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Ikea Symfonisk Picture Frame review: The art of noise

When Ikea debuted the $199 Symfonisk Picture Frame speaker (its latest wireless audio collaboration with Sonos), two things were immediately apparent: The age of affordable, customizable, and decorative home audio is upon us, and, we still haven’t found a way to eliminate our dependence on power cords.

The Picture Frame enjoys many advantages. It doesn’t look like any speaker you’ve ever seen. Its “art” can be swapped out for several other designs for just $20, and you get lots of placement options: It can be hung on a wall vertically or horizontally, or propped against almost any flat, vertical surface the way you would with an actual picture frame.

As expected, when hanging on a wall, the power cord looks pretty bad. Ikea and Sonos deserve some kudos for wrapping the cord in braided material. This diminishes the shiny plastic feel of power cords that accompany most Sonos speakers, and it also lets the cord lie quite flat and kink-free against the wall. In short, it looks as good as a dangling white power cord can look. But it’s still a dangling white power cord.

Because it’s fully compatible with the Sonos ecosystem and Apple AirPlay 2, it’s got incredible flexibility as a sound system. You can stream music from every conceivable music service, you can group the Picture Frame with other Sonos or Symfonisk speakers in your home, and it can be set up as a stereo pair with a second Picture Frame speaker.

Out of the box, without adjusting EQ or performing Sonos’ Trueplay tuning, the sound is OK, but nothing special. High frequencies feel a bit subdued and the bass lacks punch. But boosting both bass and treble sliders in the Sonos app makes a world of difference and the Picture Frame really comes alive.

Being able to place a speaker on a wall, disguised as art, is a great concept, but the Ikea Symfonisk Picture Frame speaker doesn’t quite nail the ex*****on. The power cord is an eyesore and it doesn’t sound as good as a similarly-priced regular wireless speaker. Still, for those who are tight on space, or simply hate the way most speakers look, it’s an affordable and easy way to get good sound in your chosen room.

RHA TrueControl ANC earbuds review: A lesson in ear-gonomics

At the high end of the true wireless earbuds category, you’ll find some outstanding products like the Sennheiser Momentum 2 True Wireless, the Master and Dynamic MW07 Plus, and the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds. So if a company wants a seat at this table, it’s going to have to bring its A-game.

With the exception of a few very tiny plastic protective stickers, the TrueControl’s packaging is 100% recyclable paper and cardboard, which I think is highly commendable.

Typically, true wireless earbuds are built in such a way that you insert the tip into your ear canal and then twist the earbud back and forth until you find that magical combination of comfort, security, and seal. The RHA TrueControl ANC take a different approach. Made from a grippy, matte black plastic, the earbuds are asymmetrically shaped and contoured so that they can only be inserted directly into the ear.

Because of their unusual shape, the TrueControl ANC have a large contact surface. This means that they’ll probably feel like they’re “filling” your ear more than other earbuds like Apple’s AirPods Pro, which have a much smaller profile. Once you get used to it, however, it’s surprisingly comfortable. It’s also very secure, eliminating the need to rely on earfins or other support structures like the kind you’ll find on the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds.

Once you find the set of eartips that give you a good seal (another reason why I love that RHA includes so many), the TrueControl ANC sound very good. Using the factory EQ provides a very satisfying balance of frequencies, with plenty of warm low-end bass, detailed midranges, and clear highs. The RHA app lets you adjust these settings with an additional four presets, but there’s no way to create your own — a surprising omission given how standard this feature is on so many other high-end models (and even a few budget-friendly ones).

The RHA TrueControl ANC do a very good job of canceling out external sounds. One of my favorite torture tests is to wander busy streets listening to podcasts. Voices can be easily drowned out by passing vehicles more easily than music, and the TrueControl handily kept those interruptions at bay. When sitting in an environment with persistent noise like a loud fan or vacuum, they don’t exhibit the astonishing cone-of-silence effect that the AirPods Pro deliver, but I’ve yet to encounter another set of ANC buds that can. High-frequency sounds can still push their way in, but low frequencies are very effectively nullified.

ANC seems to pose a serious problem for the battery life of true wireless earbuds. RHA’s non-ANC TrueConnect 2 get an excellent 9.5 hours of playback and 44 hours of total battery life with the included case, but the TrueControl barely meet what I’d consider the minimum for stamina, with only five hours per charge and 20 hours total with the case. RHA doesn’t say how much longer they will last if you disable ANC.