If you make a cluster do you have one power supply and you daisy chain everything together?
TE x IKEA FREKVENS Full Review
You can daisy chain AC power from speaker to speaker. For battery power, each speaker has its own battery.
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@instantjuggler great review! Can you tell me something. If you power off the spotlights do they power back up with the same mode, or do they revert back to the first option?
Prize available to anyone who can guess what I’m cooking here!
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For me they power back to the same mode… I also wanted to sequence them with dmx from the z but I didn’t get it to work yet
wicked, thanks, i’m excited now!
Where at the Emeryville IKEA did you find the FREKVENS products?
Nvm found them.
For anyone looking, they were situated in the Lighting section of the Marketplace floor at the Emeryville location.
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Thanks bro!
@instantjuggler please tell me to get f**d if I’m taking up your resources! 2 more questions;
How bright is one spotlight, compared to say a 100w tungsten lightbulb, or an LED par.
Aaand, when you apply the power, how long does it take to wake up?
I’m considering buying a bunch of them and attempting AC dimming via a DMX dimmer pack.
Thanks again, you currently have the knowledge!
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they are not crazy bright, that being said i personally really like the level of brightness… it allows you to see the light but not be blinded if that makes sense. i’ll check the power up time. i know the LED grid lights in the collection are instantly on. i’m assuming these are the same.
i’m thinking of getting this to use with them:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DPDMX20L--adj-dp-dmx20l-4-ch-dmx-dimmer-switch-pack
Thanks mate, yeah was thinking the same. Let me know how you get on
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Adding my short reviews.
6x10 Bluetooth speaker: Way too tinny and thin sounding. Size and form factor are awesome. I paired my phone and cranked it up, but it was pretty weak in terms of overall volume. The yellow knob is utterly fantastic, though. Did not buy. Would buy if the speaker inside the unit were bigger and thus had more midrange and bass.
10x20 Bluetooth speaker: Kinda midrangey. Not as good sound quality as a JBL Flip 4 (regardless of mono vs. stereo). They had the different colors there to show. Red-black was pretty sharp looking, especially on the lighted base. Did not buy.
30x20 Bluetooth speaker with subwoofer: WOW, this sounds fantastic with the subwoofer (actually a woofer) turned up. Blasted classical music and a pop song at full volume in the store, and I was very impressed, even though the setup is mono. Bought two units.
LED multi-use light: They did not have these on display. Bought 4 units sight unseen.
LED spotlight: Also not on display. Did not buy.
spotlight accessories kit: They seemed kinda flimsy, but they have to be lightweight to do their job. While handling them, I was afraid I would break them. Did not buy. Strange that they had this kit on display but not the spotlight that they are designed to fit on.
5x10 speaker base light: Seemed expensive for what you get. I’d pay no more than $5 for this. Did not buy.
tripod: None on display, only one on the shelf. Did not buy.
Cajon: Very cheaply made. I used to work at a drum shop, and we sold cajons. This is far lower quality than the ones we sold for not that much more money. You could not make me buy one.
bar table: Much sturdier than I expected of IKEA. I would have bought one except that I don’t have the room.
bar stool: Also surprisingly sturdy. Height is strange relative to the bar table (the stool is too tall or the bar table is too short). Also did not buy due to lack of room.
side table: not on display; saw it on the shelf back in the warehouse but would not open box to check it out. Did not buy.
serving tray: local store had zero in stock and no floor model.
serving plate and serving s5 set: I saw these but had no opinion of them. Kinda interesting because of the unusual shapes. Did not buy.
35cl cups and 37cl mugs: These were a let down. Very boring. Well made, but I don’t get the tiki design. You could not make me buy these.
blanket: I was planning on buying one of these but found that they have a tiki face design sewn into them. (I could be wrong about this if the displayed item were not actually part of the FREKVENS collection; I did not actually unfold the blankets stacked on the shelf to see if they also had the face.) The fabric is very nice, but with the big face, I lost interest. Did not buy.
raincoat: Really wanted to buy one, but I found that they have plastic snap buttons and no storm flap. These are basically the same as Tyvek lab coats that you would find in a chemistry lab, except that they have a hood and are shiny silver. Did not buy.
cushion cover: These turned out to be awesome. The store display had them mixed with other cushions (bright red, mustard yellow, black, just like the speaker faceplates) from other IKEA collections. The silver contrasted nicely with the other colors. The Tyvek they used is surprisingly soft and thus suitable for cushions. I bought two units.
large tote bag: I really like this bag. It’s bigger than I need, but I got one anyway. I like that it isn’t noisy like the blue plastic IKEA bags. It’s soft and sleek with white rain flap. The flap can be closed with a drawstring for tightening. I bought one unit. The handles seem kind of thin for a bag of this size. I am concerned that if I fill it up with anything but very lightweight items (maybe a cubic meter of bubble wrap?), the handles will tear.
medium tote bag: This is the right size. Same white rain flap with drawstring as the large bag. I got one unit. Thin handles too, but it should be harder to fill this one to a weight that will tear the bag. I would not load it down with three college science textbooks, for example.
eating s3 stainless steel: These were a pleasant surprise. None on display, but someone before me had opened a box (it is taped shut), so I got a look at them. I liked them so much that I bought two sets and seriously considered getting four sets. They don’t appear to stack very well, though, so I stuck with two sets.
footstool: Pretty nice, seemed sturdy and very high quality. It was set up between two short sofas facing each other (kind of where a coffee table would go). Too low to sit on directly. I have no use for this, so did not buy one. But if I did have a use for one, I would definitely get one. The puzzling thing is why a footstool is part of the FREKVENS collection in the first place. Also, the design didn’t seem particularly FREKVENS; it could have been part of many other IKEA collections in the store. Perhaps if it had been modular (cubes that you could fit together) or silver, it would have seemed more like a FREKVENS footstool (though the other furniture and the blanket are black).
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What was stock like when you were there? I’m struggling to make my way out there with my 6mo old kiddo and work schedule.
It was pretty low at the time, there were:
- 2x of the midrange speaker + subwoofer combo (I took one of them)
- none of the small speakers with the clip and yellow volume knob
- none of the midrange speaker that comes with the speaker + subwoofer combo
- 2x spotlights
- about 4x led grids
- none of the tripod stands, searched 2 different display areas but with no luck
- about 6x of the light accessories kit, all in yellow (none in red)
Didn’t really take mental inventory on the other non-speaker or lighting related items from the collection tho. The ikea employees that I spoke to did say that they’re gonna be restocking on Thursday this week (1/16/2020)
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Wow, super helpful! Thank you! Maybe I’ll try to pull off going there this weekend then.
Cc: @instantjuggler
The manual says not to use the LED matrix light with a dimmer.
I assume the spotlight is the same.
Digital circuitry doesn’t like variable power.
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I thought about getting them to do the same thing!
I bought all the lights on Saturday and returned them on Monday. Lol. Only thing I kept was the little speaker
Spotlight click/buzz…
All three of my spotlights make an audible fast clicking sound. Didn’t notice it at first because in reactive mode, with music playing, it’s not noticeable.
Is this normal for these lights?
Thanks in advance to anyone who replies!