Ikea Eneby 20 bluetooth speaker is a winner!

My wife and I spent the past week in NYC, and while driving down to the city, we stopped off at the Ikea in New Haven to pick up a few things we needed.

I wanted something a little more substantial than my MacBook's tiny speakers for listening to music during our stay, so I decided to pick up one of Ikea's new Eneby 20. I'm also a sucker for attractive, clean, minimalist, classic industrial design, which Ikea (and Scandinavian designers in general) excel at.

The Eneby 20 is an 8" x 8" x 3" 20-watt mono bluetooth speaker with an auxiliary 3.5mm input jack as well. It is available in either black or white and this model only comes with a removable carrying handle. A larger and more powerful, non-portable version (which will fit perfectly inside a Kallax cubby) is also available, and some even smaller models were recently introduced as well. The single on/off knob also controls its volume, input source, and EQ.

Once we arrived at our Manhattan AirBnB, I set it up in the small dining area and had no problem getting it to recognize both my MacBook and iPhone. Using either my music library or the excellent Simple Radio app on my iPhone, we enjoyed listening to music with surprisingly good fidelity during our stay.

The Eneby 20's greatest strength is in the way it is voiced. It has a very natural, balanced tonality, with a slightly warm character; it is not tinny or exaggerated. The most surprising thing to me is its unexaggerated, musical bass performance, which is reinforced by a port in the rear. With careful placement, the Eneby 20 sounds full and satisfying. Listening online to Newark's excellent jazz station, WBGO-FM, I could easily follow bass lines and even hear some of the instrument's texture and feel the thump of the player's string attack.

I don't know who Ikea partnered with to design this, but for a mere $49, the Ikea Eneby 20 is a complete success. It works well as a small music source for the home (I'm now using it in the kitchen) with a sophisticated visual appeal, and its small size, carrying handle, and optional battery pack make it portable.








An optional battery pack and table stand as also available:

 

Good review. Hopefully, there are no issues with Android devices.

 

The Enebys are really surprising units. The Eneby 30 outclasses the 20, but at the expense of portability. The 30 is outstanding in terms of SQ.

 

If I'm not mistaken, in an earlier thread you wrote something like "Check out the Eneby. It will really surprise you."

 

Yes my audiofile club LTS has measured that speaker. And it got the up. For what they are!

 

No kidding? That's cool.

 

IKEA Eneby Flat Pack Bluetooth Speaker

 

Yes I wrote that because it is a furniture company and you would not expect sound quality similar to or better than units coming from a dedicated audio company.

 

No aptx bluetooth ??

 

Lots of snark in the comments, lol!

 

Didn't they also team with Sonos on a table lamp/speaker combo? They obviously mean business.

 

I've looked at these and have tried to convince myself I need one since they seem so neat. Reminds me of my little Tivoli table radio I kept in the bathroom for years - warm and inoffensive. I'm not seeing where they're called "20" or "30", though, just "Eneby". Or maybe the actual names are "New Eneby" and "Eneby Air"?

I was also going to make a joke about needing an allen wrench to assemble it, until I saw that you actually do.

 

IKEA seems to team with both Teenage Engineering and Sonos. I am not sure that the Eneby is constructed by any of these though. The Sonos speakers are out now.

 

Do I need this....no. Am I ordering one as we speak....yes!

 

Oluv liked it:

 

That really measures well for what it is.

 

Yes, I wonder if Ingvar Öhman is involved.

 

So is it only bluetooth 4.2 or also aptx bluetooth ? Can't understand why anyone would buy a non-aptx bluetooth audio speaker.

 

SYMFONISK: Stereo-Möbel von Sonos und IKEA | Sonos

 

I wonder too.

 

Very cool-looking! ...

Could it look any more 1965 Denmark? I don't think so! A very good thing.

I wish I knew what the hell Blueteeth were ...

 

To me it seems more likely than not.

 

Shot in the dark but does anyone have one of these and are using a Chromecast into the Aux input?

I’d like to replace my Amazon Echo and want it to be a Roon endpoint. The IKEA speaker has an aux input I could use with a Chromecast. I just wonder how quiet it is if left on and there’s no audio signal being fed to it

 

My Eneby arrived today (the 20). Sounds great! For casual around the house/yard I usually use a Bose Color Soundlink or if I’m really jamming a Bose Compact L1. Note: I’m not a Bose fanboy but I use their products for weddings and brides/grooms tend to hear with their eyes and the baked in Bose sound doesn’t offend me like it does others haha.
The Eneby kills the Soundlink and the other small, inexpensive Bluetooth speakers I have. Sound quality I think is as good or better than the compact L1 the only deficit being comparative volume/power.
It’s a winner for $50, would be real cool if you could pair a pair in stereo.

 

I wonder how the big Eneby would fair hooked up to my bedroom TV? I have a shelf right above my tv and it would fit perfectly.