl1z6d
Electronics Tweezers, Anti-Static ESD Tweezers Set - amzn.to/2Nlu1wP
Soldering Consumables:
Kester Solder 24-6337-0010 44 Rosin Core Solder 63/37 .020 1 lb. Spool - amzn.to/2OMwZe9
Desoldering Braid #3 Fine Braid Super Wick with RMA Flux - amzn.to/3pAEIZs
Water Soluble Flux Pen, 10mL - amzn.to/2Zy5I16
General Tools:
Olfa XA-1 9mm Utility Knife - amzn.to/3avvv0r
Olfa Blade 10 Pack - amzn.to/2NhTcjS
Hakko-CHP-170 Micro Cutter - amzn.to/3blB9S4
40 Pieces - EPAuto 1/4-Inch & 3/8-Inch Drive Socket Set - amzn.to/3sb7666
7-piece Pliers Set (8-inch Groove Joint Pliers, 6-inch Long Nose, 6-inch Slip Joint, 4-1/2 Inch Long Nose, 6-inch Diagonal, 7-inch Linesman, 8-inch Slip Joint) - amzn.to/3biDMnz
Precision Screwdriver Kit, 60 in 1 with 56 Bits Screwdriver Set, Magnetic Driver Kit with Flexible Shaft - amzn.to/37KiXkb
Neiko Mini Ratcheting Offset Screwdriver and Bit Set - amzn.to/3bj58tQ
DEWALT Titanium Drill Bit Set, Pilot Point, 21-Piece - amzn.to/3qMACiF
DEWALT 20V MAX Cordless Drill / Driver Kit, Compact, 1/2-Inch - amzn.to/3ucfxA7
3D Printing Tools:
Hatchbox Performance PLA - amzn.to/37shezs
Creality Ender 3 V2 Upgraded 3D Printer - amzn.to/2NjqKyc

[@Zassenhaus]

This is by far the best version of a Symfonisk hack I've seen. Thanks a lot!

[@earlfenwick]

Remarkable! You went a big leap beyond what Todd Parker did with his hack. Now I challenge you to build a sonos hack puck like a chromecast audio! I love this! I really did not want to spend €1,000 on a couple of Sonos 5s.

[@jeffreyhayashida2355]

Thanks a lot for this! Managed to complete the hack and hooked em up to some KEF towers. After running Truplay, they sound incredible for $99 amps - solid low end!

[@dennisstolmeijer2824]

Just my first symfonisk amp up and running! One more to go, thanks for this awesome tutorial and the 3d print!

[@JesseCampbell0]

Years ago I had modified one of these following the first version of your guide... and i had accidentally torn C16 off the board in the process. Followed the rest of the steps and it seemed to work fine anyways. Well, I had some time twiddling my thumbs, and decided to finally mod the second speaker to match. I did a better job, didn't break off any components... and it sounded way worse! Even after truplay tuning. So, I ripped off C16 to match the first speaker, heh. sounds great again! Printing out a couple of the cases now. Going to use gen2 boards from now on those look way easier to mod. Thanks again! Jesse

[@TechTonor]

Wait what? Way worse, even after tuning it? That's interesting. Did you check the documentation of the chip, to see what the change does (by removing the pin from the bridged set of pins)?

[@dotcomslashnet]

Just wanted to say thank you. I've used this mod to drive some Kef Ci50 in-ceiling speakers for the bathrooms in our house... your guide was comprehensive, it works flawlessly and sounds better to my ear than the Sonos Amp I had temporarily hooked up for a fraction of the cost. Nice!

[@PIFDIY]

Surprised to hear that you think this mod sounds better than the Sonos Amp. I have the 2nd gen Amp and part of the reason why it's so expensive is the cost of the amp section and focus on SQ. The Symfonisk on the other hand is built to a price point and I believe I heard that the amp chip/circuitry is a $15 part. And 30 watts vs 125, with almost certainly higher distortion. I have a hacked Symfonisk driving Polk ceiling speakers and although it sound OK, it's not in the same league as when I hook up my 2nd gen Amp.

[@Bratwurstdealer]

Will there be a guide for Gen2 Symfonisk?

[@jorgesolorzano2615]

Up to how many celing speakers I can connect to the MOD amp? Thanks! Awesome tutorial!

[@supermanhills]

This is great. Found your article/blog post on Gen 2 and wondered when you might do a video?

[@chrisnelson808]

I absolutely love this. Thanks so much for putting this video together!

