Exploring the $10 Ikea speaker that can connect with up to 100 devices simultaneously

Ikea’s $10 Kallsup Bluetooth speaker is a vibrant and playful addition to your audio setup, delivering surprisingly good sound for its price point. While it may not blow you away—after all, it’s a budget speaker—it offers a unique feature: the ability to connect with up to 100 other Kallsups. For that price, it’s hard to complain. They’re perfect for adding a splash of color and sound to your desk or a child’s room.

The Kallsup is as straightforward as Bluetooth speakers come. It’s a compact 2.75-inch plastic cube with four short feet and a single speaker inside, available in pink, white, and yellow-green. On top, you’ll find two buttons and a small LED light, while the back houses a USB-C charging port. The Bluetooth button powers the speaker on, plays a brief welcome tune, and activates pairing mode, accompanied by some quirky breathing sounds. You can also use this button to turn it off or switch devices. The second button, marked with a play symbol, allows you to play, pause, skip tracks, and connect with up to 99 additional Kallsups. Powering on and pairing takes about 10 seconds.

I didn’t expect much from a $10 speaker, but even a single Kallsup performs surprisingly well. At moderate volumes, it’s great for background music or listening to podcasts and audiobooks. I found it preferable to the tinny built-in speakers of my M4 MacBook Air.

The Kallsup’s driver is small, so don’t expect booming bass, but it outperforms my laptop speakers. Most of the sound focuses on the midrange, making it ideal for vocals and spoken word, which is perfect for audiobooks and podcasts. At maximum volume, you might notice slight distortion with tracks heavy on high frequencies, but for close-range listening at my desk, I never felt the need to crank it up.

When these speakers were first revealed, the standout feature was the ability to daisy-chain up to 100 of them. This makes it easy to spread sound across a room and boost overall volume. With 20 speakers on hand, I measured a pink noise test signal that jumped from 86 dB with one speaker to 94 dB with all of them—almost doubling the perceived volume. While this setup increases volume, keep in mind they’re still mono speakers, and you can’t pair two for stereo sound.

Comparing $200 worth of Kallsup speakers to similarly priced Bluetooth options, the Ikea setup sounds decent, but the competition offers better frequency response. The Echo Studio stood out for its balanced low-end, mids, and highs, though it requires a power source and lacks portability. The Bose speaker can get significantly louder than the Kallsups, and the Sonos Roam 2 provides a more balanced sound and better portability. The pricier options also come with a host of features: the Bose and Sonos are IP67 rated for dust and water resistance, the Roam 2 integrates into the Sonos ecosystem, and the Echo Studio can even help with grocery orders. The Kallsup is a straightforward Bluetooth speaker, and having 20 of them means you have 20 very straightforward Bluetooth speakers.

While stacking or spreading out the speakers enhances volume and coverage, it can be a bit of a hassle. Pairing a single speaker takes 10 to 20 seconds, but multiply that by 20, and you’re looking at several minutes. Plus, the connection resets when the speakers power down, so you’ll need to repeat the process each time. Finding enough USB-C ports to charge them after their nine-hour battery life can also be a challenge. And let’s not forget the slightly unsettling “aahhhh” sound they make when plugged in to charge.

Despite these quirks, using one or a few Kallsups is a fun and colorful way to enhance your space. They’d be great in a kid’s room—my 10-year-old loved their look during a photo setup—or simply to add a pop of color to your desk. For just $10, the Kallsups definitely deliver on their promise.