How to Best Showcase The Ikea Picture Frame WiFi Speakers

It’s all the rage to disguise audio gadgets with stylish designs that blend seamlessly into living spaces. Even Ikea has jumped on this trend: under the Symfonisk brand, the Swedish giant offers a „picture frame with WiFi speaker“ that delivers surprisingly good audio quality at an affordable price. Recently, the price of this device was even reduced.

The frame speakers are priced similarly to the Sonos One, and the sound quality is remarkably close too. Unsurprising, as it’s well known that Symfonisk products are powered by Sonos technology. Much like the One, the picture frame speaker sits a notch or two above average smart speakers in terms of audio quality. Sonos has placed a waveguide in front of the tweeter to distribute high frequencies more evenly throughout the room, and generally, the hardware is sufficient to fill medium-sized rooms with sound.

Two Symfonisk wall speakers can be configured as surround speakers for a Sonos Arc or Beam soundbar, and Sonos’s Trueplay function in the iOS app can also be used to fine-tune the speakers to the acoustics of a particular room. However, like other Symfonisk products, the picture frame speaker doesn’t have built-in microphones.

The main drawback of this speaker is its design. The standard speaker front isn’t to everyone’s taste. It resembles abstract art, which, according to designer Jennifer Idrizi, is inspired by the „structure“ of music. However, shortly after launch, the design faced ridicule on X (still Twitter at that time), described as fitting for chain hotels, dental surgeries, and kitschy Airbnb rooms at best. Ikea now offers a range of interchangeable fronts, but unfortunately, these too have attracted criticism: uninspired mass-market aesthetics that neither offend nor particularly excite.

A good smart speaker, but a weak aesthetic.

So how do you get a unique design on the Symfonisk panels? The solution is quite simple: remove the (often slightly saggy) fabric from the front frame and replace it with individually printed, high-quality acoustic fabric. This requires neither special craftsmanship nor excessive fiddling.

With a custom design or a fabric in the colour of your choice, the picture frame speakers can blend into your living space just as you want. Why not replace a photo hanging on the wall with a smart speaker, but keep the image unchanged? This easy customisation also opens up new design possibilities for shops or trade stands.

And why choose fabric from Akustikstoff.com? After all, several online printers now offer printed speaker fabric. The simple answer: Akustikstoff.com is the specialist in acoustically transparent fabrics, trusted by numerous speaker manufacturers. Ordering here means you get high-quality OEM-grade speaker fabric made in Europe, not cheap goods from the Far East. You can’t blindly trust non-specialist providers for fabric expertise and acoustic transparency.

Direct sublimation printing with Oeko-Tex certified inks guarantees top-quality, sharp prints with brilliant colours, without any loss in sound transparency. Elsewhere, printing often uses thermotransfer methods, which don’t deliver such vibrant colours, or flatbed and screen printing methods, where clogged pores can impair acoustic transparency.

The high quality of the speaker fabrics and printing process also ensures that the custom-printed fabric is safe to use and doesn’t smell of chemicals. The environment benefits too, as direct sublimation printing avoids solvent emissions and non-recyclable transfer paper waste.

Custom-printed speaker fabrics from Akustikstoff.com
With custom-printed acoustic fabric, even the wildest design ideas can be realised quickly and easily.

Conclusion: The Symfonisk picture frame speaker is a highly practical variant of a Sonos speaker, offering quality sound. With a custom-printed front, it can be personalised to also impress aesthetically. Wherever a standard speaker can’t be placed or shouldn’t be visible for design reasons, the combination of Symfonisk and a custom-designed front panel is the perfect solution.