[@lutzhegemann5103]

Great instruction and explanation- superb! Thank you so much!!! Have you ever tried to get a signal (line in) directly from the dac? Or any chance to get a pre amp signal to use external power amp? ---- Sorry to waste your time. You already answered my question in your original instruction. Awesome

[@komukengmailcom]

WoW! I been wainting to do this so long, thank you so much for sharing, I bought a symfonisk online, ended up being a v2...... I've read you article on V2, do you still have plans to share a video for the new version, and perhaps I can show my gratitude my puruchasing the box from you if you can add Japan as a shipment destination. I hope you can considerm but if not, I just want to say thank you!

[@tomasz-nowak]

Do you think it's possible hack ikea speaker board in this way that all network and sonos interfaces are skipped and amp plays sound delivered by digital input such as spdif coax?

[@ManuCarrileroAFYD]

Nice job, you have a lot of knowledge about this. Any option to ad aux input to the Symfonisk?

[@noenflux]

Nope. There's no inputs on the chipset used by the symfonisk.

[@jimmybee8630]

Get a Sonos product with RCA connections (all of the below) Sonos Ace. Arc. Beam (Gen 2) Ray. Era 100. Era 300. Roam 2. Move 2. Get some RCA leads and adapters if the source doesn't have them . Link them up and away you go .. very easy and very crap I have a really good ONKYO amp cost £30 quid as used product here in UK with about 20 lines In HDMI ×5 RCA ×5 Digital optical X2 then everything leading in to that then one set of RCA to the Sonos product with RCA job done

[@lucabaraldi9892]

Bravo, ottimo lavoro! Good engineer, great job!

[@you238]

I wonder if you can skip the small-scale hacking on the PCB and instead split the tweeter/woofer connections on the ceiling unit and wire directly in to them. Probably assumes the frequency cutoff would be roughly the same as in the IKEA speaker, not sure what it would be like if it was off

[@mpedersen91]

Great guide and explanations! Yet I get 3 issues: The sound is really scratchy, the volume output is super low, and the speaker cuts off when reaching ~50% volume. Anyone have a suggestion as to what may be done wrong?

[@frankvargas4525]

my speakers sound really low aswell

[@stephancasas]

Superb video and write-up on your website! If I desolder pins 6/7 on the DAC, and splice in the L/R audio signal from an auxiliary source, would I be able to use this as a speaker with an aux input? Would I have to buck/boost the input?

[@DanieljHerrington]

Did you ever give this a shot? Very interested in the outcome.

[@stephancasas]

@@DanieljHerrington I disassembled it, and it’s been sitting opened-up on my workbench for about a month while I try to figure-out how I’m going to patch into those specific pins without shorting the rest of them. They’re unbelievably small, so if you have any ideas, I’m open to try it!

[@jimmybee8630]

Hiya so I get the bridging off the 3 at the amp chip .but why does one need to bridge the speaker wire connections +&- for each channel (L&R) surely (with my limited intelligence) they can be left to run a 2nd sub should one want too (in mono ) where the impedance of the 2 subs (ohms) fall within the criteria this creating even a better sound and less drain etc on the amp and obviously the one sub if going with 2 subs ? (Or am I been thick )

[@todd.parker]

Wow, amazing work. I had no idea you could bridge the amp but don’t have the skills to do what you did anyway. Curious why you didn’t just bi-amp the ceiling speakers by bypassing the passive crossovers, I’d assume that would be even better.

[@mfi2454]

Hello Tyler, Thanks for your video, I'm currently in the process of converting some Symfonisk amplifiers for my new home. I took the Gen2 Symfonisk and also saw the instructions on your website. Am I correct that pins 10/11 on the Gen2 no longer have to be desoldered like on the Gen1 or the conductor tracks have to be cut? That should sort of take care of itself if I desolder the capacitors, right? Thanks also for the 3D plans for the case. Best regards, Manuel

[@drewsonian]

This is great! Any idea on if the Gen 2 can be hacked like this?

[@greglang5142]

The Amp is in the same spot but I think the DAC is next to the Amp on the same side. Can somone with more exp confirm the pins on the DAC on the V2?

