SONOS-enabled Yamaha Outdoor Speaker With IKEA Symfonisk Lamp Base

I wanted to use SONOS with my Yamaha NS-AW194 outdoor speakers on my patio, but the amplifier offered by SONOS was just way too expensive for me at around $800. I was able to find some IKEA Symfonisk lamp bases (2021 model, 304.873.11) on eBay, whose technology I installed in the Yamaha speakers with some 3d printed adapters.

In this guide we will release the SONOS electronics out of the IKEA lamp base and install it with some adapters in a Yamaha NS-AW194 outdoor speaker. The main speaker will also be moved to the Yamaha housing with the help of an adapter ring. At the end we will close the bass reflex hole of the Yamaha box with a cap, since the IKEA SONOS box also operates as a closed box.

The build is not very difficult in total, but you need some patience at disassembling the IKEA lamp base (around 60 mins). The final assembly also takes some time, you can calculate 60-90 mins.

Components

• IKEA Symfonisk lamp base (2021 model)
• Yamaha NS-AW194 speaker
• 5cm wire to make power cable longer
• heat shrinking tube for the power cable
• optional: stickers to mark nfc antenna on the speaker
• optional: 8.5mm mini push button (momentary, not locked!), some wire for connecting it to the pcb
• optional: foam tape for lose cables

Tools

• 3D printer
• Philips PH1, PH2 screwdriver
• flat screwdriver
• craft knife
• spudger
• soldering iron (not much soldering)
• two component epoxy-adhesives (or similar)

• Remove rubber pads from the lamp base
• Remove the upper ring with a flat screwdriver
• Remove more top screws
• Carefully lift the bottom at the side of the control buttons, then at the side of the lamp button. Remove the light button before completely removing the bottom
• bend the cover a little, to get the controlbuttons under the cover while pushing the cover upwards

• remove more screws at the lamp socket
• remove the lamp cables by pushing a flat screwdriver in the openings
• remove the front screw on top of the tweeter which is covered by some foam tape
• cut the foam tape at the bottom and at the sides of the speaker housing
• carefully remove the foam tape from the bottom to release the light switch cable
• release the speaker cables from the speakers by pressing the little hook on the connectors
• remove the bass speaker from the housing

• remove the network terminal
• carefully remove the bottom part the power pcb is attached to. Take care of the left side where the wifi antenna cable is located!!
• remove the connectors from the power pcb
• cut the power cable right at the connector
• desolder the power connector from the power pcb. This works best with removed screws and a flat screwdriver between connector and pcb. Be patient! :-)
• unscrew the connector from the housing, we will reuse it
• unscrew the power supply and disconnect it from the main pcb
• unscrew the wifi antenna. Leave it connected to the mainboard, it will be easier to disconnect when the pcb is out of the box
• unlock the flex cable and lift it out of the connector. Be patient again!
• unscrew the 4 outer screws to release the mainboard. The inner screws are mounted to the heat sink and don't need to be removed
• carefully remove the foam tape where the flex cable leaves the hounsing and remove the complete foam tape which covers the flex cable (see photo)
• lift the controls pcb carefully with a spudger. It is hold by adhesive tape.
• unlock the flex cable from the connector
• carefully strip off the flex cable from the housing. Remove the silicon-like glue from the hole where the flex cable leaves the housing. Slowly pull the flex cable through the hole.
• at the end you should have all components on your table

You can remove the glue from the antenna connectors now carefully and disconnect the antenna from the motherboard. This is the most critical step in this build, the connectors are extremely fragile! Be sure to take your time!

I used ABS filament for the adapters because the speakers get quite hot in the direct sunlight. All parts except the cap with button can be printed without support. I used a draft profile on my Prusa MK3s which was totally fine. Print duration for all parts: about 5.5 hours.

• Infill 20%
• Layer height 0,3mm (faster and absolute ok)
• outer shell: 4 (improve screw hole stability)

I made two options for the bass reflex hole cover:

• cap only
• cap with push button (for resetting the speaker without opening)

I designed the adapters with Fusion 360. Maybe somebody wants to improve them? I attached the files here.

• remove the pins from the speakers, remove the front mesh
• unscrew the speaker base and lift the plate straight up. Try not to tilt the plate. You can pull with one finger in the bass reflex hole
• solder a little bridge to the capacitor of the tweeter. The SONOS mainboard will do the crossover, so this primitive circuit is not needed anymore.
• remove the original Yamaha speaker and install the adapter ring
• install the SONOS speaker on the adapter ring
• connect the original SONOS speaker cable to the speakers (blue is woofer, red is tweeter). You have to squeeze the tweeter connectors a little before connecting to give them a tight fit

The original powercable is just a little too short, to install it without tension, so I made it a little longer. Just solder a short piece of wire to the mains terminal. 5cm is completely enough. I covered everything with heatshrink tubes, so that should be safe. I attached some foam tape to the wire to prevent rattling in the box.

• screw the power terminal to the back plate (remind the directions: cable has to point downwards, the centered hole of the 3d printed part has to point to the right. See picture...)
• desolder the lamp powercable from the power supply, it is not needed anymore. If you already had this power supply connected to the mains: Be careful not to touch the pcb, there might be some charged capacitors, which can shock you (I haven't checked in detail)
• install the "tower" to the Yamaha box when you are finished

The control board button (optional)

• solder a cable to the play/pause button (see picture)
• solder the other side to a momentary button

The power supply holder

• install the power supply spacer to the Yamaha box
• install the power supply base on top of the spacer
• screw the power supply to the base (one screw doesn't fit very well, maybe somebody wants to improve this...)

The mainboard holder

• install the wifi antenna to the pcb holder backside (use the flat head screws, see picture)
• cut the damping wool in half and do a second cut to one piece (see picture)
• install the wool under the mainboard
• install the mainboard holder on top of the wool
• install the mainboard on the holder

• CAREFULLY connect the wifi antennas to the board. The must be no tension on the cables! Twist the cables to the correct position before connecting!
• connect the power supply
• optional: install the rest of the wool next to the power supply. Keep space to the power supply for heat dissipation
• connect the flex cable. Contacts have to face down (see pictures). Lock the connector.

The control board includes the NFC antenna which is used during the setup of your box. If you ever want to reset the box, you need access to the play/pause button which is hold while booting to reset the box. I had the idea to make a button inside the bass reflex hole. So you don't have to completely unscrew the box, if you want to reset it.

The installation of the board is mandatory, but the installation of the new play/pause button is optional.

• connect the control board to the flex cable
• use some two components epoxy adhesive to glue the control board to the side of the Yamaha box
• put some glue to the push botton on the bass reflex cap
• I used again some foam tape for dampening the cable
• install the cap
• optional: put a small sticker to the outside of the box, so you know where the NFC antenna is located

I tested setting up the box multiple times and had no issues with the NFC in the Yamaha box.

Almost done...

• connect the speakers to the mainboard
• close the Yamaha box
• install the mesh and the pins

It's been a long way to this point... Around 20 hours of contructing, many not fitting prints and lots of setbacks. But the end result was absolutely worth it. The speakers look nice and have a decent sound. In my opinion the sound is as good as the original IKEA Symfonisk box (but with more directed trebles of course).

If this guide helped you, it would be great if you leave some feedback here! :-)

Enjoy your new "YAMANOS" speakers!