The Eneby range joins Ikea's smart lights and wireless charging tables
Ikea has just launched a pair of Eneby Bluetooth speakers built to neatly fill the squares of your Kallax or Ekekt storage systems.
The two portable speakers come in white, grey and black and can also be mounted on the wall, on brackets or, in the case of the smaller device, carried around the house thanks to a handle and battery pack. This smaller of the two (20 x 20cm) costs £45 and the full sized speaker (30 x 30cm) costs £80 while stands and battery packs are an extra £15 for eight to ten hours of playback.
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The Eneby range’s minimalist design features a removable mesh fabric cover and one physical dial on the front of the speaker to turn it on and off and adjust volume, treble and bass. There’s a 3.5mm aux-in and there’s an auto-off feature to save energy when you’re not using it. No Wi-Fi or other connectivity but Ikea says you can pair up to eight devices to one Eneby speaker.
Late last year Ikea and Sonos announced a ‘future home sound’ partnership that will arrive in 2019. We don’t know what form this will take yet, considering Sonos’ own moves into voice controlled smart speakers with the Sonos One, but it seems that the new Eneby speakers are part of a broader push into home audio. Not to mention it already has its Trådfri smart light bulbs and wireless charging furniture. As there’s no partner here, and no real details on what’s inside, we’ll have to wait until we test these out to see how the sound holds up.
Ikea has also been working with Teenage Engineering on some trendy looking Frekvens turntables and party lighting due to launch in early 2019. It’s all go.
“Sound, just like light, is an important part of creating atmosphere within the home,” said Evanthia Nikoglou, head of lighting and electronic at Ikea UK and Ireland. “It is able to bring a space to life and give it soul which is why we’ve turned our attention to sound and created IKEA’s first ever speakers.”
The new Eneby speakers are available now in Ikea stores in the UK and online.