[@richterfpv]

Hey there! Great tutorial 🙏 I am planing to connect two CCM 664 (8 Ohm, 130W) with two Symfonisk boards. In the thread it reads that 8 Ohm are not going to get 100W, is that right? As the speaker just has one input I guess I have to go with the bridged/modded version correct? Once the setup is working, I am planing to put some boards into a 19inch rack enclosure, potentially replacing multiple power supplies with one bigger, let’s see - just started ;) one more question, I am only interested in LAN, no need for WiFi, can I just leave the antennas out to safe space? I heard that without antennas the board is getting warmer?

[@denniszhu7957]

Seems like people are having trouble with volume when bridging the output to speakers. Maybe something to do with maximum ohms when using it in bridge mode?

[@Jaffa92]

Thanks for an excellent guide! I’ve just finished up (I thought). I think I got the amp soldering/moving pins done correct, but maybe not. I get sound if I use just white(or blue)/red(or black), I also get sound when using blue+white and either red or black. However, if I use both red and black, the sound almost disappears. Any idea what i have done wrong?

[@Jaffa92]

After abit more testing, it seems like I have to use blue, white and black or red on negative terminal, and the one left over for the positive terminal - any ideas?😨

[@Ratoulapoutie]

My knowledge is still too limited on this subject, but could you enlighten something for me: What is the benefit of bridging it to mono compared to using the given tweeter/woofer setup? Is it for using the Sonos at a full-range speaker (so just 1 usable input on the speaker, missing out half the frequency range when only connecting one pair of outputs to it)? Or is it to gain the added power-output (when is this necessary: from my understanding the 30W in stereo mode is ample power for most speakers). I'm curious, as I plan to use the symfonisk sonos on a 2-way Polk S20e to power it. And not sure if this mod would make sense for me or not :) Edit: Also, is it correct to assume that when creating the "passive summing mixer circuit" (as yondermogul at Instructables calls it) by combining the outputs, the cross-over frequency of the sonos amp is bypassed - and all is regulated via TruePlay?

[@noenflux]

The benefit is two-fold for connecting to a full-range speaker. First is that this solution provides a passive bridge that merges the two channels back together (the tweeter and woofer outputs have completely specific audio outputs from the CPU). Second, you do get a higher power output for a full range speaker than you would by just bridging the two output pairs at the speaker. For a two-way speaker, you don't need this modification at all, and will be better off just re-routing the wires.

[@Ratoulapoutie]

@@noenflux Thanks for clarifying! :)

[@pavliv]

Can you hack it to use bluetooth?

[@noenflux]

No, there is no Bluetooth hardware present.

[@andrewlaurel3722]

Great modification - soldered the pins but the bridged signal is very low-any ideas on why? Could it be connections between the capacitors?

[@andrewlaurel3722]

Fixed it - it was the bridge between the capacitors!

[@MikeFenneman]

How would you recommend pulling power off of the board for an LED light? I'm using a Symfonisk speaker to "upgrade" a vintage radio and would like to light up the dial. I could pull of 120V in series but is there a lower voltage available?

[@anfernyjackson9013]

My neighbor has a bunch of these speakers he doesn't use anymore (used to use them at a restaurant), would it be not too difficult to mod them such that they take a physical input so you can use them as regular speakers?

[@noenflux]

It isn't too difficult to do, but honestly it isn't really worth doing. These speakers need substantial tuning that relies on TruePlay calibration, and you only get that when using the full Sonos pipeline. Without the sonos bits, they are pretty average desktop speakers.

[@anfernyjackson9013]

@@noenflux ah...so the digital processor also is applying an eq? that's too bad. the speakers in question were the ikea symfonisk picture and they looked like they would at least make nice rear speakers flush to a wall :(

[@Apftw]

so people who have done this did you get good results with your speakers? what ceiling speakers would go good with this i plan to run 2 ceiling speakers as rears with a beam 2

[@benwhittle7204]

Is your in ceiling speaker 8ohm? At that point aren't you only getting about 20W in bridged mode 8ohm?

[@thetylergibson]

Yes it is, but no, it delivers 100w

[@benwhittle7204]

@@thetylergibson so it delivers 100W at 8ohm?! Previously in the video you said it was 100W at 2ohm, so how is it delivering 100W at 8ohm when it should be about 20W at 8ohm bridge.

[@benwhittle7204]

@@noenflux it's definitely not the opposite. Traditional rule of thumb with amplifier ratings is that as the resistance goes up, the rating goes down so 100W@2ohm, 50W@4ohm and 25W@8ohm. Even Sonos' own Amp works like that: 250W/ch@4ohm and 125/ch@8ohm.

