IKEA KALLSUP speakers linked into a 149-unit wall of sound
WIRED linked 149 IKEA KALLSUP speakers into a wall of sound, testing the limits of the $10 Bluetooth speaker's multi-speaker mode.
IKEA's KALLSUP Bluetooth speakers have now been tested as a 149-unit wall of sound, after WIRED linked almost the full 150 speakers the company supplied for the experiment. The result was loud enough to become physically uncomfortable, but the test also showed that the £10-class cubes could stay connected at a scale no normal living room would need. 12
IKEA says KALLSUP speakers can be connected together in multi-speaker mode. Each cube has a 1.8-inch full-range driver, a 3W amplifier and Bluetooth 5.3, while the official product page lists up to nine hours of battery life at 50 per cent volume. 2
WIRED paired the first speaker with an iPhone 16 Pro, then added the rest by holding the Play button until each cube entered multi-speaker mode. The chain reached 100 units without refusing a connection, and eventually settled at 149 after one speaker arrived damaged. The complete setup took roughly 30 minutes to assemble. 1
The publication reported that the wall was especially effective at low background volumes, where the cumulative effect of many small drivers gave the sound a surprising sense of scale. At higher levels, however, the result was more fire-alarm loud than hi-fi: the collective output became overwhelming and lost musical detail. 1
The arithmetic is striking even if it is not a substitute for a larger speaker. One hundred and forty-nine 3W amplifiers produce a combined rated output of 447W, while the speakers' total driver surface area is roughly comparable to a single 22-inch driver. Those figures describe the hardware in aggregate, not a conventional 447W loudspeaker or a deep-bass system. 1
Beyond 100 units, WIRED saw more failed first attempts to join the chain, although no working speaker refused more than twice. The experiment also exposed a practical weakness in the cube design: the flat stack offered no indentations to stop the speakers sliding as the vibration increased. 1
Our opinion
The useful news here is not that anyone needs 149 cheap Bluetooth speakers. It is that IKEA's modest multi-speaker promise held up under a deliberately excessive test. KALLSUP remains a small portable speaker, but the experiment turned a simple connectivity feature into a memorable demonstration of what synchronised low-cost hardware can do.
For ordinary listening, the official specifications and the test point in the same direction: KALLSUP is designed to be inexpensive, portable and easy to link, not to replace a serious hi-fi setup. The 149-speaker wall is a fun proof of concept rather than a sensible shopping plan.