Connect any powered sub to Sonos with this Ikea Symfonisk DIY hack

If you have a powered sub with speaker level inputs, this DIY hack is a quick and easy way to add any subwoofer to your Sonos speakers by grabbing the speaker output from IKEA Symfonisk speakers and adding it into the sub’s speaker inputs. I ran some tests and this works great. If you have a sub with speaker outputs, you could wire this a bit differently and remove the bass from your Sonos speakers so they don’t have to work as hard.

I tested 2 ways to add a Powered sub to my Sonos home theater and found a super cheap way to get a full 5.1 system for under $700 - that’s the same price as the Sonos sub alone!

Amazon links are affiliate and support the channel.

Recommended subwoofers on Amazon ~$100:

Note: any subwoofer will work as long as it's amplified and has speaker level inputs - if it only has RCA inputs, look elsewhere.

This same idea could work with any Sonos model: Play:1, Play:3, Play:5, Playbar, etc. if your willing to drill into your speaker. This $99 speaker is much cheaper than buying a connect or amp.

Buy Ikea Symfonisk here

See my Symfonisk teardown to see how to take it apart:

How to add a sub to a home theater setup:

[keithepstein]

I don't do a lot of hardware hacks, as my experience is that they often do not work as advertised. This one is the real deal. I had two Symfonisk speakers paired with an Arc, which produced pretty good rear speaker surround sound. I purchased a Polk 10" subwoofer for $150, wired them to binding posts exactly as you did, and BAMMMM! Huge, furniture-rumbling bass. Thanks for this excellent tutorial.

[DerekJohnsonSV]

This worked perfectly for me with a Polk Audio PSW 108. While it doesn't sound quite as clean as the actual Sonos Sub, it's quite incredible for the price. Thank you for the great video!

[louisolivierfortin]

FYI : I managed to do exactly the same thing with a Sonos Play 1. I have a polk audio sub with RCA inputs. I put it on very low volume and ran a trueplay setup, and it’s honestly amazing. I wouldn’t call it HiFi but it’s definatly good enough for the average consumer ;)
Thanks!

[ashvinrdh]

This worked like a dream. You knocked it out of the park with this video.

[mcruzer]

I just went to ikea and did this with my Polk sub yesterday. Works perfectly and so easy. Thanks for sharing!

[todd.parker]

Here are my recommended subwoofers on Amazon ~$100 that will work for this:

Any subwoofer will work as long as it's amplified and has speaker level inputs - if it only has RCA inputs, look elsewhere.

[uponpaul]

This seems such an easy way to connect any sub indeed. I wonder if they don't output the sonos cast audio like this in the original hardware. Probably the answer is money, but if you have some confidence in opening and closing the Symfonisk or any sonos (although they often have better bass than the symfonisk) it is a very good solution. Thanks

[janpostma]

Finally had some time to arranged the project. I connected my Ikea speaker to a ts7 harman kardon sub and it works good thx !!!!

[robertearlreynolds]

You could probably find a line level signal to tap into just before the amplifier stage. They would allow you to use the RCA inputs on your sub, or a better external amp.

[FrancisBacontherd]

Wow! I’m trying this in the next few weeks. IKEA in my area has been closed due to COVID but this is an exciting project.

[neilbarkeraswell]

I am so pleased with this hack. SONOS and other companies wind me up with their expensive solutions. Any ideas regarding getting my tv sound to play through sonos without loosing tv sound? Keep up the good work.

[woltergrant]

Awesome video! This idea popped into my mind too, well similar, so I had to do a search to see if someone had done in yet, figured it would be with one of the older models a while ago. But nope same speakers I picked up last weekend to try it on too, I had similar thinking since these cheaper speakers came out I can now start messing with Sonos hacks. This Does Not Compute actually inspired my idea from his teardown video. I wanted to try and make a video on hooking up a line-level adapter to the terminals so I could wire it to my receiver input and output it to my entire surround sound. Kind of like a makeshift Connect without the line in. My biggest concern was audio delay on the surround, but I just did my first round of testing and it seems like it won't be an issue.


The way you perceived it was cool too! That method had not crossed my mind.

[leonpjhb]

Superb original content. Great idea. Well done.

[RodolfoGonellaDiaza]

Hi Todd, great video, thanks! I might try this. One question: with 2 symfonisk as stereo, is the hack needed just for one of them, or both?

[sudheery]

Sonos arc +2 Symphonisk speaker+2 subs mind blowing super sir tq for your idea

[zachtchannel]

I did this and just took the whole thing apart. If you do just be careful with the ribbon cable. It’s way more clean because you can mount the amp in the cabinet

[khanfauji]

Awesome video - I have a subwoofer collecting dust which can now be a part of my Sonos system

[CWCruiseWalkthroughs]

Thank you. Confirmed what I was hoping would work.

[matfernan]

Hello, do you set the Symphoniks as surrounds? By doing this maybe the sub will receive only the signal of the sounds supposed to come from behind, missing the lows of the front/center channels… or am I missing something?

[dragonniteIV]

You have a new subscriber! Really nice explanation and cool hack!