[@thetylergibson]

@@benwhittle7204 Hey thanks for bearing with me on this, and thank you for the information! You are of course, absolutely correct. I dug more into the both the datasheets as well as the forums at TI. You are correct, the 8ohm power limit is ~30W RMS in mono mode. Important that all of these power ratings are RMS and not peak. I'll have to do some real power draw testing to see how the amperage draw changes with different speaker loads - and see what the Symfonisk caps out at.

[@frankvargas4525]

@Georg D. I'm very curious about this. looking at 4 ohms speakers

[@jesper2165]

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 really cool build 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@igorristeski5472]

Did you unplug live 220V power at 28 min?

[@anmolintoronto91]

Is it possible to do the same with Sonos Play 1?

[@MatthiasVogelmcvnet]

Very Intresting!! What do you think, could i put 2x40W Speaker (8 ohm) at the Symfonisk amp ? Currently i have these 2 speaker with changing the cables at the Symfonisk AMP. But they will be not very loud.

[@thetylergibson]

If you wire them in parallel it should work just fine. It's rated for 100w / 2Ohms in mono mode. So in theory you should be able to drive both speakers to pretty close to their peak power.

[@TrickerBrad]

Hi Tyler thanks for the written guide and video very helpful and put together excellently. I have a question I have 2 symfonisk guts for a project. I wanted to test both methods. I have a pair of wharfedale 9.1s and I have bi-amped one and performed this mod for the other. The modded version is giving me significantly less volume than the bi-amped version but from what you have mentioned in the vid and what is says on the TI data sheet it seems like the modded version should have a higher output. Have I done something wrong?

[@noenflux]

If you have speakers that support bi-amp inputs, you should absolutely use the bi-amp. The bridge mode on the TI amp has the same net equivalent power output, just bridged into a mono out. No reason to do the mod at all for bi-amped speakers.

[@TrickerBrad]

@@noenflux Thanks for the reply, I have done the mod due to the bi-amping not working with my original intended speaker, trueplay couldn't bring the lows and highs inline so I opted for the mod and to use the internal crossover, this worked well however seemed to be lacking volume. Thats why I tested on some speakers I know someone else had sucess with and the bi-amped setup is blowing the modded version out of the water in terms of volume. The sound is clean from the modded version but is significantly less in terms of overall volume when compared to the bi-amp or a sonos play 1 that I have. Where would I have gone wrong. I am going to re-do the pins to make sure this is all good but was wondering what you think it could be?

[@denniszhu7957]

@@TrickerBrad did you find out what the issue was in the end? I want to keep the passive crossover for my kef q150s

[@haydengross]

How many ohms is this amp

[@AM-pq1rq]

Hi, nice work but I would like to do the 180 degree opposite! Ie., create an RCA in. Can you pull that off as well? I have the symfonisk flat panel speaners, and want to bypass the sonos part, ie replace the signal from the DAC to the amp by my own rca input because they sound really good and i want to put them in a 5.1 setup that is not sonos. I wonder if that can be done?

[@noenflux]

If you have a 5.1 setup, why wouldn't you just plug the speakers in directly from your 5.1 amp? Any HT receiver will have far better AMPs than the Symfonisk. I don't even know how you'd get a line out for individual channels on a 5.1 source.

[@RobRoyse]

How on earth do you get the bottom 2 screws out of the power supply in the gen2 enclosure?? THANKS!

[@startkapital]

I insert a long philips bit first and then use a bitholder to initally get the screw with torque moving after that i use my hand with the bit and screw it out the rest of it

[@RobRoyse]

@@startkapital Thank you, that is what I am going to try next!

[@MikeSenese]

Nice job on this. I bought the STL today, and will tinker with it. Wondering about pulling a set of wires to my powered subwoofer (which is what I use it for currently) along with an external speaker - have you explored that at all? Anything you'd change with the process if you were to do it again?

[@thetylergibson]

I haven't really explored beyond this use case, mostly because of the excellent videos from Todd Parker that cover most of the other methods for subwoofer preouts and biamp speakers. I just wanted a simple way to hook into normal speakers that wouldn't break my bank like the Sonos Amp. :)

[@ArmunP]

Hello, Would you make these to sell?

[@apogeedata]

When are people going to learn to not have Alexa active around your house when do you not talk about something in your house then go to a social media account and immediately the advertisements for them up here can somebody tell me how to stop this?

[@TheMaxxxel]

PiHole