Play music on your phone through your bedside lamp!
Symfonisk Lamp Speaker
£150, sonos.com/ikea.com
In the Eighties I remember thinking that the sheer number of flashing LED lights on the front of my dad’s new stereo was a guarantee that this was a high-tech product. How wrong I was.
Little did I imagine that three decades later I would be looking at a stereo that actually is a light.
The Symfonisk lamp speaker (made by Ikea and Sonos) comes with the classic Ikea cartoon assembly instructions
Pleasingly, the Symfonisk lamp speaker (made by Ikea and Sonos) comes with the classic Ikea cartoon assembly instructions (albeit fairly short ones, basically saying: ‘Put the cable and bulb in, then turn it on’).
Given that most new home speakers already look like cloth-covered plant pots, the Symfonisk actually makes sense
The Sonos app does the rest, letting you play music from your phone through the light. You can also add an Ikea smart bulb (not included) for app-controlled light-switching.
Both my wife and I started giggling when it began playing, and even the cat looked faintly alarmed. But given that most new home speakers already look like cloth-covered plant pots, the Symfonisk actually makes a fair amount of sense.
Like most Sonos kit, it sounds great, is simple to use, and if you really can’t stomach having hi-fi kit sitting about, it’s a rather neat way to make your stereo disappear (although you’ll still need to fiddle with the app as there’s no Alexa or Google voice-control here).
It’s great value too: it’s similar to Sonos’s Play speakers but is the cheapest in the range at £150. There’s also another Symfonisk unit that works as a bookshelf.
I’m hoping Ikea really rolls with this and brings out a sofa that is also a subwoofer some time soon.