IKEA and Sonos Reveal the First Speakers Under Partnership

Swedish furniture king IKEA and wireless speaker innovator Sonos have revealed the first Wi-Fi-enabled wireless speakers to come out of the partnership they announced last year.

The first two models in the Symfonisk line are a bookshelf speaker ($99) that can be wall-mounted or used vertically or horizontally and a table lamp ($179) that doubles as a speaker. Both can be controlled via the Sonos app.

Few details were revealed about either model except that the bookshelf speaker received a 2019 Red Dot Award for product design. Organized by Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Essen, Germany, the Red Dot Awards program is a respected international product competition. The Symfonisk bookshelf speaker will be recognized at an awards ceremony in July at the Red Dot Design Museum in Essen.

“We knew from the start that we wanted to challenge the traditional high-tech aesthetics,” said IKEA’s Iina Vuorivirta, who had a hand in designing the lamp speaker, which she likens to a fireplace that spreads “warm light as well as sound.”

“Our design had to be 100% true to the quality Sonos stands for, without any compromises,” she added. “At the same time, we wanted to create something completely new.”

“We set out to create products neither of us would or could develop independently,” said Tad Toulis, vice president of design at Sonos. “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.”

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