IKEA SYMFONISK bookshelf speakers - One month experience

[@Hassanw9]

Honestly this is exactly what I was looking for I got a voucher from work for ikea, I was looking for speakers and have had my eye on these thank you

[@ahummer]

Perfect this is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Andrew Humiston, you're welcome and thanks for watching.

[@SexDrugsFinance]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who exclusive listens to the Castlevania sound tract.

[@vanderslagmulders]

O is that what that is. It’s very electronic.

[@davidbeiler6364]

track*

[@erickmacgon]

thank you for such a good and completed video, it's exactly what I was looking for, thank you again

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Erick Macgon, thank you and thanks for watching.

[@profilejohan]

I just bought these to use as surround. Extremely satisfied with them! :)

[@b00bytrap]

Hey stajlarn, thanks for watching and sharing your experience. Indeed, I'm also pretty satisfied with them as well.

[@manLiMarth]

I am thinking of buying these as surrounds, too. Are you pairing them with the Beam? How do you find the sound? And, how does the stereo pair sound just for playing music? Appreciate any thoughts you may have!

[@profilejohan]

@@manLiMarth Yes, I am pairing them with the beam. It has made such a huge difference both in watching movies and playing music, easily one of my best impulse buys ever.

[@manLiMarth]

@@profilejohan definitely love to hear that! Picked them up already but haven't installed them. For music, do you have them as regular full speakers but grouped with the Beam, or still as surrounds? I was reading that there's an option somewhere in the settings...

[@profilejohan]

@@manLiMarth I still use them as surrounds, but I've raised the levels a bit so that they're louder when playing music. Yeah you can change a lot of sound settings in the sonos app

[@walteredwards544]

Nice demo. Thank You. I've been looking at these for a while now. I think these will make a nice New Year's gift for myself

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Walter Edwards, You're welcome and thanks for watching. I think they will too :)

[@qrkopl]

Can I have them paired same time both as surround system and as an independent stereo? So turning on my TV will use them as back speakers and when I want just to listen music quietly it will play on stereo without waking soundbar on?

[@yogi19581]

Thank you for the video, I have a sonos arc, can I had my symphonic speakers to this, and would I need any other equipment, many thanks in advance, pat Nottingham UK.

[@mrgold3591]

I started with the Beam and Symfornisk bookshelf and really liked the combo. I added a Gen 3 sub a year later and WOW! The sub takes most of those low frequency signals for you to hear and feel the bass. This will free up the Arc/Beam/rear surrounds to concentrate on mids/highs for voice and TV/music sound clarity. Didn't notice much differences in most listening when I upgraded the rears from Symfonisk to One SLs a year after that.

[@theoscats]

once you've set them up as stereos in the Sonos App, would Apple TV/iOS device use them separately or use them in stereo mode with Airplay2? thanks

[@markmroz]

I have a question on the Symfonisk: does changing the volume on the speaker reflect in Airplay 2 on your device, or are they independent? With our current setup, someone turns a speaker down in one of our rooms, and the next time you play music, you are trying to figure out why no music is coming through in that room. Thanks, and great review!

[@b00bytrap]

Hey MARK MROZ , thanks for watching. Yeah, that sounds annoying. If the speakers are connected with AirPlay and the volume is controlled on the speakers itself, it will change on the iOS device as well (you will see the slider moving). If they aren't connected through AirPlay it will change the volume for the Sonos settings.

[@zmanag5297]

Great review

[@WBruno017]

Hey boobytrap: Your review is very convincing thanks. Also, do we need a sub for this Beam and symfonik setup? I tested lot of soundbars. With the sub it makes a lot of difference. I felt having a sub with soundbar gives theatrical effect. But Sonos sub is too costly. What is your suggestion? Any alternative?

[@Resenses]

to use this app and sync them together do you need a box or literally buying these on there own you can do all this?

