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- When I saw the press release for Ikea's new Frekvens collaboration

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with design teenage engineering, all lower case.

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I knew that I simply had to have it. What I didn't realize

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was that I was getting more than I bargained for.

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I ran down to the local Ikea, only one of which actually had the Frekvens' speaker

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and subwoofer in stock, and found that Frekvens is not just a couple of speakers,

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but it's like a whole lifestyle or something.

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It's like a party for my Ikea. So there's the Frekvens' light base

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I got four of those. There's these batteries,

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that I actually found in the home, like linens sort of area.

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There's this, which I'm super excited to show you guys.

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And there's a silver raincoat

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and a silver pillowcase. What?

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So here's the thing. No one at Ikea, whether it was staff or customers,

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seems to have any idea, what the hell it is,

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they are trying to accomplish with this lineup of products.

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On their product page, it's like the ultimate home party.

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I feel like this is one of those weird things that probably should have been like a Europe only launch,

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but then somehow managed to make its way over the pond. And us north Americans are just like, "I'm sorry, what?"

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The rain jacket is so much better, but unfortunately that particular piece wasn't in stock,

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neither was the lighting stand and the little like weird lights

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that had got this vine on their website for. What they did have in store though, is this.

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Oh my God. It includes a stencil.

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Holy crap. So what, so you can like stencil your name on it

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or like your party, your band or whatever.

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So this is great. Jono, can I hand these to you to finish assembling this thing?

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I'm gonna open up the Bluetooth speaker in the meantime, because there's a great story behind that box.

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The thing is I ran into this guy in the store and I was like, "Hey, so this is something else, aye."

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And he goes, "Yeah, I guess what the hell is it?"

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Because the demo that they had set up

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just didn't really seem to make any sense whatsoever.

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And the box is completely nondescript.

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It's got this, which is whatever that is.

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Bluetooth. And then like design teenage engineering.

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There's no other information. It doesn't even say it's a speaker.

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So there it is. It's got a line in, subwoofer out,

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a line out, AC power in, power and pairing button.

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Oh wait, AC in and AC out. So you could like daisy chain it or whatever.

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It's got actually kind of like a nice industrial design to it.

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And then, Oh, okay. So that's weird.

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You have to pick what color you wanna buy, but they could have

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just as easily included multiple colors in the box,

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these don't look particularly expensive. Uh, not particularly amazing feeling volume dial,

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Got a tweeter and a mid-range speaker. I don't know if I have higher

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or lower expectations for this because it's Ikea.

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It's like a standard power cord on the one end. And then it's like a,

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got the like telephone coil on the other, but what's really weird is it's the same material.

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So they just like, I dunno, like heat treated it or something to coil part of it.

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Only at Ikea do they manage to have you assemble your own Bluetooth speaker.

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Got stickers on the bottom and then little nipples that go into the holes.

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So that should keep them on pretty good. Now, curiously, they've got spots for like foot nipples

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on the back of it too, even though the power goes in there. Okay. So here's my Braunit.

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Brow-Unit? Bra-Unit. I like bra-unit.

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Ikea needs to borrow from Amazon's frustration-free packaging concept.

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(Linus groans) It's like the strongest clear plastic tape in the world.

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So it recharges with a micro USB. And then it just goes in a little, something like.

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Schwamp. Goes on the nipple thing like that. Actually, that's weird.

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The speaker actually overhangs it a little bit. So whoever was doing the design,

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didn't account for the face plates. So I guess they just assume

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you're going with the naked look. That's fine. I can dig it. You ready?

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Aw (Jono laughing) Is that it?

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Is it just white? (upbeat music)

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Moment please.

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It's all bass.

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It's like literally all bass. Hold on, hold on.

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Yep. It's still all bass.

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In fairness, the level of distortion at max volume

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and the amount of sheer sound that is coming out of this thing, not bad actually.

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(upbeat music continues)

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Like, that is not a lot of distortion

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for a tiny 10 centimeter by 20 centimeter speaker.

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And we're just getting this party started boys.

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Because now we got the big kahuna.

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More Frekvens. So it seems like you're supposed to put them together

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with these little doodads and the included screws. So you can assemble your own thing.

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But curiously, you can't configure it into like a stereo setup because,

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Wait, there is a line out. Oh yeah. And there is a line in.

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But, oh, Hmp. I'm not sure if that's actually how they intend for it to be used.

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But anyway, there's a sub-out and we do get the cables required for that.

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Okay, so let's go sub-out and then we'll, you can daisy chain the power.

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Looks like there's sort of an expected configuration,

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probably supposed to put it here, I guess.

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No actual Bluetooth connectivity though. The Bluetooth connectivity seems to be expected

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to come from this. You guys ready for the sub-test? There's no separate volume knob

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for the subwoofer, unfortunately. So you're just, you're going to get whatever Ikea determines is best here.

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I lied. There is a volume knob on the back of the sub. It's just recessed.

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(upbeat music)

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Look at it go!

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It's walking around.

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So this open back design actually means that like the speaker, the sub moves a lot of air, actually.

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I wouldn't describe anything that we're listening to as 'great sounding,'

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by any stretch of the imagination. It is far too bass heavy,

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but if the objective of your Frekvens house party

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is to just make a lot of bass in a very small amount of space

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and have Bluetooth connectivity, it seems to me, you could do a lot worse than this.

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But could you do better? That's where the final product in today's video comes in.

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In my earlier story, I didn't actually include the best part of it.

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So when the guy asked, "What the heck is it?" He specifically asked, as a follow-up question,

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"What the heck this was" and "what it has to do with a house party"

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and much like the speakers, there was no explanation

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of what this product is anywhere on the packaging or in Ikea's merchandising in the store.

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So I had to look it up on their website. The answer may shock you.

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How sturdy is this table these days? (Linus groans)

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- [Jono] Hold on. - Hold on. It's, wait. (Linus drumming)

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I'm supposed to hit it. Oh, sorry, it goes behind me. - [Jono] Yeah.

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- Sorry. - [Jono] The center is like a base drum, and the top is like snare drum.

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- Okay. (drumming on wood)

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(Linus laughs) - That's the stupidest thing ever.

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