Ikea Symfonisk review: a good Sonos wifi speaker hiding in a lamp

The idea is the same as for the rest of the Symfonisk range: hide a speaker in a piece of stylish furniture. In true Ikea fashion, the £179 ($169) lamp comes flat-packed, although thankfully only in three parts: the base, the plug and the shade.

The lamp is as easy to set up as the Symfonisk Picture Frame. Download the Sonos app on your Android or iPhone, run the setup routine, tap your phone on the back of the lamp when instructed and connect it to wifi.

Ikea does not offer a repair service but replacement cords (£7) and other parts are available. It does not contain any recycled material, nor does Ikea publish individual environmental impact assessments. But it offers a recycling scheme for its products and publishes an annual sustainability report.

Sonos commits to supporting feature updates through software on its own products for at least five years after it stops selling them, but has a track record of doing so for much longer, including bug and security fixes for its legacy products. The Symfonisk range will receive similar levels of support.

The Ikea Symfonisk speaker lamp costs £179 ($169.99) with a fabric shade or £199 ($189.99) with a glass shade.

For comparison, the Symfonisk wifi bookshelf speaker costs £99, the Symfonisk picture frame costs £199, the Sonos One SL speaker costs £149 and the Sonos One costs £199.

The second-generation Symfonisk speaker lamp is still a good idea well executed: good Sonos sound hidden in a sleeker and better-looking light.

With a greater number of colour and shade combinations to pick from, it is even easier to blend the lamp into your decor, as long as you like a the look of a slightly chunky, black or grey fabric-covered lamp base.

It is a slight shame the audio quality falters at high volume, but for small- or medium-sized rooms it should be loud enough for most at under 70% maximum volume. The light part of the unit is a standard E27 fitting with a manual push-button switch on the base, but you can fit a smart bulb such as Philips Hue for dimming or remote control.

If you want a speaker that is less a piece of technology and more an item of functional furniture, the second-gen Ikea Symfonisk speaker lamp is great.