[@hugosdroneviews8082]

Hoi is deze speaker ook goed om er 1 van te gebruiken? Wil er graag een aan de muur hangen. Heb nu een jbl flip 3 ik ga er vanuit dat deze een stuk harder kan en zeker 40% betere geluidskwaliteit levert? Goede video graag zie ik reactie

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Hugo's Drone Views, Haven't heard the Flip but even so I'm almost quite certain you won't regret it. The Symfonisk can also go really loud without distortion.

[@rohananish]

Great video. Appreciate

[@b00bytrap]

Hey AR Industries, thank you and thanks for watching.

[@miguelfidel1]

hello, I would like some advice. I have a sonos beam and I would like to add ikea rear speakers. in your opinion I do well or it is better to add two sonos sl. thanks

[@robertlonergan9401]

How do I add MSNBC RADIO using URLs on this speaker?

[@purchasecomplete5640]

How is the bass on this speaker?

[@Lowbattery_fpv]

Do you reccomend 2 of them pairing to the Sonos Beam ? just for improve the Beam effect...not pretending too much. Thanks

[@Lowbattery_fpv]

i mean to put them on the left and right back of my sofa. Beam is in the front.

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Andrea Make Things, thanks for watching. Yes, adding two of these speakers will definitely increase the sound stage. You can set them up as "ambient" (mostly instrumental with vocals from the Beam) or as "full" (playing the same audio as the Beam).

[@Lowbattery_fpv]

b00bytrap thanks!

[@johnviera3884]

Why AirPlay? If you’re using the Sonos app?

[@mauricebuzzell7533]

Do not evaluate or judge the sound out of the box use Trueplay to adjust first. Be fair all speakers have to be adjusted to the room.

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Maurice Buzzell , thanks for watching. This is why I tested them for a month before doing a video about them (with and without Trueplay tuning) and I have to admit that the overall quality is better when they are tuned but they will have to sound good out of the box (and they do). Android users have access to the Sonos app too but not to the Trueplay tuning (difference in mic quality with so many different Android devices). For them and because the app is available on Google Playstore, it will have to sound decent as well.

[@elbuttano]

Hi. I don't have the beam but I have the Sonos amp and subwoofer. Could I get 2 of these symfonisks and create a 2.1 system, so I'd have them as the main speakers in front of me (one each side of TV) instead of behind? Thanks!

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Stephen Turvey, thanks for watching. I believe you can only add them as surround speakers so not as front speakers. Those are reserved for passive speakers.

[@adamkehoe7405]

Hi. Great video. You demonstrate the pairing via an Apple device. I assume that these would work on Android as well? Tuning is only a feature with iOS (I believe). As the devices are not Bluetooth enabled, can these device(s) be connected as an external output device? If I wanted to play sound through these speakers connected to a DJ deck, would I have to pair over WiFi, or ethernet adapter into the RCA ports on the deck? (I know that last question sounds confusing. It's because my decks do not support an Ethernet port, and only RCA ports).

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Adam Kehoe, thanks for watching. Honestly, without modifying them, I don’t see a way to realize that. These speakers are meant for the Sonos controller. Also, if you want to use them as monitors, there are better alternatives out there for this use case. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sound quality of these speakers for home use but it’s not a “natural” sound. As for setting up these speakers that’s the same on Android as it is for iOS. Trueplay tuning is indeed only available on iOS and I believe that’s because there is no standard in microphone quality on Android devices what’s making tuning the acoustics inaccurate.

[@evilmunki54]

Great video - what about the surround sound experience watching 5.1 content? Such as Netflix etc

[@b00bytrap]

Hey David L, really good to be honest. The Beam is lacking a wide sound stage but these speakers in a surround setup with the Beam do make up for that. Audio meant for surround is only audible on that specific surround speaker (like helicopter sounds).

[@vapete1237]

Though I’m aware you never get a true reflection of rich deep bass with KZbin presentations is the bass better than it sounds in this video and not as “thud-ish” as it sounds?

[@vesker86]

can you connect more than 2?

[@j.e.7028]

Can these speakers be tuned with an android phone ?

[@abhishekjoshi171]

Do you find cord length bit short with only 150 mm?

[@b00bytrap]

Hey FPL Lawyer, thanks for watching. The cord is 1,5m

[@gb8641]

Bookshelf speaker doesn’t mean use it as a shelf, it means it fits in a bookshelf.

[@b00bytrap]

Garrett Bennicas , thanks for watching. Of course, but Ikea turned the form factor into a bad joke with the idea of a "book shelf".

[@nigel0o0o]

Ikea Actually sells the mount so you can use the speaker as a book shelf lol

[@sewerynwojtasik]

does it work well with android?

[@icollectwade]

does the bookshelf stereo pair sound as good as a sonos one/play1 stereo pair?

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Pael Zuniga , thanks for watching. The bookshelf speakers don't sound quite as clear as the One and the One does sound better than the Play:1, but the price does make up for that easily. If you want the best quality, go with the Ones. If you want the best price/performance and still good quality, go for the SYMFONISK bookshelf speakers. It's hard to recommend the Play:1 speakers at this point.

[@heliopijpe]

The speakers are good at low volumes, ambient listening, they are not ment for for movies or hifi listening, they sound ok :-)

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Hélio Solar, thanks for watching. I have to disagree with you on the use case. For speakers in this segment, they sound pretty good at a higher volume too. They produce a rich sound without distortion. The hardware is on par with the Sonos Play:1 (not the One) and so does the sound quality. I will not compare them to my old JBL XTi (100 and 10) surround setup because that is totally a different segment.

[@GregSzarama]

Can you cast to these?

[@SinseerProductions]

I have three rooms. Can I put one speaker in each room

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Sinseer Productions, yes but you'll need at least 3 speakers then :P

[@Resenses]

hey is they anything you can link they to so you can use the with a aux connection?

[@tomaalexandru3178]

KZbin working with this speaker or i need to have youtube premium?

[@张明华-t1j]

Can’t find my Sonos symfonisk bookshelf with app

[@b00bytrap]

Hey 张明华, thanks for watching. Make sure your network is not blocking Sonos. I've seen it happen at some customer sites. Assuming this is not the case, what color does the LED indicate?

[@peepers4763]

The bass was not the best. Dang, I wanted to love them! I love the price but not the bass so much!

[@mikeross4903]

You can turn up the bass

[@chrishaney1954]

These beg for sound dampening. Get some butyl type rubber (I used second skin damplifier pro) the bass response improved a lot. I have 7 sonos ones throughout the house plus some other products. I also have two of the symfonisc. I get better bass from the symphonisc after sound deadening it. I cant do that on the sonos one. Plus I just recently ran a line out from the midwoofer driver to run line levels into a cheap extra 1w inch sub i have. And for under 300 bucks I have a nice 2.1 system in the office. Sounds better than my play 5 now.

[@tzwolas]

@@chrishaney1954 Hi, I just bought 2 symfonisk's speakers and generally I am glad, but would like to increase bass indeed. Could you please explain a bit how to do it with a rubber you mentioned? I mean I've never done a "sound dampening", so any help would be appreciated...

[@Fremmy]

@@tzwolas Did you manage to solve it?

[@tzwolas]

@@Fremmy No, but basically I am glad with the sound quality

[@C_O_N_C_E_P_T]

Can you pair these to a MacBook Pro?

[@b00bytrap]

Hey scotty miller, yes you can. Since these speakers have AirPlay 2 you can select them on your Mac as a default output device. I've tested this on my MacBook Air and it works pretty well. On my MacBook, I noticed a small delay between the audio and the image but nothing major. drive.google.com/file/d/1SkguAEIienzs8B_Wns_-i5fo8WGXnywl/view?usp=sharing

[@C_O_N_C_E_P_T]

b00bytrap I see. Too bad there is no 3.5mm plug in on these. Does it auto power off after a set amount of time also? The ikea Bluetooth speakers all seem to have auto turn off which is annoying

[@b00bytrap]

@@C_O_N_C_E_P_T Indeed, that would be a nice feature. The speakers (just like any other Sonos speaker) do go into sleep mode after some time when they don't receive a signal. They come online again when they receive a signal and that process takes a couple of seconds.

[@zemont]

how are you testing speakers seating behind them, not using and stands neither tuning the speakers to the room? maily how the hell are you even hearing anything sitting beheind them in the desk?

[@b00bytrap]

Hey José Da Franca Taborda, thanks for watching. Well, of course I did not test them for an entire month on my desk :) They were part of my surround setup in the living room and I tested them individually as well. That's what this video was about. The demo setup in my YT room was just to give an impression of my experience and the ease of use.

[@gijsvandersandt3721]

can u make a 5.1 system with these speakers and a old sonos connect

[@ragnevi]

Gijs van der Sandt, no. Connect doesn't support surround for some stupid reason. But you can include the Connect so it plays music from the speakers connected, but no surround.

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Gijs van der Sandt, the classic Connect is intended to connect to a separate receiver. The Connect:Amp however can work in a surround configuration because you can connect two other speakers directly to it. If I'm not mistaken you can only set it up as a surround configuration so you'll still need a Playbar, Playbase or Beam.

[@gijsvandersandt3721]

b00bytrap Thanks, i’ve heard that you can use the new amp with two of the ikea speakers and a sub to make a 5.1 system

[@rygtno7602]

Hi guys, I recently bought 2 SONOS SYMFONISK SPEAKERS (Black and White) at IKEA. I tried to connect and install them as asked, but I eventually ended up with only one of them showing up at my rooms list. How is this possibile? Is there any way where I can connect both of them to the same wifi and make them play the same song simultaneously and the most important will I ever able to view both speakers on my Sonos App? Please If you do, help me out before I return them to IKEA and get my money back

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Ryg Tno, Yes that should work just fine but it has to be set up first. You can try to do the setup again (after resetting) and see if that works. If so you can group rooms so you can play the same songs in multiple rooms at once support.sonos.com/s/article/3391?language=en_US

[@luukdebeijer5062]

i think they are the same as the polk t15. these are 2.0 speakers but have the same inputs and its 100 dollars / euro's cheaper just hook them up to a amp and your done

[@b00bytrap]

Hey SnukkieBoy, thanks for watching. I must say that I haven't heard the T15 speakers myself but I've read some mixed reviews about them. Obviously, these speakers (drivers) are not the same. Also, they're in a different category. It's nice that a pair of T15s are half the price of two Symfonisk speakers but you'll need a receiver as well. The target audience for Sonos are the people that want decent sounding speakers (not saying the best), ease of use and the least amount of cabling/equipment to accomplish that (myself included).

[@phelaw5383]

can you hook this up to a tv?

[@danny170]

No, you need a playbar or beam for that

[@dreadlysmellybum]

@@danny170 Or a sonos port I believe.

[@jelle9710]

If your TV has airplay u prob can

[@herbyragan7801]

Airplay 2 on your Apple TV

[@jmanuelforero3850]

Brilliant question, don't see the point for buying this Sonos speakers if can't link them to a TV and only you can by buying another device....let alone that your home must be Apple products as well. I bought a IKEA Frekvens and linked to my Earthquake subwoofer and it works through cable or Bluetooth with all my devices and I don't have to have another extra app on my phone.

[@jj-icejoe6642]

Not so bad for the price

[@b00bytrap]

Hey J J, thanks for watching. Indeed, price-performance wise really good speakers.

[@futurecactus]

I saw Google assistant on the app, can I use these in a Google speaker group?

[@b00bytrap]

Hey The.K.Locker , thank you for watching. You can indeed if paired with a Google assistant capable device, for example, the Beam or through Google Home.

[@Zeeley01]

Actually, you can use GA via smartphone to control your Symfonisk to play music from Spotify (premium) or radio by using voice commands. So a Sonos 1 with microphone is not needed.

[@futurecactus]

Just to clarify, can I buy the IKEA speaker and cast KZbin music directly to it without any other Sonos speaker and can I add it to a Google speaker group and cast to it that way?

[@Zeeley01]

@@futurecactus yes, for more info zeeley at live dot nl

[@futurecactus]

@@Zeeley01 thanks for the help.

[@wojciechb.1060]

1x Should be fine and enough by Wi-Fi connection to my office room

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Wojciech B. In the time I used these speakers I've never had issues with the WiFi signal. So as long as you have a good signal, you should be fine ;)

[@wojciechb.1060]

@@b00bytrap I got it :) the sound is quite OK (compare with EARFUN UBOOM) But I got some troubles to add radiostation other than built in SONOS SYSTEM... I try to find solution but from yesterday... No chance at all... Cherrs from Poland! Spend a great X-mass time!

[@2swickmarr]

Are you dutch

[@2swickmarr]

3:32 ah nevermind lol Hoi ik ben ook nederlands😂

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Dave, thanks for watching. Indeed ;-)

[@wenchiiedownstairs4202]

You sound dutch bro but nice video bro

[@loadinglevelone]

Nah, they lack low bass punch. Midbass is muffled. High ends are too twingy and overall sound is well--- they sound like speakers in a plastic box.

[@mollygrubber]

lol they have a 3" "woofer" - what can you expect?

[@b00bytrap]

Indeed, they do sound pretty good (for €99 costing speakers) and better than my video presents them. Unfortunately it was the best my mic could pick up and then of course there’s the editing and compression of the video.

[@dgdave2673]

Which is what they are...

[@pauldavies8638]

That's not a big speaker

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Paul Davies, thanks for watching. In general.. no. However, compared to the Sonos One / Sonos Play:1.. they are.

[@fransdegroot9778]

Met drie speaker heb je nog geen 5.1 of dolby atmos

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Frans De Groot, thanks for watching. Well no, it's not a 5.1 configuration or a dolby atmos setup.. but.. technically it's still a surround configuration as the Beam has 4 full range woofers and a tweeter. Combined with these two Symfonisk speakers you'll have a surround configuration. Of course, the sound stage will be better when using separate speakers on the front but that's not what this video was about.

[@abgvedr]

These symfonisk speakers are utter nonsense, there is absolutely no reason for them to not have Bluetooth in 2024, like wtf i have to download some app and then do lots and lots of other steps to play some music, and you cannot watch for example a movie and stream the sound unleees of course you have a sonos product that does have bluetooth and pairs with symfonisk. Makes me think that was one of sonoses requirements for collab with ikea - to not include bluetooth and induce people buy a sonos too. What a scam.

[@djskurk]

I would rather not listen to music than through these speakers if the sound in the video is true. It’s so lacking in every aspect. Pure soundspace, awful dynamics, every tone just sound lazy. You get what you pay for here.

[@hamieh1]

sound quality 3/10 . thanks for posting .

[@b00bytrap]

Hey Mohamad Khalil Hamieh , thanks for watching. Are you referring to the sound quality of the recording? In that case, I can confirm they sound much better than the recording. Sadly, my mic isn't capable to capture the full potential of these speakers.

[@hamieh1]

@@b00bytrap I do agree with you , sound quality will depend on your mic ,again thanks for posting . thumbs up .

[@evshrug]

@@b00bytrap It's almost impossible to capture an accurate impression of sound quality of speakers through the filtration of ~The Mic ~The Analog to Digital Conversion ~The video compression ~KZbin's further compression ~The playback system of the KZbin Viewer. I do appreciate the attempt though, especially when you added them to your larger Sonos system so we viewers could have some sort of reference for comparison.

[@steffenwei9926]

@@evshrug it's impossible to give sound experience trough KZbin/web. I watched it on my phone. So every musik is the same "shit" quality. :)